I'd like to chime in and throw my experiences and opinions out.
From 98 to late 2005, I owned nothing but GM vehicles- 2 Full Size Trucks, a Lumina and a Vega, Choke, cough, hack, I mean a Trailblazer EXT. We gave away the money pit, I mean Lumina and bought the Pinto, I mean Trailblazer. Gave away the Trailblazer and bought a 2005 Accord EX-L 4 cylinder in August of 2005. A week before Katrina.
With regards to re-sale- We bought a brand-spanking NEW Accord because we could do that versus pay $1500 less for one that was a year old with 14,000 miles. Wife was tired of pumping $250 per month into the Trailblazer, so Mama wasn't happy, ain't nobody happy, so we traded. Book value on my 2005 Accord is about $1000 less than what we paid for it in August. Try that with a GM, Ford, Chrysler. Even a Toyota or Nissan. Might get close on an Altima.
I was still driving my 2000 Chevy Silverado and had been looking for a small car to drive daily to stop putting miles on my truck. I liked the truck, but it was 5 years old with 100k miles on it and if I was going to keep it, I wanted to save some mileage on it.
I had been looking for a $2-3,000 car. Wanted another Accord after just owning the new one 2 weeks. Looked and looked. Of course, Katrina had come and gone and gas was $3 a gallon. Small cars were selling like popcorn at the movies.
I searched 1990-93 Accords. Kinda wanted one of them due to the pleasing body style. Most every one I saw had near or over 200k miles on them and was commanding $3,000. Three grand for a 12+ year old car that had 200k miles on it.
I moved up to 94-95 models. Most carrying a $3800-5000 price tag, all over 100k miles, most 130-175k miles. I assure you everyone of them needed brakes, tires, who knows when the timing belt was replaced, never mind the last oil change.
I found a 95, 133K miles, new tires, and yes, it still needs rotors and pads. Oil was probably changed whenever a brick fell on the poor boy's head that owned it. Needs a new windsheild. Previous owner said the timing and other belts were replaced at 90k. Yep, they were. But the cheap idiot neglected to let the shop replace $25 worth of seals. And it appears through the 18 different shades of blue on the thing that its been in a few wrecks. No matter, the title is clean.
I gave $3000 for it. I've put about $50 in oil changes, $550 in a timing belt, seal and fuel filter job. I need to get the rotors and pads changed. Little vibration at 60+ mph on the brake pedal. It's an EX model with the VTEC engine, 5-speed, sunroof, all the goodies, and THEY WORK. Unlike the GM's, Ford's, etc., 10-year old vehicles with those accessories.
Cost of maintenance-
The 7th gen Accords with the 4 cyl iVTEC engines have timing chains. No belt. The ONLY engine maintenance is spark plugs at 110k miles, along with a valve lash inspection/adjustment.
Oil changes are $15 with 4.8 quarts of $1.80 oil and a $6 filter, and you can get by with a 5,000 OCI on a clean engine.
Auto transmission fluid is easily changed on the 4 cyl. Drain, refill with 3 quarts. Drive down the road, drain. Refill, drive down the road. Drain, refill. Drive, drain and refill one more time. Do that every 30k miles. $36 DIY.
I did a 7,500 mile tire rotation/brake inspection on our 05. No differentiation in tire wear between the rear and front. Brake wear looks nil.
Fuel mileage with ours is about 23.5 in city/hill climbing, 31-33 highway at 75 mph or so.
The 4 cylinder is STRONG. It won't walk off and leave something, but the torque added by the iVTEC is impressive while climbing grades.
The 2005 Accord is a fine piece of automobile engineering. It works. Like it's supposed to.
That Trailblazer/Envoy that GM is selling is a complete Frankenstein in my opinion.
I liked my 2000 Chevy with the 5.3L engine. But at 100k miles, it needed a severe laundry list of items fixed. Probably totaled somewhere near $2,000.
Sticker on the Silverado was $27,800. 5-1/2 years later at 100k miles it Black Booked at $8700.
1995 Honda Accord EX sold for about $15,800. 10-1/2 years later with 133k miles it was worth $3500 or more.
Find me a 1995 Chevy Lumina that you can sell for $3,000. Sticker on them was probably more than the Accord, with fewer features.
