As for Tranny failures with Hondas. The v6, 5 AT's have had issues. There have been some failures in the MT TL's and Civic Si's. One would have to wonder about some badly blown shifts in the TL's and Civic's.

The 5AT in our 05 Accord I4 seems to be doing well. but I also do a 3 qt. tranny fluid change on it every 3rd oil change and replace the inline filter on it.

The 5MT in my Civic feels clumbsy. I think its the cable style linkage used.

I think Hondas problems with there at's stem from folks wanting smooth shifting tranny's. This GM slush box approach induces slippage which inturns increase's heat. They have had issues with the fluid jets pluging up in the trannys. Cure has been to add another jet or mode the nozzles that are there.

Older Honda auto trannys use to shift harder. That resulted in less slip, heat and shed clutch matrial floating around in the fluid.

You can thank the American consumer for wanting a GM type slush box shift. Its the one and only thing I hate about our Accord. I drive it and catch my self thinking Im driving a Impala and then expect parts to fall off or out of it. Then i see the H on the steering wheel and relax. :)

this is one of the reasons that I sold my altima. Sometimes it refused to go into 3rd gear. it would rev in 2nd and I would have to finesse the pedal for it to go in 3rd.

Now I get to pick any gear I want in my civic.

Yes it did get to 100,000 the killer is this is the Honda I talked about with the timing belt water pump change earlier this year. The shop that would do the master rebuild kit wanted $1800 and would take a week.

Oiu; time to call it quit's and get a different pony!

Yeah we went and test drove a Yaris today - roomy inside and I am 6 feet tall and was ok in the back seat and it was really easy getting out without banging head or shoulders - they really cut the door shape perfectly to make getting into the back of the 2 door hatchback easy. Needless to say they didn't have his color in stock and the 2007 models are more money. They don't want to give him much for the trade-in of course and he owes money on it more than it is worth and they try to do a 72 month finance OUCH! I think he is leaning towards getting a tranny swap for $1000 in one day and keep it until he gets what he wants at the price he likes. They wanted $13k for the 2 door automatic Yaris with power nothing.

OK Looks like he is going for the $1000 swap on Monday.

Here's the sad part of this whole scenario. Your friend bought a used honda civic for $14k and the tranny blew at 100k. He also had to do the t-belt and water pump = more $$$.

On the flip side my wife bought a used 97 sunfire 6.5 years ago for $9,999 with 30k on it. 3 speed auto, it still managed 26mpg all city and 34mpg interstate @ 75mph. This car never broke down! Never! We drove it until last fall when it was T boned. It had a 180k on it. Ran great, burned 1 quart of oil every 1500 miles. Shifted great, still got 31 mpg highway.

All those years we drove that car I never changed anything but the following.
1 battery
1 radio( tape cassette died)
tires- lots
oil and dextron + filters, no flushes
air filter 3 times
1 upper o2 sensor ($19 at autozone)
1 upper motor mount ($50 at autozone)
1 a/c compressor ($205 junkyard part plus labor and refill)
4 dimmer switches (the last one even my wife knew how to install. 10 minute process)
Front brake pads every 30-40k
front Rotors 3 times ($16 each)
You'll notice the plugs and wires were the stockers

No timing chains, struts, egr valves, injectors, sensors, transmissions, nothing. It was a very cheap car to own. Who wants to drive an EXPENSIVE time bomb. GM may not make the most refined cars but then again your not paying the price for refinement are you. But you do get a good product for your money. You pay a honda price you should get honda reliability. For what honda's cost they should not have transmission failures. Especially at 100k. My family never drives a car less than 150k.

Yeah I never would buy a honda for sure - my 1994 Geo went through exhost systems a few times and 2 weeks before the chassis rusted out I did the front brakes because they rusted up from lack of use, 1 set of tires changed and barely used - 1 defective map sensor under warrenty and an alignment when I got the tires replaced, one battery after 11 years. Oil was changed maybe at 6-8k mile intervals and filter every other time. Two head lights within a few months of each other. Never got stuck ANYWHERE until the the front wheel fell off at the end of its life. Oh year and over 50MPG just about all the time too except when the MAP sensor screwed up. Original Plugs, wires, air filter, shocks and wiper blades replace after the first year were still ok.

Looks like the junkyard guys dropped the replacement tranny and broke the rear mount - tried to weld it but something inside broke - another one coming from out west . . . another week waiting . . . and rain for the next few days.

Ok the one from out west was a joke - they welded the one they dropped and put it in then found leaks all over the place - fixed the leaks and found out that 3rd gear was bad so we went back today and towed it back to S&S Transmission to get the original rebuilt - got there and found out that they lost the starter and a few valves on the housing and the intake hose for the airbox and we are not sure where they went.