sbr

Currently driving a 6th gen Accord coupe, 5spd manual. Considering staying in the Honda family, as my 6GA has served me well at a low operating cost (partly because it's so easy to DIY most of the maintenance), and going to a 1st gen TSX (2004-2008) or earlier year 8th gen Accord (2008-2010, which is in a similar price range to the 1st gen TSX).

My inclination is to stick with manual transmission (6spd on the TSX or 5spd on the Accord I4), unless either the 1st gen TSX or 8th gen Accord has a much more reliable AT than the 6th gen Accords, which had failure-prone automatic transmissions (yes, the V6 was terrible, but the I4 autos had lots of problems as well).

My thinking on this choice is as follows.

TSX Pros:

• I prefer the exterior styling over the Accord
• more refined interior
• more premium features - heated seats, seat position memory (though I guess these are available in the higher trims in the 8GA)
• 6spd manual vs 5spd manual on the I4 Accords

Accord Pros:

• available in a coupe, which I prefer to a 4dr, though it's not a deal-breaker
• for the same money, can get a slightly newer model year or lower mileage Accord than a TSX
• uses regular unleaded vs premium for the TSX
• slightly better gas mileage, even with a 5spd vs the TSX' 6spd

Any thoughts on this? Is parts availability and cost similar or are TSX parts (OEM and third party) not as widely available and/or do they cost significantly more? I assume ease of DIY maintenance is the same for both. Does one of these tend to have more/expensive problems than the other? Seems like the AC compressor, warped rotors, door actuators and maybe wheel bearings are somewhat common issues with the 1st gen TSX - or at least it seemed that way when I was skimming this forum. Haven't looked into what common issues are with the 8GA.

I'm also somewhat considering a RSX, but the base RSX is underpowered relative to the TSX or 8th gen Accord, and the premium most sellers want for the Type S means I could be in a newer/lower mileage TSX or 8GA. Still, I think the RSX looks good and I love the cargo/odd-shaped load capacity of a hatchback.