It was a good car, powerful and comfortable. That said, it wasn't cheap to maintain. Between the 100,000 and 200,000 mile thresholds the car cost me about $7,000 in unscheduled repairs; contrast that to my 2009 Mazda3 and all four of our Dodge and Chrysler minivans through the same range of miles and the most any one of those cars cost to keep in fine fettle was $3,600. That said, I was looking at a job last fall which would have put me out on the left coast two weeks per month and immediately started looking at Gen6 Accords. I found a "honey" (my wife's term") in the form of a 2002 Accord EX with the I4 engine and a 5-Speed manual transmission with only 90,000 miles on the clock. I think they were asking something like $2,900 for the car; I would have bought that thing in a heart beat.

 

I'd focus more on service history & overall condition over what year the car is. All years are prone to random electrical gremlins but this forum has seen it all & has an abundance of information on whatever may pop up.

Electrical gremlins aside, these things are the definition of bullet proof.

 

Agreed, that 2002 Accord was a California car, so no rust issues on things like fuel lines, brake lines, and fuel tank, and had a full set of maintenance records.

 

I'm in CA too, which helps keep cars in nice condition. I also garage them, which helps even more. I follow the maintenance schedule and keep all records. If I was ever to sell my cars, it would come with a 2 inch thick stack of maintenance records. However, I typically drive them until they totally wear out and are worth nothing.