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How long can these cars last?

hungedu

hungedu

Registered Member
Joined
23 April 2003
Messages
16
Location
Lewisburg, WV
I am fairly new to this forum and have owned an NSX for only several months.

Many years ago, back in 1988, my mom bought an Acura Legend, which did not age very well. The wood dash trim began to crack, and so did all of the leather. Perhaps it was due to improper interior care and the hot Southern California weather. Because she owned an Acura, our family was invited to visit our local Acura dealership for the unveiling of the NSX. We attended, and I fell instantly in love with the car. I had a car detailing business, and one of my customers purchased the first NSX that same week. I became very used to the car and vowed to get one some day. It took me 12 years!

I bought a "garage queen" 1991 Sebring Silver NSX with less than 13,000 miles.

My brother is the orginal owner of a 1990 Honda Accord, which now has close to 300,000 miles on it and still running and looking like new! Unlike my mother's Legend (since sold), it has no leather or wood dash trim to get sun damaged. Mechanics are amazed by its mileage, yet the car just continues on.

How long can the NSX last? What is the highest mileage that anyone has heard of on an NSX odemeter, and what was the car's condition after so many miles? I'm hoping it will last like my brother's Accord.
 
hungedu said:
How long can the NSX last? What is the highest mileage that anyone has heard of on an NSX odemeter, and what was the car's condition after so many miles?
Click to expand...
I've heard of several NSXs with over 200K miles, including one that was at NSXPO 2003.

Parts of the car like exterior paint, leather, dash vinyl, etc can deteriorate over time, but this can be prevented by keeping the car garaged or covered as much as possible, and/or by keeping those parts in good shape with high-quality detailing products.
 
From what I've seen, the NSX has superb build quality. If you use reasonable care and stay current with scheduled maintenance, the car will easily live for decades.
 
The one guy in Toronto has over 500K on it. Search for it, as it was posted here. I think his name is mark temple.
 
Brother's Honda Accord

My brother had to replace his engine at 40K because Jiffy Lube didn't tighten the oil drain plug properly after an oil change (you can guess what happened). The replacement Honda engine was used and already had over 30,000 miles on it. I'm sure the original engine would have lasted if it weren't for the Jiffy Lube screw up.
 
The NSX is amazing. For an exotic car, it will run like new with 120,093 miles on the clock. Honda did a superb job with this car, providing it with both awesome reliability and exoticness. The car will last one forever and looks good doing it. Try that in other sport cars.
 
There is a guy in Toronto with a 1991 with 500 Km on the clock...Acura Canada feature this ca and the owner on their monthly mag.
In the article he claim that all he every perform were routine maintenance items, the car is still going strong. I will se if I can get the article and post it on the site.

Bram
 
Re: Brother's Honda Accord

hungedu said:
My brother had to replace his engine at 40K because Jiffy Lube didn't tighten the oil drain plug properly after an oil change (you can guess what happened). The replacement Honda engine was used and already had over 30,000 miles on it. I'm sure the original engine would have lasted if it weren't for the Jiffy Lube screw up.
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:( I will never understand why anyone would take their $80k-$90k Japanese exotic to Jiffy Lube. :( I wouldn't trust them with my beater much less my NSX.
 
Mark Temple Article here

Guess when it hits 1,000,000 it will roll back to 0miles... and increase in value. ;)
 

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I know a 328 gts, daily driver, that reached 180'000km (115k miles), but it is considered a very specail case.

Probably teh fact that it is driven helps it! :)

The higest I have seen for a 355 is 100'000km (62000 miles)...
 
Lotus Life

I can say the same for the Lotus Esprit cars. I owned an 89SE and a 2000 Esprit V8. After lots of searching, I found a guy in England who has put 84K miles on his 1999 Esprit. As for the older Esprits, I know of several mid 80's and early 90's that have gone near 140K miles. These are very special cases. I believe all of these were without an engine rebuild (not sure of transmission). (all are rare cases with the Esprits)

EG-
 
aging cars

If you go to car shows, you routinely see 57 Chevys and other cars from that era. Many times they are original everything, which includes STEEL body panels. These cars are pushing 50 and still run and look great when well maintained. Since rust will never be a factor with our car, and the build quality is vastly superior to a 57 Chevy (or the like), I see no reason why the NSX would not last at least 50 years...only thing is - we may not last 50 MORE years to see it! :p
 
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gheba_nsx said:
But probably those Chevy were not driven for the last 20 year , only on parades and car shows. That's not what I plan for my NSX! :D
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Still, I think if the car is maintained, it can certainly do it.
Maybe an engine rebuild would be necessary at some point, but my point is that the car is built well enough to last a very long time. :)
 
gheba_nsx said:
I know a 328 gts, daily driver, that reached 180'000km (115k miles), but it is considered a very specail case.

Probably teh fact that it is driven helps it! :)
Click to expand...

Sure, I have an article from a magazine with pictures (somewhere in my archives) of a daily driven Testarossa in France with more than 300000km (187K miles) !
 
Luckily, yes!

The car with the Jiffy Lube seized engine was my brother's Accord. I'd never let them touch my NSX - especially after what they did to my brother's car!
He ended up spending over $3500 for a new engine, but with close to 300,000 miles on his Accord, and most of these miles on the second engine; he's definitely gotten his money's worth out of the car and continues to.

I'm glad to hear all of these stories about "immortal" NSXs. Hopefully I will enjoy mine for the rest of my life. I'm only 33, so that will be a long time....unless I die an early, unnatural death or the world's fossil fuel supply runs out, and we all have to go electric or something! :)
 
Does anyone here use Oil Additives??

My neighbor has a '94 Accord EX with 390k MILES, and it has the original engine/trans:eek: !!! He is the original owner, and he uses oil additives, which he feels is the reason he has gotten so many miles out of it.

FYI, He plans on driving it until it has 500k miles, and then giving it back to Honda, which I'm sure they will reward him somehow for it;) .
 
nsxn8 said:
Does anyone here use Oil Additives??

My neighbor has a '94 Accord EX with 390k MILES, and it has the original engine/trans:eek: !!! He is the original owner, and he uses oil additives, which he feels is the reason he has gotten so many miles out of it.

FYI, He plans on driving it until it has 500k miles, and then giving it back to Honda, which I'm sure they will reward him somehow for it;) .
Click to expand...

I don't think Accords with 500k Miles are rare enough that Honda would take the car back and put it on display. Maybe a dealership would want it to display though.

I also don't think that oil additives had anything to do with the durability of the car.
 

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