Dave wrote:

> I am hoping for something simple (aren't we all). The fluid looked,
> smelled and felt good and I know the car has never been mistreated.

You cannot go by looks and smell alone. Since you said in your other post
that you are aware only of oil changes, I am NOT going to assume that the
tranny fluid was ever changed. The interval should be 2 years or 30,000
miles, whichever comes first.


> I
> have done a lot of reading today on the Honda cars and I see a lot of
> people complaining of transmission problems.

Those tranny problems are limited to a handful of Hondas with V6 engines
mated to 4-speed automatics (from about '98 to '02). Honda extended the
warranty on the tranny on those cars to 7 years or 100,000 miles, or
something like that. Newer models have 5-speed automatics which, as far as
I know, have been fine even despite a recall a couple years ago. When mated
with 4-bangers, Honda auto trannies are bulletproof. I have never heard of
a tranny failure on a 4-cylinder Honda that was properly maintained.


> It was purchased cheap
> enough that if it does need a couple thousand in repairs we can do it
> and dump it to get a Ford or Chevy that I know will go 160 or 170K
> without any big surprises.

I hate to break this to you, but Fords and Chevys (especially non-V8 models)
usually experience more non-routine problems than Hondas do, especially when
they are at least 5 years old and the mileage gets up there. You'd be lucky
to get that kind of mileage with few problems. In fact, Fords have a higher
rate of transmission failures than Hondas do. But unlike Honda, Ford
refuses to acknowledge and fix the problem.