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Junkyard Gem: 1988 Honda Accord DX sedan with 513,519 miles

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Should you’re poking round in your native automotive graveyard and also you wish to discover vehicles with extraordinarily excessive remaining numbers displaying on their odometers, my suggestion is that you simply search for clean-looking Mercedes-Benzes, Toyotas, Volvos, and Hondas of the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties. These machines have the mixture of six-digit mechanical odometers and wonderful construct high quality that can make your search simpler (I will guess I’ve walked previous loads of half-million-mile Nineteen Eighties Detroit trucks throughout my junkyard travels, however there is not any manner of telling what number of instances a five-digit odometer has been turned over throughout its life). Previous to as we speak, the best odometer studying I might seen on a discarded Honda product was from a 1983 Accord with 411,794 miles, adopted by a 1991 Accord showing 394,057 miles and a 1995 Integra that traveled 342,768 miles (I might thought I had a 497,657-mile 1991 Civic within the bag some time again, nevertheless it turned out to be a Canadian-market automotive with a metric speedometer). Right this moment’s Junkyard Gem, present in a Colorado self-service yard lately, not solely beats these vehicles, it vaults Honda previous Toyota and Volvo in my private high-junkyard-miles report e-book.

The highest-mileage junkyard Toyota I’ve discovered was a 1988 Tercel 4WD wagon, which drove 413,344 very gradual miles throughout its life on the highway. Volvo had a robust displaying with a 1990 740 Turbo wagon that reached a really spectacular remaining mileage complete of 493,549 miles. I am certain I’ve seen Coronas and Amazons with much more miles, however their five-digit odometers obscured their true mileage.

So, Honda now beats everyone in my Junkyard Excessive Mileage Corridor of Fame… properly, aside from Mercedes-Benz, in fact. Our associates from Stuttgart have set the bar very excessive in that division, what with such machines as a 1987 190E with 601,173 miles, a 1981 300SD with 572,139 miles, and an apocalyptic 1985 300SD with 535,971 miles (and I know that among the five-digit odometers within the W108s and W110s I’ve seen will need to have been hiding proof of galactic-grade journey distances). Due to these three, I believe it may take fairly some time earlier than Mercedes-Benz loses any of its spots within the prime three mileage positions. If I needed to predict the almost certainly automotive to perform the feat, although, I might guess on both a Toyota Previa or a second-generation Accord.

The DX was the most cost effective trim degree for the 1988 Accord; the DX hatchback had a listing worth of $10,535 and the DX sedan began at $11,175 (that is about $26,615 and $28,230, respectively, when thought of in 2022 {dollars}). In fact, it was almost unimaginable for an American automotive shopper to get a brand new Accord (or Civic) at checklist worth throughout the late Nineteen Eighties, due to some questionable dealership hijinks at the time.

With some notable exceptions, most junkyard vehicles I discover with exceptionally excessive miles have straight our bodies and unshredded, if light, upholstery. That is as a result of the type of house owners who hold their vehicles wanting good additionally are usually the type of house owners who care for each preventive-maintenance merchandise on the dot. Would you guess that this automotive had traveled a distance a lot larger than the round-trip to the Moon and back, these well-cared-for seats and door panels?

Below the hood, we discover this 2.0-liter SOHC straight-four engine, which was rated at 109 horsepower. Should you wished extra energy in your Accord that yr, you had to purchase the snazzy LXi, which listed at $15,570 ($39,335 as we speak) and supplied 120 horses.

The LXi was the one US-market ’88 Accord out there with digital gasoline injection. This automotive has the dual-carburetor setup, which was fairly old style for the late Nineteen Eighties however labored very properly.

It had turn into very troublesome to make carbureted vehicles meet emissions standards by the point this one was constructed. See all these vacuum traces, solenoids, and sensors on this diagram? If any one among them fails, you won’t go a smog verify. Thankfully, this automotive does not have the CVCC technology that went into carbureted Civics of the center Nineteen Eighties; these vehicles had a vacuum hose diagram so complex that it might as well have been a map of the Universe.

This automotive was constructed throughout the period when producers constructed California-spec automobiles and “49-state” automobiles, with differing emissions {hardware}. We will see from the emissions sticker that this Accord started its driving profession in California, then migrated to Colorado afterward. Truly, it might have lived in all fifty states throughout its life, given the odometer studying.

Honda had solely graduated from the two-speed Hondamatic to actual computerized transmissions a few years before this automotive was constructed, however the unique purchaser of this automotive wished nothing to do with the (comparatively) unreliable and inefficient slushboxes of the period. What number of clutch replacements do you suppose this automotive has had? I’ve seen Hondas with 250,000 miles on the unique clutch, so maybe this automotive is on simply its second clutch meeting.

That unique proprietor skipped frivolous extras akin to an computerized or energy home windows, however did get the elective air con. 

Cruise management would have been an actual plus for a automotive that put within the type of freeway miles this one did throughout its life.

Honda began building cars in Ohio beginning in 1982, with the millionth Marysville Honda coming off the line in 1988, however this Accord was born in Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

Why did it find yourself in a spot like this? My guess is that the proprietor traded it in for a new car— nearly definitely one other Accord— and the dealership could not discover any takers for an previous sedan with an undesirable number of pedals and ludicrously excessive miles. I will guess it will run proper now with the addition of contemporary gasoline and a battery.

Among the most necessary shifting components within the Honda Accord sedan weren’t designed by Honda engineers.

The engine hums sweetly.

So romantic!

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