Great thread. Thanks rpg for creating it!

So many S owners have no idea how they've got it. Compared to other sports cars, or to most anything European, these cars are impossibily resilient and reliable. And when something does go very badly, not at all expensive to fix.

Do something stupid and your motor is toast, you can get a good used replacement shortblock for like $4k. Replacing it is about as easy as it gets, very diy for anyone with any wrenching skills, these cars are so easy to work on.

There are some German performance sedans where even if you take care of the car just regular wear can result in $4k-$8k in repairs in less than 100k miles. Stuff most diy wrenches would be wary to tackle. Audi V8 timing chain systems come to mind...

 

Bought in 2013 with 48k, sold in 2016 with 70k. Tracked it 5 times and ran it hard. Other than normal consumables, I replaced the fuel filler neck (TSB on 2002 cars only) and had to replace the clutch fluid every year due to the fluid getting dirty (using a syringe / pump the pedal / repeat technique was good enough). No other problems. The top did form some holes, but some patching is to be expected on a 15-year-old OEM top.

Super reliable car. I had more problems with its replacement, a 42k mile 2011 M3, in the first month.

 

My factory 00 spec longblock has 85K miles on it (same as the car). Its seen countless track days 11 or 12K RPM, and all type of street driving and cross country trips. 87 octane. 93 octane. Synthetic oil. Conventional oil. No extra special maintenance...and I've never had a major engine related fault (aside from replacing the head after the aforementioned over-rev...which was my bad).

I can't think of any chassis related issues at all with the car.

I have been smitten by Honda's rock solid build quality. And also completely spoiled by it.

When I hear people with Chryslers replacing steering and chassis parts at 70K miles and being impressed because "the car is old"....I can't help but imagine how badly made their other cars were for their expectations to be that low.

As much as I like BMW's....I often LOL when BMW owners say their cars can be "just as reliable".

 

Every alignment adjuster on my car was seized, but that shouldn't be an issue on CA cars, or cars that weren't driven on salted roads. I don't understand why Honda didn't put some grease on the bolts before assembly; replacing compliance bushings is no fun.

 

2 years and so far so good. Did well on a 900 mile journey when i bought it. This is what i expect from a maintained honda, even one 13 years old.

 

Closing in on 200k miles, driven daily, regular autocross events, and occasional road trips. I have no concerns about reliability at all.

 

Purchased MY04 mint and bone stock shy of 5 years ago, with only 7k on the odometer.

Currently sits at 48k on odometer and I've had zero issues. Only thing I did was preventative maintenance, haven't had to replace a single thing other than a battery, and my choice in doing the Billman GenX TCT.

Other than that, just mile of smiles. Car is driven lightly when cruising around town, but I love whipping it around some windy roads and a few occasional highway, top-down pulls.

 

I do that all the time i.e downshift to slow down. Sometimes all the way to second (that can be multiple shifts - always try to make sure I am not skipping gears on my way down). Why is that bad?

 

It's not bad per se, although you are putting a little extra wear on your clutch and syncros for no reason other then it feels and sounds amazing to perfectly rev match a downshift. Just don't mess up and shift from 5th to 2nd and blow up your engine.

 

172k on my my02 clutch, brakes and soon to be an alternator