CarComplaints.com Notes: The 1999 Honda Accord suffers from widespread transmission failure, subframe rust, engine shuts off while driving, & peeling paint. We recommend avoiding this model year like the plague.
The transmission begins slipping & eventually has to be replaced, typically soon after 100,000 miles & with a repair cost of over $2,000.
Subframe rust near the front passenger side wheel has become a problem recently, due to the poorly positioned A/C drain hose directly above that area. Repair cost to the subframe is over $2,000.
Engine stalling while driving in the 1999 Accord is typically caused by a defective ignition switch -- inexpensive to repair (under $200) but dangerous.
Peeling paint has also been an issue for these Accords. Most of the complaints are with darker paint colors -- especially green & blue.
7.7
pretty bad
Typical Repair Cost:
$3,250
Average Mileage:
115,950 miles
Total Complaints:
40 complaints
Most Common Solutions:
not sure (22 reports)
new paint job or professional detailing (17 reports)
had a new clear coat put on and buffed (1 reports)
With such minimal yearly driving and low mileage I expected to keep this car for many more years. The peeling finish is an eyesore and embarrassment which may force me to replace this vehicle long before it becomes mechanically unreliable.
Clear coat and paint coming off in multiple locations. Auto Body shop said many Hondas and Acuras have this problem as there is no UV protection in the defective product used at time of manufacture. a
I have a 99 Accord that has been a great vehicle and we purchased a 98 Accord for our daughter. The paint is terrible on both vehicles. Her 98 Accord is the tan color and it looks as bad or worst than my black Accord. The black Accord was repainted due to hail damage in 2005 and once that cheap Honda paint has peeled nothing will stay on them.
It cost me and the insurance $4500.00 to fix and it has faded again. I guess we need to stop purchasing Honda until they get the paint figured out. They come up with all these new designs that look really nice but cannot figure out the paint. I am looking to buy a new vehicle, but not sure I want another Honda because of the paint problem.
- Patty F.,
Lincolnton, NC, US
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Went into the dealership and spoke to them about the clear coat. stated that I observed several of these cars having the same problem and Honda told me that it was from parking under a tree or the sun. I stated I didn't think so, that I believed it was a bad clear coat lot or paint lot. they stated that there was no recall so it wasn't.
Liars, and not only that, most recently I was told by the dealer service person that these cars also have bad transmissions.
The clear coat has failed in large and growing(!) patches on the roof and trunk. The paint is now gone in these areas. I maintained the car with regular washing and waxing. Seeing thousands of similar Hondas with the same problem indicates that this is not the owners responsibility but a manufacturer defect. The defect has devalued an otherwise good car. The cost to fix it is significant. It is the responsibility of Honda to fix the defect.
Car well taken care of...parked it in the garage when home... provided the appropriate washes and waxes. Then one day the clear coat started to bubble...then flake in one small spot (trunk) then started to show on the roof...and now it has moved to the hood.
It is sad because the car runs like a champ, but looks like crud. Have heard/read that this is a common DEFECT in this year (and a few years surrounding it as well) and color.
Honda is doing nothing to address the defect, instead saying it's wear and tear and weather. Too many instances of this make/model/year to not be a coincidence.
Wish Honda would step up accept there was a defect in the clear coat for this year/make/model.
Add me to the list of HUNDREDS of unhappy Honda owners who have good, reliable cars that look like they drove out of the dump. I love my Honda but I am so embarrassed to even drive it anywhere because of how bad the paint is. I previously owned a 1993 Honda Accord and at 193,000 miles, the paint job still looked amazing. Not the case for my 1999 Honda Accord. The clear coat is peeling on the roof, the hood, the trunk...it looks horrible and Honda is doing NOTHING even though they know it is due to defective paint. It will cost us over $1,000 to get a new paint job. I used to love Honda for their reliable cars but the fact that they won't step up and accept responsibility for defective paint tells me a lot about how they feel about their customers.
My car looks horrible! The auto body shop asked if I ever lived in Florida(I live in Wisconsin and purchased the car new from here). They said they had never seen a Honda that had this problem.
I have a 1999 Honda Accord that has been, aside from garage parking, babied like no tomorrow; regular washing; high quality appropriate waxing etc........ since around 2005 the clear coat has been peeling off and the paint looks horrible on trunk, top and hood of car.
I've seen MANY other green cars (of the same or very close year) around town, all Honda Accords, with the same problem. I have a 1994 Olds Cutlass --- I've babied, aside from garage parking --- it's paint job looks marvelous. You do the math.
Honda is very dismissive about the, errr, problem.... they certainly won't call it a defect, which it certainly must be. At the very least at this point they should be willing to meet me halfway and pay for half a new paint job.
I love Hondas and generally know they're great vehicles, but because of this one experience, I will NEVER buy or recommend a HONDA AGAIN.
1999 Accord Forest Green........clear coat has been peeling for years........my 2000 chevy looks as new as the day I got it....can't see buying another Honda with this problem looming.
The paint on the car is a great concern because first it started with what seemed like the clear coat then the paint but Im not sure now because it was not even a peeling affect. It looks like the paint just faded away. My biggest concern is that the car is going to rust. Ironically or coincidentally every car i have seen here in my area that is the same color has all the same exterior defects. Namely the paint. I understand that my car is old now but its a Honda I did not to expect to have these problems with it that Im having. My car was a Purplish/Grey (Amethyst) and now people ask me if it is faded black or grey. The fade is all over the hood and the top of the car. My trunk is new from an accident so the paint there is fine but when I had the old paint it was already fading. The fade is now starting to go over the sides.
My problem: Severe clear coat peeling on my Green 1999 Honda Accord EX Sedan. As another owner describes the issue, "What started as a discoloration (a patchy whitening) then turned into a full fledged peeling of the clear coat surface. The surface just started to flake off, easily exacerbated by a fingernail, leaving underneath a dull metal surface. This erosion of the clear coat surface continued to spread, but interestingly, not to all parts of the car. Specifically affected were the: roof, trunk and hood (in order of magnitude), but the side panels or bumpers seemed to be fine."
I'm going to lay it all out there in this post in the naive hope that my words move either of the two companies I consider responsible for MY situation and complaint to make things right. Short of that, I hope to share my frustrations with people considering doing business with either company, so that after they consider the quality of the product and/or service I received, they choose to spend their money elsewhere. So Honda and CarMAX, put up or _ off.
I'm not sure which company has disappointed and ripped me off more. The car itself runs well and has since I bought it used from CarMax in 2007. The problem had already started at the time, but I failed to realize that what seemed to be a minor fading in a couple of spots was in fact the beginning of a cancer that would spread wildly over the last three years. Now I have a reliable car that looks like trash! I have always taken care of this car - regular oil changes, timely service and maintenance, regular car washes, etc. Do you know how INFURIATING it is to wash your car, make regular car payments or worse, spend over $1000 replacing brakes or tires on a car you don't even want to be seen in? If you have one of these Accords, then you probably know exactly how I feel.
My first inclination is to place most of the blame on Honda for marketing a defective product, deciding not to inform their customers when the problem was discovered, and not issuing a recall to fix the problem. I know this problem is widespread. I see it all the time and usually on green Accords of the same generation, so I know it's not an isolated incident. Honda is certainly aware of this and has probably know about it for years. In my opinion, Honda should have taken SOME action to inform owners of the problem with the clear coat for these models and made a reasonable offer to remedy the problem.
But let's not forget about CarMax, specifically the Midlothian, Virginia location. After this experience, I'll never buy another car from CarMax. The ONLY reason I did business with them was for the peace of mind I expected to enjoy by spending a little more for a car that passed a thorough quality inspection. The "comprehensive and detailed 125 point inspection" that CarMax claims all of its vehicles must pass was a sham. This problem had already started in a couple of quarter sized areas, but when I asked the salesman if we could reduce the price to account for the paint defects, he told me that the paint condition had already been factored into the asking price of the car. The CarMax website claims that their 125 point inspection includes paint. So either CarMax techs know as little as I did about identifying major paint defects and are not qualified to do a complete inspection OR they are qualified, but not obligated by CarMax policy to reject a car for failing one of the 125 inspection points. So which is it CarMax - you didn't know any better or you knowingly mislead your customers?
Remember the salesman's claim that the issue was already identified and factored into the asking price? That leads me to conclude that CarMax techs are not qualified to assess paint condition. The body shops I've consulted about the problem ALL tell me that once clear coat begins to peel, the inevitable result is that the peeling will spread rapidly. The only solution is to repaint the ENTIRE car. If CarMax won't admit to intentionally selling me a car with a significant defect at an inflated price, it's a de facto admission that the techs do not know enough to perform a reliable inspection. Without the 125 point inspection, the "CarMax Advantage" means what exactly? No Haggle pricing? People, that is a ridiculous notion in the used car game that simply means, "negative equity guaranteed."
So where does that leave me? CarMax is just as sorry as they can be, but they deny any liability. They'd be happy to accept a trade in 3 years and 40k miles later, for 1/12 the the original price or 1/3 of what I still owe, whichever I consider less depressing. I just laughed at the insult and decided not to tell them I would rather total the car by driving it through the sales floor, lest it be construed as an actual threat to cause someone harm.
After more research, I learned that Honda has offered some customers "partial assistance" with the cost of repainting the vehicle, since they acknowledge the problem is not "normal wear and tear." Well, duh! If it was normal for paint to do this within 10 years, then why don't older models, different models, and the same models with a different paint color not exhibit the same deterioration in this time frame? Of course, you have to jump through hoops to get your complaint passed up the chain until somebody can actually do something and then all they offer is partial assistance. I wonder if they would be okay with partial car payments?
For an excellent documentation of this problem, go to:
http://www.hightechdad.com/2009/05/04/honda-motors-defective-paint-job-honda-accords-clear-coat-peeling/
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
With such minimal yearly driving and low mileage I expected to keep this car for many more years. The peeling finish is an eyesore and embarrassment which may force me to replace this vehicle long before it becomes mechanically unreliable.
- acciuga, Los Angeles, CA, US