Finding a well-preserved Japanese car made in the 1980s is not exactly easy. These cars were vulnerable to rust and certainly dealt with their fair share of abuse from drivers who knew they could be driven into the ground. The 1986 Honda Accord LX-I shown here on craigslist is in stunning condition, with beautiful paint, a well-preserved interior, and an engine that supposedly still runs like a Swiss watch. The seller is asking $9,999, which seems quite fair for a car that could be put into duty as a daily driver tomorrow.
That’s one of the details that always drives me a bit crazy about loving old European cars. I can find the best one on the market, but there’s still a fair chance the water pump will fail, or the rear main seal will give out before too long. You can literally buy an old Honda, and it will still run exceedingly well despite being on the road for four decades. My mother has a 1997 Honda CR-V that she bought new and still daily drives, and all it needs is an occasional oil change and belt replacement. Her annual maintenance budget is a pittance of what I spend on a BMW made in the last 20 years.
And when you find a car like this that has been loved -much like my mom’s CR-V – well, you have a vehicle that will run like new. Look at the engine bay! It is spectacular. I had a 1986 Accord LX-I sedan, which also belonged to my mother, and it was much like this one in condition-wise, but I also inherited it in 1998. The fact that this Accord still looks as-new in 2026 is remarkable. Engine-wise, in LX-I trim, the Accord came equipped with a 2.0-liter, fuel-injected, 4-cylinder engine good for 110 b.h.p. and 114 lb.-ft. of torque.
The interiors were quite nice for a car that wasn’t exactly a luxury vehicle. Supportive bucket seats, power windows and locks, air conditioning, and a clean dashboard design put these vehicles light-years ahead of their domestic counterparts. The seller doesn’t tell us much about the history of this Honda, but we’d love to know how it stayed so nice. Mileage is just under 54,000, which certainly helps with its long-term preservation. The asking price seems more than fair for an Accord of this vintage that still looks so new, and thanks go to Barn Finds reader Curvette for the tip.
The dealer has had it listed since the end of May. It seems like a good deal, but there is something off putting to potential buyers. I’m a bit surprised it didn’t have a manual, for some reason I thought early LX-I’d had stick shifts.
Steve R
Perhaps it is the auto trans putting off potential buyers. Not that there is anything wrong with that transmission, but people into classic Hondas tend to want manuals. As would I, those Honda sticks shifted very well, and made the meager HP come alive.
Buying a Honda with an automatic was like getting the chicken at a seafood restaurant. The pity is they could’ve brought in nothing but sticks for the entire VRA era and still sold every one.
This reminds me of the maroon 1989 Accord LX-I sedan that my father inherited from my grandmother. It lasted just over 200000 miles before he traded it in for a 93 camry . Still disappointed that he didn’t sell me that accord.
Comfortable cruising right here. ✅️
I built these cars at the Marysville Ohio plant. I also owned an ‘86 LXi 3D. Auto or 5MT we sold every one we made. We averaged about a 15 days supply nationwide. Dealers sold them right off the delivery truck. I sold my car with 175k miles to a college kid who drove it back and forth to FL for a couple of years. My favorite generation of Accord.
The car is tight, but maybe a tad overpriced. Asides from that, you are getting a nice daily driver that has a good 100,000 miles to go, treated nicely.
It is at a dealership that explains the nearly $10k asking price for this $5k car because it’s not museum peace it’s a driver and that is probably why the dealer has had it do long oh that and these things have the same ignition and are just as easy to steal as the Hyundai and Kia cars that some states have filed lawsuits over. I would buy it and drive it but its overpriced.
We purchased a new Honda Accord DX hatchback in the last year of the 3rd generation: 1989. We liked the automatic that came with these cars and enjoyed that you could still get a base model (less to go wrong).
Ours accumulated a lot of commuter and long-distance vacation miles during the 6 years we owned it. It accumulated 182K trouble-free miles.
I test-drove a low-mileage 3rd-generation LX-i sedan last year, and I was surprised by how antiquated it felt. When new, the car felt modern for a commuter vehicle. Yet, today, they feel… old compared to cars just 10 years newer. Don’t get me wrong, these are fantastic cars to drive.
Like others, I believe the dealer is asking a little too much for this car, but not as far from a reasonable price as some others have suggested.
My now wife was an engineer at the Honda Marysville assembly plant in the 80s, so she always had a car like this to study some issue or other (yes, Honda’s had/have issues just like any other car). I recall a Christmas vacation trip, probably 1988, where we jumped in a new Accord like this and ripped off 800 miles on the first day. I realized when we reached our destination that 3 days earlier the car had been rolls of steel heading into the stamping plant. I learned an important lesson about Hondas and Japanese cars from that Accord. It didn’t do anything really well, but it also didn’t do anything to particularly annoy me. The secret to success when you are selling appliances.
I totally agree that any Accord needs the manual transmission.
I had a 5th generation Accord EX sedan with the uprated 4 cylinder and 5 speed manual in the early 90s. That otherwise docile looking car could scoot and handle!
Recalling that experience, I wonder how difficult and inexpensive it would be to locate one of them now. They certainly made plenty of them, but by that time, most of them were unfortunately automatic..