We’ve seen many Honda Civic wagons here on Barn Finds, but this is the first Accord Wagon shown here. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but here we go. The seller has this 1996 Honda Accord EX Wagon listed here on craigslist in Bellevue, Washington, and they’re asking $6,900. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Curvette for the tip!
I know, it’s just a 1990s Honda wagon, big deal, THIS ISN’T A BARN FIND!!!!!!!!! Hey, it’s 30 years old now, and they’re rare to see today, having only been offered for a few years in the U.S., at least as a Honda. You may have seen a few Acura TSX Sport Wagons, which is an odd name in that a sporty manual transmission wasn’t available, nor was AWD, which instantly doomed it from the start. At least the Honda Accord wagon could be had with Honda’s great manual transmission. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a Honda Accord wagon in the wild, years if not a decade or two.
For anyone into unusual 1990s cars, this Accord wagon would be one to have. The seller’s asking price seems reasonable for such a rarely seen car; they were only made for the 1991 to 1997 model years, at least for the U.S. market. And being a Pacific Northwest car, while rust isn’t mentioned, I have to believe that this car is as solid as it looks. Here’s what the rear cargo compartment looks like: nice and clean as expected. The Bordeaux Red color is striking, and here’s a 1996 Honda Accord brochure to check out; the wagon is shown on pages 14 and 15.
With a four-speed automatic rather than a 5-speed manual, this car loses points for Cars & Coffee duties, along with dulling some of the driving fun. But it’ll make up for that with general all-around good commuting or road trip use. The interior looks as close to new as I can imagine. Again, as a Pacific Northwest vehicle, the interior doesn’t appear to be cracked and blown out like many Southwest vehicles are by this point. Three decades is a long time for skin or interior materials when trying to ward off the relentless sun. The back seat looks new for the most part, and appears to have a decent amount of legroom, at least for a mid-sized Honda.
The engine is Honda’s F22B1, according to the VIN. The seller included an engine photo and a VIN report! 2026 is looking up again! This is a 2.2-liter SOHC inline-four with 145 horsepower and 147 lb-ft of torque. Power is sent through that four-speed automatic transmission to the front wheels, and they say this car has been well-maintained, is in excellent condition, and has cold AC. It sure looks like it. 30,000 miles ago (it has 123,355 now), it received a new timing belt, water pump, valve adjustment, spark plugs, drive belts, transmission fluid service, and a 90,000-mile maintenance. This looks like a winner to me, unless you’re looking for a 1970 Chevelle with a 454. Some of us just like to see a weird variety of somewhat old vehicles here. Would any of you daily drive this Accord wagon?
My only reservation about driving it daily would be the rare factor. I wouldn’t want to over use it and wear it out on my commutes, about 104 miles a day. I’d certainly prefer it to have the 5-speed for the joy of it.
I’ve likened getting an automatic on a Honda in those days to having the chicken at a seafood restaurant. It’s not the house specialty, it’s only on the menu because people insist and it’ll top out at meh at best.
Hear ya nlpnt, the Honda shifters are a true joy. Buddy had an autoloader Accord, we called it the Hondamatic lol.
I wouldn’t worry too much about “wearing it out”; I had a ’96 Accord coupe with 330,000 miles showing when I replaced it ONLY because I wanted the greater “utility” a Honda CR-V (now with over 200,000 miles!) provides me!
These cars, if maintained would exceed 400,000 miles before needing major repairs. I worked for American Honda (28 years,’87- 2015) and I drove a few of these as “Demo’s.” From a design/looks perspective, I preferred the prior edition. From a quality perspective, this version was superior. Daily driver? Absolutely, no problem, just maintain it according to the factory recommendations with one exception: Change the ATF every 30k. Rarity? YES. This particular example has a sunroof visor and a roof rack. We actually did sell a few sunroof visors- But that roof rack is EXTREMELY RARE! They were a factory accessory/dealer installed item and usually would retail for a little over $1,200, including labor. Very few were sold, I would estimate somewhere under a thousand, if memory serves.
I would love to daily this car Scotty although for me that would consist going to doctor visits going to Publix and Wall Mart a couple of times a week between my wife and I. Being a Honda with up to date service this car is just getting broken in with many more trouble free miles.
I’d argue it is too nice to daily; there are too many morons at rush hour. I’d cherish driving it on fun little weekend trips. If the wife wants to buy some stuff on those trips, we have plenty of room, so that beats most sports cars.
Whoa, highlighted caps, ( usually reserved for my clumsy comments) means business. Besides, the site evolved away from strictly “finds in a barn”, to um, everything, apparently. No,,no anti-Asian sentiment here, by the 90s, if you didn’t accept the fact these cars were simply the best, you were in denial. I haven’t had the best luck with Hondas, even my Gold Wings were a pain, but these cars were simply the best. About the only thing that killed them was a zetz to the front,,,or rust, but certainly not near as bad as early ones. By the 90s, they must have run out of that rusty 70s US scrap steel they used. I would actually have wanted a manual here, as I read the automatic was troublesome and very expensive. Regardless, they were good cars,,,just not for me, is all.
The issue with the Honda transmissions was that the factory recommended servicing at 60,000 miles, if memory serves. At that service interval, the average life was about 140,000 miles. The warranty period was 36,000 miles. Pressure to show a low cost of ownership, v. Toyota resulted in longer service period recommendations. As a service and parts rep, I remember we would give customers “good will” and would either replace the transmissions at no cost or participate in the cost of the repair up to 70% at up to 140,000 miles. Most of the techs I worked with recommended servicing these automatics at 30,000 miles and we never had a problem with them when this was done. Also critical was the use of HONDA automatic transmission fluid. We had a lot of these cars that had been serviced with non=Honda brand fluid that developed a “judder.” In some cases, we had to completely drain and fill the transmissions three times with OEM Honda fluid before the judder was eliminated.
Good and honest write-up Scotty, I agree with you and Howard, the picks of late have been somewhat less “Barny” I have submitted dozens of prime barn picks on here and have only had 2 published, which is puzzling? Oh well…I did purchase one of these used when in Daytona for a daily driver. It was a 92 4 door EX, loaded with sunroof and all with 30K miles around 1995. I drove it to work daily and several trips to KY and never had any trouble. Gave it to my daughter for graduation in 2003 with 148K on the odometer and she kept it through college before trading it in. They are very reliable cars when properly maintained.
Thanks for the great comments, Wayne, Howard, and everyone! I know anything this new isn’t super popular with all of the Barn Finds family of readers, but I figured that since it was a solid three decades old now and an interesting, rarely-seen body type, it would be of interest.
You guys are right about not everything being an actual “barn find” here, but I’d wager that nobody on Bring a Trailer complains that none of the vehicles being sold there need to be trailered, as they’re all basically in mint condition rather than project vehicles as when they started almost two decades ago. Yet here we are, most vehicles on Barn Finds have to be dusty and shown in a barn. Then when they are shown that way, some folks wonder why the seller didn’t “at least wash off the dust and pull it out to take photos!” Hopefully we can find a good middle ground to keep everyone happy and tuned in.
Have a great weekend, all!
I’d love to bite off on this, but not enough because of the auto transmission. Does anyone know if they were available with a manual transmission?
Kevin, page 14 of this brochure lists a 5-speed or automatic being available. I put this link in the third paragraph, but I don’t know if anyone is clicking on those red links. They aren’t scams, spam, or ads; they’re photos or links to additional info on the vehicles.
https://autocatalogarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Honda-Range-1996-USA.pdf
In my search for our 1995 EX Wagon in CA back in the early 2000’s, I only ran across one manual trans and it was sold by the time I called. They are/were rare. Seem to recall the manual trans was paired to the lower horsepower non-VTEC 4 cyl but not positive. I seem to recall the EX meant it had the VTEC engine, tho.
See an Accord Wagon and rare one that has been maintained so well and looks this nice!
Really too bad the Accord wagon and Crosstour are gone. They were nice vehicles that handled like a car but had the interior space close to an SUV.
They are hard to find with low miles and well maintained. Spent a couple of years looking for our 1995 EX Wagon in the early 2000’s. If the price was decent, they would sell in just hours. I was the 2nd owner. It had the VTEC 4 cyl and AT. Dark Green. Bought it w/ a well-maintained 50k mi for too much money in So Cal from the original owner that had traded it in for a Toyota something. I did use ours for a commuter and at around 250k, donated it to a charity I knew that did not crush their cars. Had no problems with the transmission but did go thru 2 exhaust manifolds, a leaky AC evaporator (that was expensive), changed the timing belt and water pump myself at least once (you need tiny hands to get in there!), replaced that big black plastic intake tube with accordion pleats that had developed cracks and vacuum leaks, went thru 3 sets of tires and lost the clear coat after a year or two. (Guessing that red paint has lost its clear coat in patches too — the paint in that era of Honda or any of the clear coat cars was pretty bad.) Maintained it well. In California, no rust issues. Got 25-27 mpg for my long commute and an occasional 30 mpg if you were careful on a long road trip. It was a great family commute car, quite fast w the vaunted VTEC, comfortable with the leather interior – cloth probably would be as nice. The wagon had a fold down rear seat made it almost flexible as an SUV but actually got decent mileage. Think there was a supercharger kit available back in the day but not positive. Ours didn’t have the roof rack but did have the upscale alloy wheels of the day. Would be tempted to buy this one. They are nice and reasonably easy to work on.
not rare around here. As many of these were as common as the camery or
carolla wagons. The only reason I (‘Wagonman’) would havea “mini van’ would be 2 slide ona turtle top, vanterra, sort of deal. Never was able to stand up in my wagons LOL .
It’s gone!