Junkyard Gem: 1992 Honda Accord DX Coupe with 409,780 miles

If you’re walking the rows of your local automobile graveyard, during which vehicles are you probably to search out odometers showing intergalactically high final odometer readings? I’ve got numerous experience on the topic, and I can say that the most effective bets are likely to be diesel-powered Mercedes-Benzes and Honda Accords of the late Eighties through early Nineteen Nineties. For today’s Junkyard Gem, we have one other one among those high-mile Accords, now residing in a Denver-area self-service boneyard.

409,780.7 miles over 32 years signifies that this unassuming base-grade Accord coupe averaged just over 12,805 for each 12 months of its driving profession.

It also signifies that Honda now dominates the Murilee Martin Junkyard Odometer standings, with seven cars within the Top 20 (of which five are Accords). Let’s have a look:

1. 1990 Volvo 244: 631,999 miles
2. 1988 Honda Accord: 626,476 miles
3. 1987 Mercedes-Benz W201: 601,173 miles
4. 1996 Toyota Camry wagon: 583,624 miles
5. 1981 Mercedes-Benz W126: 572,139 miles
6. 1985 Mercedes-Benz W126: 525,971 miles
7. 1988 Honda Accord: 513,519 miles
8. 1990 Volvo 740 Turbo wagon: 493,549 miles
9. 1990 Nissan Sentra: 440,299 miles
10. 1991 Honda Accord: 435,471 miles
11. 1996 Honda Civic: 435,028 miles
12. 1982 Mercedes-Benz W123: 417,046 miles
13. 1995 Toyota Previa: 413,530 miles
14. 1998 Toyota Tercel 4WD wagon: 413,344 miles
15. 2002 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor: 412,013 miles
16. 1983 Honda Accord: 411,794 miles
17. 1985 Mercedes-Benz W123: 411,448 miles
18. 1992 Honda Accord: 409,780 miles
19. 2001 Honda CR-V: 403,757 miles
20. 1991 Nissan Stanza: 402,505 miles

Today’s Accord shoves one other Accord into twenty first place and signifies that a discarded vehicle now needs at the least 400,000 miles to achieve Top 20 status.

This automobile is a good 18th overall, but it surely should feel pride because the fifth-best-traveled junkyard automobile I’ve found that was in-built the US. It’s surpassed within the Murilee Martin American Pride Junkyard Odometer Standings by a 435k-mile Civic, a 435k-mile Accord, a 440k-mile Sentra and a 583k-mile Camry (the highest-mile American-built vehicle sold by a manufacturer based in the US that I’ve documented was a 1986 Oldsmobile Calais with 363k miles, followed by a 355k-mile Jeep Cherokee).

It was born at Honda’s factory in Marysville, Ohio, which began motorcycle production in 1979 and Accord production in 1982.

The DX was the most affordable Accord trim level for 1992, and the coupe was the most affordable Accord body style that 12 months. This automobile has the two.2-liter F22 SOHC straight-four engine, rated at 125 horsepower and 137 pound-feet.

With the bottom five-speed manual transmission, its MSRP was $13,300 (about $29,571 in 2023 dollars). 

This automobile has air-con and a driver’s-side airbag, each extra-cost options within the 1992 Accord, but is a no-frills machine in most other respects.

These cars were more vulnerable than most to wreck from the Rust Monster, and this one shows holes in the same old spots.

The floors and door pockets are filled with construction hardware and the inside is coated with sheetrock dust, so I believe this Accord was used to haul crews to work sites for a decade or two. There’s a half-million-mile Civic hatchback of the identical era that a Denver painting contractor still uses for that purpose; perhaps this Accord was owned by the identical outfit.

It served its owners well over the a long time, and its metal will live to tell the tale in other applications soon enough.

Improved airflow, improved cashflow.

The ’90s Accord.