Do not buy this vehicle. I bought it from craigslist for 3,900 dollars and it had 142,000 miles. Fast forward, I put 36,000 miles on it, so that's 178,000 miles before it died.

The car kept having a hard time getting out of first gear, then afterwards it would be fine. A few weeks later, it would barely move. I couldn't even go five miles per hour! When I gave it gas it wouldn't move and it would just rev. Thank god I wasn't on the highway! Not to mention, I had to to push it to my driveway.

They said a new transmission will cost 3,000 dollars and the labor would cost me 3,000 so that's 6,000 in total. Oh, let's not forget it always ran hot if I drove it over 50 miles, and the oil leaked and it was in need for a new o2 sensor.

I would've fixed the last three but the transmission failing was the needle that broke the camels back. I just bought a 2016 Toyota Yaris with 57k miles. Thank god I had a good savings and good credit.

I will say I wish I would've found out about car complaints beforehand, because if I did I wouldn't have bought the 2001 Honda Civic ex.

I was unaware until today that 2001 Honda's have bad transmissions. I always associate Honda with reliability and quality. I know that cars can sometimes have problems and I accepted that I might have gotten a lesser quality Honda, but it’s always gotten me where I needed to go so I didn’t mind making the repairs because I figured they were kind of “forever” repairs. After reading this site, I now realize it’s more than a small problem but something consistent and expected. Honestly, I’m rather upset to hear about the lack of support from Honda on this issue.

I am typically cautious and careful about my car since it was the most expensive purchase I’ve ever made ($10,000 in 2006 at a Honda dealership in Atlanta when I was a sophomore in college, it was my first Honda too. I previously drove a Nissan Sentra). I always get my oil changed, tires rotated and always have them check my fluid levels. And have done the required maintenance as needed. I’ve gotten very familiar with my car and the way it drives. I know what to expect when it acts a certain way so when it started being a little louder and nosier than normal I started to pay extra attention to its behavior, especially since there was no engine/warning light. It was already on my radar to get it looked at when my car started having trouble switching gears, struggling to accelerate and was running rougher than normal. I took it to a neighborhood repair guy who has worked on my families’ car for 25 years and is a trusted source. He didn’t even have to take the car out of his parking lot before he diagnosed me with transmission troubles. Because of the type of labor involved, he wasn’t able to work on my car at his shop and recommended that I get a transmission repair shop to look and diagnosis the specifics.

I called a few shops to quote general cost of transmission repairs (they were all in the $2,500 - $3,500 range) so I ended up going with the one that offered to tow my car and look at it. My local Honda dealership hasn’t been the most helpful in the past so I completely ignored their quote. What I was hoping was just a little minor fix, turned into me needing to have my transmission completely rebuilt. It ended up costing me $4,000 (well, my sister really, I had to have someone else pay for it all at once since I don’t have that kind of money lying around) the first time and then required a repeat visit for about $300 for a busted transmission line that they didn’t fix properly the first time. This all happened at 96,800 miles. Which, seemed a little soon. But, I figured this repair would get me till the end of my car’s life (MANY years from now…not apparently one).

Since the repair in 2012 my car has been pretty solid and I’ve only had to replace my brakes and ball bearings (which was a $350 dollar expense). Sadly though, my car has started to act up again and I’m positive when I bring it in to be looked at it will be another transmission issue (trouble shifting, slow acceleration, etc.,) . The place that repaired it offered a 2 year or 24,000 mile warranty that expired 3,000 miles ago (of course) so I might have to suck it up and bring it to Honda. I can’t drive another 150 miles just for repairs, that’s insane. But, I don’t think it’s worth shelling out another $4,000. My car wasn’t even worth that much when I repaired it the first time.

After seeing that 600+ people have had this problem with their car, some more than once, I know that this isn’t just a lower quality car but actually a problem with the manufacturing of the vehicle in general. I guess I need to start finding a new car, even though I only have 126,000 miles on it, and that new car with definitely not be a Honda if this is the type of product they put out.

just got off the phone with Honda customer service and was told my 2001 honda civic ex with 105,000 (i have seen lots of complaints on) that they would not help with the transmission cost so i have a HONDA sitting in my driveway that the tran. is no good and they say that if buy a HONDA you have at least 200,000 miles or more DON'T BELIEVE THEM. I will never buy another HONDA again. what to do with the piece crap in the driveway??? And i will tell everyone i know never to bye a HONDA they are garbage.

Clearly this is a huge problem and issue that Honda needs to address. What exactly does it take to get a recall - a couple of unnecessary deaths due to the transmission failing? It is unreasonable for Honda to allow this known danger to continue and it's disappointing that they refuse to rectify the issue. My 2001 Honda Civic starting acting up one year after I purchased it in 2008 with only 80,000 miles on it. I was stunned when my mechanic informed me that the transmission was failing and needed to be replaced. For the cost of replacing the transmission I might as well invest in a different car that is not a Honda. My advice to those looking to purchase a car - do not purchase a Honda.

Hello, my family has owned a 1997 dx, 1997 hx, 1999 hx, a 2000 si, a 2002 ex and a 2003 accord (all manual transmissions). So we have contributed quite a bit to the Honda Industry. We have never had any problems accept radiator tanks cracking on any of our vehicles, and all except one vehicle had over 200,000 miles on it. (the other was stolen and stripped) damn tweekers. So naturally when my cousin was looking for a dependable car I suggested a Civic and of course, guess who she asked to help find her one? So we find a 2001 civic ex auto with 120,000 miles on it. We took it for a test ride and the engine ran strong tranny shifted smoothly so she purchased the car. Two months down the road I get a call saying that her transmission is slipping than another phone call the next day saying that the tranny has completely stopped working. I have been looking for a recall from honda and find out that hundreds are having the same problem. (starts with slipping from 2nd gear to third gear than third gear to fourth gear than complete failure). I expected more from Honda, My girlfriend is looking for a new vehicle and guess which dealership we will not be purchasing from. I guess if we're going to buy something that is expected to fail might as well buy American.

The transmission has been slipping for a while and now I see that it's just a common problem with 2001 Honda Civics. I'm just waiting for it to explode one day on the road. If I stop in the middle of a small hill, the car will not go up at all. The engine just screams and the car stands still. Too bad I didn't know this before I bought the car. I thought Honda had such a great reputation, but this is definitely my LAST Honda. I am very disillusioned with the company. Too bad that Consumer Reports doesn't mention these problems so I could have avoided this car altogether. Glad to find this site and will check it before I buy another car -- which will be soon. I think this sort of problem should have some greater publicity, maybe putting this story on the news so others can avoid the same problem.

Update from Jun 6, 2011: Today I spoke with America Honda Customer Service to see if they could offer me any sort of "Goodwill Compensation". I spoke with Robert, who asked if I had this car inspected yet. As if that mattered, since he followed up with saying that due to the age and mileage of this car, they would not be offering me any financial assistance. Useless.

I live 2 miles from the honda plant and everyone drives and talks about how good they are so when it was time to buy my daughter a safe car well honda sounded good and something that I could count on running for a long time. So I bought this nice 01 civic, paid more than I wanted to for the car but I wanted a nice car for my daughter. Two weeks after buying the car the transmission starts to slip when the auto trans shifts gears. Everyone talks about getting 200,000 plus miles from their honda - well this one will not get over 130,000. I know its used and I knew it was used and would be fixing small things but never thought about the trans going out. I will never buy a honda again new or used. I should have stayed with ford my work truck. My Ford F250 has 296,000 miles still has the org engine and trans. The only thing that I have ever had to replace was the starter water pump and alt. all minor fixes. My 08 ford fusion has 104,000 and never had to fix anything - runs and drives great. Sounds like I wasted my hard earned money on a lemon from what I see from other people with the same problem on here.

So... my gf bought the ca rin 2009 with 113k for 4200 with no probs. After about a month or so the tranny would slip from 2nd to 3rd gear with a jump of about 1000rmps before it shifted into 3rd when cold. The prob would cease to exist after about 2 minutes, so I changed the fluid with mobile 1 honda atf fluid and was gonna change the tranny fluid filter too but ofcourse as you may know stupid Honda decided to put a internal filter that cannot be replaced without taking the whole tranny apart so that wasnt happening. Ofcourse the problem was still occurring after the changeS.N the tranny fluid was at normal operating level and was light red in color before the fluid change, so low of burnt fluid didnt cause the slipping. The slip wasn't getting worse until now at 128k. Now it slips from second to third with a rpm jump of almost 2000 and slips from 3rd to fourth now and doesn't stop until about 15 minutes. I have looked for solutions to the prob since 2009 and there are way too many people with the exact prob and no solution besides tranny replacement. Why is there not a recall for this since it is clearly a manufacturer error? people have had probs like this as early as 20k in civic forums. The only reason we bought the honda was because they were suppose to be reliable, in my opinion they are not even close at least for this generation of civic. The problem diagnostics I have heard from alot of forum super moderators and certified mechanics is that the clutch band in the atf are worn allowing gear to slip and engine rpms to rev far before the gear engages. I'm pretty mechanically inclined so that makes all the sense in the world. The tranny when cold doesnt flow as well as when warm thus its not getting in the clutch band and not allowing the band to engage properly until the car is warm enough for it to flow through the tranny, thus fixing the prob when warm. So honda engineers were obviously slacking when they designed this, I don' think they put a good enough clutch kit or tranny fluid pump, or the gear solenoids are not turning off fast enough for the clutch to engage, either or its not a operator causing the prob, it is hondas poor engineering. Im gonna call honda about this and give piece of my mind and I will def never by Honda again. DO NOT FALL FOR THE HONDA HYPE!!!!!

Alright, so maybe this complaint is not as legitimate as some; it wasn't my car (I was looking into buying it. I'll tell you right now, I left that thing in the parking lot and never looked back). But take it as a heads up, perhaps.

So, I've been looking into buying a used car for a while now, and I found an add for a 2001 Honda Civic sedan, supposedly in "great condition" for $4'000. Seemed like a decent deal, so I made an appointment with to have a look. I knew from a bit of research that the transmissions on the automatics had a habit of going out, though I had no idea how often it really happened.

Me and a friend of mine asked if we could drive it to the shop my friend works out to take a look at it and test it out; they say okay. First thing we notice as we're driving along the road is this awful clunking sound, and a strange side shimmy towards the drivers side. I'm already thinking, there's no way in $$@%* I'm buying this thing. But, we get to the shop anyways, already aggravated by the car's constant complaining (I think it was asking to die).

Upon looking under the hood, there was oil EVERYWHERE. And I do mean everywhere, it was so bad, they weren't 100% sure at first where it was leaking from; to be honest I don't remember what they finally decided it was. At any rate, that was a $1000 repair job right there. I then muttered to myself, "Bet the tranny is going out, too". So, to check, I put my foot on the break, put it into park, and shift it into reverse. And what do you know? Transmission slips, car revs and jerks violently, clunk clunk clunk, and there you have it: soon to die transmission. So now we're at $3'500 in repairs, and I'm both disappointed and yet somewhat amused.

So, for anyone looking to buy one of these cars, I'd highly advise... either, a) DON'T, or, b) having it looked at professionally, and ONLY considering buying it if the transmission has been recently replaced. Because at this point, it seems they're all either new or dying.

Okay, so I'm only 18 and I've been through two cars already. First, I had a 1990 Jeep Cherokee that broke down every two weeks. Well it was a 1990 so I guess I asked for it. Anyway, in October of this past year (2010) I sold it for scraps and purchased my 2001 Honda Civic LX coupe. I loved it; until I found out its no better than my Jeep.

It hasn't broke down every two weeks but the tranny slips between 2 and 3 rpm as soon as I start driving. I used to think it was because of the cold weather, but cold weather my butt, because it even does it in nice weather. I paid $5000 in cash to only have it 6 months and the transmission fail? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I will be going to college in the fall and I cannot afford to fork out another $2-3 thousand to get this fixed. Like as soon as I start my car, I let it heat up to avoid as much slipping as I can, but even if I'm going slow, trying to avoid it, it still does it. And it is just getting worse everyday! I'm afraid its just going to crap out in the middle of traffic. WHAT SHOULD I DO?