I'm interesting in hearing how many miles people are getting out of their Accents before major problems. My car is an '02 Accent with 174,000 miles on it. I've had minor problems with the charcoal canister and had to replace the valve cover gasket, but otherwise it has been an incredibly reliable car.

I'm very disciplined with maintenance. I change the oil every 3K miles, regular tune-ups, and timing belts every 60K miles.

How long is my car going to last? What are you guys seeing?

Ours has 157k miles no problems till now transmission is done.

My 03 has 270,000 and would still be on the same motor if I had not failed to change the timing belt in a timely manner. Do that every 30 to 40,000 dont be a dummy like me.
I have a manual trans and this has been the weak link in the car, they are only good for about 100,000 miles, ya I know that sounds crazy, but I drive a lot and tow a trailer with a motorcycle so I put more strain on them than most.

PS I am a firm user of syn motor oils, and trans oils in my cars and race bikes.

I did not do that. This is the first trans I have put in. Is there a way to fix this problem without dropping the trans back out. I had a heck of a time getting it in

I wish I had started with synthetic oil. It's my understanding you can't put full synthetic in once you've run "regular" oil. What brand of synthetic do you use? I'm partial to either Castrol or Pennzoil.

Royal Purple Synthetic Oil
this is what I run and that is not the case, do a search about syn oils verses regular oils there are lots of very good reports out there. I installed a used motor after I blew my original one (my fault) and went to syn at the first oil change.
In the manual trans you have to run a syn oil, it's the only one I can find with the rating the factory requires.
I currently race a 1955 Triumph motorcycle in vintage racing, it was broke in on reg oil and now runs on syn, no issues.

PS, Castrol makes a very good syn, all of the major brands are very good, even Walmarts name brand is a good one.

Just wondering what the valve cover gasket cost? I have a 2002, owned since new with 118k on it. Have always gotten the maintenance done.

I did the repair myself, and paid about $25 for the gasket. A repair shop should be able to do the repair for $100-150.