Honda= engine lasts a very long time, meanwhile every single part of the car will fall off before the engine will ever break. Japanese and Chrysler use electrogalvanize steel which is less corosion resistant than regular galvanized steel that other companies like Ford and GM use. The advantage to using electrogalvanized steel is that it is cheaper and easier to weld and is cheaper to buy. So the quality of a honda is good engine wise, not body wise. Also they ship them accross the pacific and atlantic oceans for months at a time (the ones built in Japan) this is liek going through the worst winter of salt times 100 from the salt exposure at sea. I'd imagine they try to protect the cars from the salt, but thats difficult.
Hondas are reliable primarly because most their cars are 4 bangers and 4 banger cars in general are more reliable than V8s and V6s. they have less things on them to break, have more surface area to cool down.
It all really matters on how well you take care of a car on how long its going to last, my car will last a long time even though it is a ford because i take care of it well. I'd imagine that people who have ford's think they break more because they seemingly neglect them a lot. My dad for example didnt change his oil in his explorer for 7 thousand miles and it didnt start on the first 2 tries (gee wonder why) I wouldnt blame it on the Ford, but rather the fact he neglected it. Same goes with Japanese cars, some say they are less reliable engine wise some say better. I say, how well are you taking care of it? Also with corrosion, the mroe you keep it clean in the winter the less salt you get on the car, or if you live near the ocean the more you clean it the less salt residue deposits on the car.
I would never pay 90 grand for a car that is a 6 banger. I would and did pay 14 grand for a brand new 04 mustang with A plan (can't beat that). It looks cool, and for about 1,500 dollars i can get 300 HP out of it naturally aspirated. However i imagine my 3,200 lbs V6 mustang weighs a hell of a lot mroe than the NSX.
I normally dont like japanese car styling but the NSX is an exception, it looks italian and i think it is a great looking car, just over priced. The first time i ever saw one i thought it was a ferrari, and then i found out it was a honda and assumed it must cost maybe 30-40 at the top, and now that i found out it costs 90 i am shocked.
Just because it says honda on it doesnt mean it shouldnt be slow. The only truely fast car with the ford tag on it was the Mustang Cobra for years, now look what they've built, the new Ford GT (GT40 is the real name but they are dumb and sold the rights to it). What is in a name anyway? same goes with toyota, they only really have the celica and MR2 and when i think of toyota i think of camry, corrola, prius, not supra or MR2.
Now if you think buying a nice looking NSX for 90 grand is crazy, who in their God's name would buy a focus for 101,000???!?!?? I am not making this up, ford now has built a focus that beat a lamborguini. Saw it in motor trend magazine, not sure of the month, probably august 04 -oct 04. Its the new focus RS8, its on the ugly hatch back model with 5.0 450HP engine!!! I think the only reason why id want one is if i was so rich i had nothing better to do then pull up to a light next to a Viper/Vette/Cobra/Ferrari/Porsche and blow their doors off with my ugly, quiet stock looking focus. I think the owner of lamborguini company shot himself after the focus won, i would have lol. So buying an NSX might not be the best buy, but there are much worse things you could buy for the money.