It's a bit of a mistake to think that the early Honda's (or any Japanese cars) where perfect. They where small, cramped, noisy, and on a calm day you could hear them rust (they used a lot of recycled metal in the bodies). I used to say that I would love a domestic car with a Japanese motor. But even their motors, where not all good. The guy across the street used to work on Honda's, (mostly Civics), behind his garage, was a stack of engine blocks 10 feet high all with the piston through the wall of number 2 cylinder (if I remember right).

I even owned a lengendary Datsun 510 with one of the first fully independent rear suspensions (rear wheel drive) they did it with 6 universal joints which you replaced almost monthly.

I also had the first Mazda GLC GT, my first new car (1977, the same year the Accord was introduced). I loved the GLC, but GT!, it was rear wheel drive with a 1300 motor which had less horsepower then my lawn tractor. It had a hard time keeping up with traffic on 4 lane highways. When I sold it there wasn't a body panel you could have not removed with your bare hands. (did not spend a dime on the motor however)

Modern Japanese cars are so much better then they where in the early days.

 

To be fair, everybody started using cheap steel in the late 60's and early 70's. Even the likes of Porsche and BMW. They were all rust buckets.
I knew that and still wanted one so bad I can still taste it.
Hah! Reminds of the time I nearly bought a used Mazda RX-3 (?I think?) sedan. The car looked nearly new, and the rotary made pretty impressive power; the deal-breaker came when the salesman tried to impress me by telling me that the engine had just been completely rebuilt. The car had less than 30K miles on it.
Yep, they pretty much caught and passed the entire world.

I'd better stop responding like this, don't want the kids to think the fogys have taken over.