Accord LX 4 cyl

• Automatic transmission
• 123,000 miles

When I first bought this car, I noticed a crack in the plastic well behind the door handle on the driver door. But time was short, I was at a car auction, and didn't think it was a deal-killer. Later I noticed all the interior door handle wells had cracks. At first, this wasn't a problem. But, like all cracks, it spread & begat more cracks. I wound up having to hold the plastic well in place with one hand, and pull the lever to open the door with the other. A web search on this found that other Honda owners had complained about this. There were screws in the plastic, so I thought I could unscrew the plate, glue it together, reinforce the back with duct tape, and put it back. Turns out that the whole thing is connected to the door handle itself. I would have to take off the interior door trim, find the screws which held the inside of the door in place (with the added complication of trying not to mess with the power window and power outside mirror setup), remove EVERYTHING to fix that small plastic well. What the heck kind of shoddy design/material selection is this? Don't t tell me that it's an old car, and I expect too much. I had a 24-yr old Chrysler Imperial with a perfectl interior. For both the Chrysler and the Honda, I was the second owner, so it's not as if either car had lots of wear and tear. I was the 3rd owner of a 10-yr old Cadillac Sedan de Ville. Again, the interior of this car wasn't crumbling like the Honda. I had a 9 yr-old Reneau Le Car. The car was a mechanical disaster from day 2 of ownership, but the interior was perfect. Perhaps Honda has grown complacent?