'96-'98 Honda Civic Owners (4 Doors)

[fleabag]

Want to people's own opinions about this car, and the common issues people have or have not had with the car. I personally like it so far, but want peoples opinions as well.

Car I am looking at is White, Lx, 100-200k, with A/C that could be broken and in the San Francisco Bay Area, though I'm considering going out of state to get it if it's right. Most people are asking $3000-$4000 but I really can't pay more than $2500 for one.

 

[Bignate603]

Going out of state for a $2500 car is not a smart idea. In this price range you're probably going to be looking at a huge amount of cars that are junk before you find a decent one. If you spend hundreds to go out of state for a car that turns out not to be what you thought it was you'll be out quite a bit of money compared to the purchase price of the car. Pictures online don't tell the whole story.

Also, $3-4k for anything approaching 200k is silly. I don't care what brand it is, by then the majority of trouble free miles on the car have been used up. It's going to start requiring more work to keep it running well. Belts, CV joints, wheel bearings, radiators, hoses, exhaust, and all the random odds and ends can start to wear out. It's completely manageable (my cars all range from 110k to 180k so I deal with plenty of higher mileage issues) but you need to factor that into the cost when you're buying the car. $2500 is probably reasonable. I'd just start looking at cars priced in the $3k range and physically go see the car. Look it over and say it's ok, but because of X, Y and Z you think it's worth $2200. The big thing here is to not be rude, just be matter of fact about it and how you feel that is fair for the car. Offer to pay that in cash the same day. If they counter offer it means they'll be willing to deal and you can go back and forth a little bit, hopefully ending up at your budget. If they say no just tell them thanks, and to contact you if they change their mind. Whatever you do, don't be rude through the whole thing even if they are being unreasonable. If you're nice to them they may call you back in a few days if they can't sell the vehicle for the price they wanted.

 

[jlee]

Just get this and call it a day.

 

[fleabag]

Originally posted by: Bignate603
Going out of state for a $2500 car is not a smart idea. In this price range you're probably going to be looking at a huge amount of cars that are junk before you find a decent one. If you spend hundreds to go out of state for a car that turns out not to be what you thought it was you'll be out quite a bit of money compared to the purchase price of the car. Pictures online don't tell the whole story.

Also, $3-4k for anything approaching 200k is silly. I don't care what brand it is, by then the majority of trouble free miles on the car have been used up. It's going to start requiring more work to keep it running well. Belts, CV joints, wheel bearings, radiators, hoses, exhaust, and all the random odds and ends can start to wear out. It's completely manageable (my cars all range from 110k to 180k so I deal with plenty of higher mileage issues) but you need to factor that into the cost when you're buying the car. $2500 is probably reasonable. I'd just start looking at cars priced in the $3k range and physically go see the car. Look it over and say it's ok, but because of X, Y and Z you think it's worth $2200. The big thing here is to not be rude, just be matter of fact about it and how you feel that is fair for the car. Offer to pay that in cash the same day. If they counter offer it means they'll be willing to deal and you can go back and forth a little bit, hopefully ending up at your budget. If they say no just tell them thanks, and to contact you if they change their mind. Whatever you do, don't be rude through the whole thing even if they are being unreasonable. If you're nice to them they may call you back in a few days if they can't sell the vehicle for the price they wanted.

Well unfortunately because of what happened to the price of gas since last December, the car dropped to a low of $1800 in December '08 and then steadily climbed in price to its KBB value of today right after the "bottom" (so to speak) back in March/April. The value of this car is directly related to the price of gasoline which is why I was sort of tempted to go out of state (though I see how the benefit has now diminished). I'm just seeing it being really difficult to haggle someone from $3500 or $3000 down to $2200.

Is it a bad idea for me to ask or tell them up front in the e-mail that I can't afford to pay more than $2500 for the car? I know that basically could screw up all haggling opportunities and he'll probably ignore me but I don't want to be driving out miles and miles to play the haggling game only to risk being told to leave b/c my offer was too ridiculous.

 

[BlackTigers]

Does it have air bags?

 

[Bignate603]

Originally posted by: fleabag

Originally posted by: Bignate603
Going out of state for a $2500 car is not a smart idea. In this price range you're probably going to be looking at a huge amount of cars that are junk before you find a decent one. If you spend hundreds to go out of state for a car that turns out not to be what you thought it was you'll be out quite a bit of money compared to the purchase price of the car. Pictures online don't tell the whole story.

Also, $3-4k for anything approaching 200k is silly. I don't care what brand it is, by then the majority of trouble free miles on the car have been used up. It's going to start requiring more work to keep it running well. Belts, CV joints, wheel bearings, radiators, hoses, exhaust, and all the random odds and ends can start to wear out. It's completely manageable (my cars all range from 110k to 180k so I deal with plenty of higher mileage issues) but you need to factor that into the cost when you're buying the car. $2500 is probably reasonable. I'd just start looking at cars priced in the $3k range and physically go see the car. Look it over and say it's ok, but because of X, Y and Z you think it's worth $2200. The big thing here is to not be rude, just be matter of fact about it and how you feel that is fair for the car. Offer to pay that in cash the same day. If they counter offer it means they'll be willing to deal and you can go back and forth a little bit, hopefully ending up at your budget. If they say no just tell them thanks, and to contact you if they change their mind. Whatever you do, don't be rude through the whole thing even if they are being unreasonable. If you're nice to them they may call you back in a few days if they can't sell the vehicle for the price they wanted.

Well unfortunately because of what happened to the price of gas since last December, the car dropped to a low of $1800 in December '08 and then steadily climbed in price to its KBB value of today right after the "bottom" (so to speak) back in March/April. The value of this car is directly related to the price of gasoline which is why I was sort of tempted to go out of state (though I see how the benefit has now diminished). I'm just seeing it being really difficult to haggle someone from $3500 or $3000 down to $2200.

Is it a bad idea for me to ask or tell them up front in the e-mail that I can't afford to pay more than $2500 for the car? I know that basically could screw up all haggling opportunities and he'll probably ignore me but I don't want to be driving out miles and miles to play the haggling game only to risk being told to leave b/c my offer was too ridiculous.

You shouldn't expect them to take $2200, you're just offering low so you can haggle but still remain below $2500. If you offer $2500 they'll probably try and push the price up a bit over what you budgeted.

If you tell them up front you only have $2500 they'll either tell you to take a hike or they'll tell you to come on over because they really weren't expecting to get more than that anyways. Most people list cars higher than they expect to sell them for. Just because cars are listed for a certain price doesn't mean they'll sell for that. You might want to go through older ads and contact them to see if they still have the car. If they've been trying to sell for a few weeks they'll probably be much more willing to sell below asking price.

At some point though you need to question if the vehicle is worth it. Public perception can drastically change the prices of used cars without a huge amount of reflection on the actual value of the car. During the extremely high gas prices last summer the resale of geo metros shot up to insane levels. The cars were terrible and for the amount of money people were paying they could have paid for a ton of gas but people still were willing to pay unreasonable amounts due to perception. At some point you need to decide if the resale on civics has gone up higher than the vehicle is actually worth to you.