OK so here is the situation.

I currently own a 2002 civic lx. I have put a lot of hard work/time/money into the car. Turbo'd it, lowered it, performance clutch, exhaust, all that good stuff. The car runs amazing and has had no problems over the 3 years I have owned it.

I am up for my honda 100 thousand mile service. And its a big service. It will cost me roughly $1,500 to $2,000 to have it done.

Here is where it becomes tricky.

I know someone that is selling a 2000 civic SI for 9 grand. It is fully built, turbo'd and everything. Very good shape and has 50,000 miles on it. 310 HP.
Its a beautiful car and I have always been a fan of the B16a2 engine.

my question is, should I go ahead and do the service and spend the money?
or
Try and sell my civic for roughly 7 grand and use the 2 grand that I would have spent for the service and buy this SI.

What should I do?

 

Well depends if you want to sell your work for someone elses

 

and also if you trust their work

 

Those are very good points.

I'm going to check out the car even more tomorrow.

And another reason for wanting to possibly get the SI is the fact of it having more power. I love my civic now but wish it had more power and I can't turn up the boost much more on stock internals.

 

I test drove the Si today. The car is impressive and clean.
It makes some serious power. I am almost certain at this point i'm going to buy the si!

Here is a couple pictures:

http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._8220813_n.jpg

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._7182168_n.jpg

 

really depends on how much you love your car and how attached you are to it, also too got to checkout and see if that civic is up to par, if your leaning in that direction, get it inspected make sure there are no gremlins hiding under the hood.

 

Ok so here is an update on my situation.

The Si I was looking at is no longer even an option.

But here is where things get really messed up.

I took my car to a dealership to see how much they would be willing to give me. Mainly because I was curious. They ran a vin number check on the car. Turns out it shows my car has frame damage/unibody damage.

I bought the car from a dealership back in 2006, the dealership printed out a car fax for me when I bought it and NO where on the car fax did it say it had frame damage.

I still have a copy of the car fax they gave me.
What should I do?
Because my car is worth very little now, and I didn't even know about it.
GRRRR!!!!!

 

contact a lawyer and explain the situation, they had to of hid it from carfax or gave you an older sheet. either that or do business with the owner and say look, your at fault, you showed me a false report and i want reimbursed for this vehicle or im going to take the issue to court. be real professional about it so he knows your serious.

 

are you positive the vin# are all the same, and yes i would speak with the dealership you got the car from and show them. what is the date on which this damage occured?
also why not just sell the car locally and not do a trade in, you will get alot more, the trade in's are a rip off, they tell you they will give you 2-3k for the car and they jack the price up on the vehicle your buying so it all evens out,

 

soo..... nobody has considered the possibility of the car being wrecked and repaired without insurance getting involved? If insurance isn't involved, it won't go on the carfax. Same goes if the car is sold something like 6 months after the damage occurs if insurance companies are involved. The second one is simply my understanding of how things work, but I'm positive if insurance isn't involved it won't go on the carfax.

And also, double-check the VIN. The last string of numbers is the production number; if everything else before the production number matches up, it's entirely possible you got a carfax for the wrong car. I am a little amazed that the dealership you bought it from didn't know about the frame damage; I don't know how it works at other dealerships, but I know we do UCIs (Used Car Inspections) on all used cars, and any damage is documented and (usually) fixed at the place I'm working at.