Hello everyone,
I am in the market for a new car and I am chatting with different people from different forums to get a good feel for my next vehicle. I buy a new car a 5-6 years and do a lot of research because I dont want to make a bad decision (and then be stuck with it for 5+ years!) My Grandmother bought a Civic 20 years ago and still owns it to this day!!
Any info you have about Civics would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!

 

If you are looking for reliability for fairly cheap price, then by all means get a civic. The maintenance is almost dirt cheap, and there shouldn't be any major problems until at least 200k, so it will be good for over 5yrs.

 

What are the Civics main competitors at about the same price range?

 

corollas, cavalier, neons, protege, the usual.

-B

 

no protege anymore, it got replaced with the Mazda 6 and the Mazda 3. Scion TC, Jetta, golf, most of the smaller 4 cylinder cars.

 

First off, although VW has some sporty cars, Honda is much more reliable. My uncle owns a towing company/service station and VW's are in there and the dealers a lot! (German cars lol)

My 94 Civic has 209 thousand miles on it and it runs strong. I've only had a glitch every now and then with the fuel mix but it corrected itself and it's fine (only did it twice in below freezing weather) other than that time it fires up MUCH faster than my mom's 50 thousand mile car lol so yeah, I would definately get one. To look on the bright side, Honda has one of the highest resale values out of any car out there, so when it comes time to sell your car 5 years down the road, people will be lined up to pay top dollar for it! It doesn't get better than that! Based on an unbiased opinion, I think that honda is the best FF drive car out there period.

 

There is no doubt that japanese cars are more reliable. I read recently that even the higher line Mercedes and BMW's are having computer problems... ???

 

yeah, i never said they were GOOD alternatives, just that they were the competition.

but what do you want from your new car?

 

you might also consider a BMW. They are not as expensive as you migh imagine for '96 and below, and there are almost no reliability issues. The one that I have right now currently has 225k miles and 0 problems, except for the wear and tear on interior and exterior. Those straight six engines are known to last over 400k miles -there are more than a few people that I know that have 400k on their bimmers. Maintenancewise - for my model, everything is readily available at advance autoparts, and even ebay has tons of items that are very inexpensive. I mean for around 14 grand, you could probably find a used M3 from '95 or so. I'm sure that it won't lose a lot of value in 5 years. Another thing I should mention, is not to buy american - if you wish to keep it for 5 yrs at least. VWs btw are not bad either, contrary to many people's opinions. They do cost more to maintain than honda (primarily sensor issues), but it will definately last for 5yrs.

 

I guess I am looking for an all around good looking car, fun to drive and reliable. Cost is important, but I would rather pay a few thousand more for what I want!

I also heard that VW's are very reliable. Just that they usually start out higher priced....