hey all,

great forum, iv been prowling for a few months, and finally joined.
i have been looking for my first car, a civic of course! for a while now.

I saw an ad today for a '95 dx, in "good condition for its age" he said its kbb is $3200.
it has 121k miles. manual trans, good tires, its still being driven to work daily.

Im sorry for the noob questions, but what should I look for inpeticular?
are there certian things you always have to check for in a civic?
at 121k miles, will the clutch be worn out? he didnt say if it was replaced or anything.

if it looks good, and drives good, I think ill just fork over the money, and take it to the honda dealer to give it a check over, should they run a diognastic?

think its worth it?
I'm nervious to buy a car that is 15 years old, i dont want a lot of expensive repairs.

thanks guys!

~andy

 

hmm, I hope I posted in the right catagory..

 

look for rust, (especially in the rear quarter panels), weird engine noises, oil leaks, bad radiator, wiring under the hood, worn shocks/struts (bounce the car by pushing down on it, if it oscillates instead of just going back to where it started at, the shocks/struts are probably bad) and/or worn springs.


Oh, and welcome to the forum!

 

I'll sell you a modded '94 ex coupe (automatic) for $3k

But trust is dead-on with what you should look for. The quarter-panel rust is a big issue with older civics.

 

thanks trust, sounds like you know what your talkign about.

can the quarterpanel rust be a real problem, or is it just a superfical/visual thing?

and reaper, where in pa are you?
if your closeby, it might be worth taking a look at it. im near pittsburgh.

thanks again guys
andy

 

I just bought a stock 95 DX hatch with 150,000 miles. All I need to do replace both bumpers and shoot a new paint job. The paint actually is not that bad but the bumpers are cracked. Lucky in SoCal rust is not an issue. There a couple things I need to do something about, the interior smells bad and the off brand AC doesn't work.

In buying an used Civic, I would check and seeif ithas been overheated. Check the CV boots, a lot people who don't take care of their car have ripped boots. Asked them why they are selling it.

 

Well the rust could spread and cause the body and/or chassis to become really weak. I've just heard a lot of talk about rear quarter panel rust.

I don't really have any experience with it and it's problems though because I live in FL and it doesn't snow here so there aren't a lot of rusty civics, or cars in general for that matter, around.

I have a tiny spot of rust (probably the size of the end of my pinky) up on my roof where it meets the top of the side of the car but it's not eating through at all and just has like the rust color. It hasn't spread or shown any problems so I just pretend it's not there.

 

I actually didn't check for that and after a month of having my car I was working underneath it and noticed it had a torn CV joint boot. That was a crappy rest of the day.

 

$3200 for a car with that many miles? he probably put it as perfect condition (which no car is)

 

actually i just looked it up on kbb, and you're right, he did. excellent condition says 3195 and good says 2815.




but if the tires are worn and/or there is minor rust, it falls under fair condition which is 2380.