I'm wondering if I should take the offer or not on this car, being a Civic with 150k miles. It's been restored, re-upholstered, painted, rims replaced, and had new speakers + amps installed.

the girl selling the car is asking for $5500, but I think I'll try to aim between 46-48.

I don't know much about car buying/selling, honestly...but I figured a Civic forum would be able to help me out.

The car needs to last for 4-5 years without heavy maintenance, but I won't probably won't be putting more than 4-6k miles on it a year.

 

Seems like a lot. I'd pay no more than 3,500 for that.

Truth is, when you invest heavily in putting on new rims and speakers, you only get a fraction back when you sell it.

 

True. I really want this car, and I'm sure I can haggle the price down a bit. I just don't want to have many large maintenance fees.

Eh. I'll probably end up taking it to someone I know and seeing what they say. if no go, I'll keep looking...if they say it's good, I'll probably get it.

 

$5,500 being worth it depends on what 'restored' means. I'd say probably not if you can spend some time looking around. Also, how WELL was it repainted? a good paint job is worth its weight but a bad paint job only makes things worse. The amp and subs only add a bit... loud sound is pretty cheap these days.

Honestly I'd look around for something untouched instead of retouched.

 

"restored" pretty much meant that the body took a pretty hard hit in the back and they fixed it up again. the paint looked VERY well done, here's a pic:


and yeah, sound goes for pretty cheap now. but my budgets just at or around $5k, so I've gotta factor that in and what I'll have left to spend on anything else if I use most of that up.

 

The car does look good Buuuuut......Repaint on a car most of the time doesn't last as long as the original paint...once it starts to peel, it spreads like a virus then you got a fly car with bad paint. Look around the car closely for ANY peeling of paint or WAX...it's a sign of worst things to come.
You said you're only gonna drive it 4k-6k miles a year...Is it a show car to you? Or just a daily car to get back & forth?

 

well mainly a daily driver for stuff after school(since my apartment won't be far I'll just walk to school), and maybe 1 or 2 trips. After College, I might turn it into more of a show car or mod it if Toyota releases an FT-86 by then :P

 

I bought a nearly mint 03 civic ex w/ 74k miles for $6500. Not much more then your spending for that gaudy looking thing. I wouldn't even park that thing on my block.

 

Yeah, I think you could definitely talk her down a lot on price. A person that modifies his or her car like that most likely drives the hell out of it. You may be getting yourself into trouble if you pick it up.