He says he'll let it go for $3k. I'm going to check it out tomorrow. I might wind up leasing a new Civic instead. I'd rather own something though.

Thanks a lot for the responses everyone!

 

I work at honda, and there was an 89 accord that had 570k on it. Ran like a champ. Just maintain it right and itll run forever. There was a civic that had the odometer roll over back to 0 because it had gone a million miles

 

don't get a lease unless you only plan on having the car for a short amount of time. A car lease is like an apartment: you're paying for it as if you're buying it, but you don't get to keep it, which is a rip off.
3k is pretty good

 

LMAO Wow wow wow id be laughing so dam hard if my car got up to 570k!! Id be All Proud hehe thats so tight

 

Just checked it out. No apparent leaks or anything of that nature, says the top doesn't leak, power windows worked, the body was in good shape, interior was in great condition, just need to run a Carfax on it and have someone more knowledgeable come with me. The racing cat he listed was just a high-flow cat, not a straight pipe. Two things threw up red flags, however. The car vibrated a decent amount on takeoff. Sounded like heavy clutch chatter. The owner laughed a little and said it's probably the clutch I'm feeling. The other thing is the fuel guage. It was on empty, but the light wasn't on. I asked him if the guage is broken and he said the car is just really low on gas, because he barely ever bothers filling it up due to the fact that he works 5 minutes up the road. Also, he said he has a few extra body panels and two doors for the car. That struck me as odd.

He has a crapload of audio equipment in the back, including two 40lb subs in a sub box, a amp and the other stuff I listed earlier on. He said he wants $3,500 with all the audio equipment and $3,000 without. Is all of that audio equipment worth $500? I'd imagine it would be. Is it a good idea to have over 100lbs worth of audio equipment in that car or is it just extra stain on the motor and battery? I wanted to throw a dry cell battery into whatever car I get, but I don't know if the lighter batteries would be able to support all of the electronic components.

Also, what's the stock shifter like? Does it have that butter smooth feel that the Civics have? He has a short throw shifter in this and it's notchy as hell. I'd want to switch back unless there wouldn't be much of a difference. Where would I be able to get a stock one? All I can really find on Ebay is short throw shifters.

 

Have him fill up the gas prior to you purchasing the car and say you'll add the price of the fill-up to the purchase price, and tell him if the gauge doesn't go up you're gonna reconsider the purchase. This will prove whether he is telling the truth or not about the gauge, because if it works for real and he's telling the truth, he shouldn't have a problem doing that.

About the body panels, do you mean like the interior door trim? When I bought my Del Sol the owner threw in some extra interior door panels that were in really nice condition. The reason he did this is because the stock ones upholstery was coming off a little around the armrest, which is a very common on the Del Sols. This might be the reason for this. Also, does this guy have more than one Del Sol, or did he have more than one Del Sol before? The guy I bought mine from actually had 2 Del Sols (also had a third one prior to that) because he liked them so much. He was selling the one I bought in order to fund a project on the other Del Sol he had. He had many various parts stored away because he may have used those other parts before on the other Del Sols.

And yea, the stock shifter is pretty notchy too, that's just how it is. I bought energy suspension polyurethane shifter bushings (~$10 on ebay) and it made the shifting a lot smoother. Also, changing my manual transmission fluid seemed to help with that problem also.
I would just leave it as a short shifter, because the short shifter is actually smoother than the stock one.

Just curious, where are you located?

 

What model is the Del Sol?? That's pretty important on telling how much it's worth. A Del Sol 'S' isn't worth $3000, but a Del Sol 'Si' might be, and a Del Sol 'VTEC' (not to be confused with the SOHC VTEC engine found in the Si) is definitely worth more than that.

 

I'm in Levittown, NY. It's a Del Sol S. He had extra doors, not the interior panels. I think he only had one. He said that his buddy had one and got t boned which would explain one door, but not two.

Isn't the tranny the same as a Civic? I can shift my coworker's Civic effortlessly with my little finger. This thing was as notchy as my Trans Am when I had a Pro 5.0 short throw shifter. It's like stirring rocks with a spoon.

 

have you looked at kelley blue book? kbb.com
a fully loaded (all options: a/c, power steering, power locks, cruise control, cd player) 1995 Del Sol S in "good" condition is only worth $2695
bolt-on mods do not increase the value of the car... maybe rims, but that's about it.

For example, I bought my 93 Del Sol Si for $2200 with cruise control, a/c, power steering, and a cd player, and aftermarket rims. The car only had a few minor issues: it was leaking oil from the valve cover, distributor, and VTEC solenoid. It also leaked a little at the window seals but it cost me about $100 to replace them and took about 15 minutes.
These were 8 gaskets that i had to replace (valve cover gasket, spark plug tube seals, distributor cap gasket, distributor o-ring seal, and the VTEC solenoid gasket. These were about $60 total to replace and I did them myself of course.
So that leaves me at ~$2360 total for a fully loaded (power door locks were not available on Del Sols in 1993) 1993 Del Sol Si with 158,000 miles.

Of course, there are other things I have had to replace, but those were the only things needed to be replaced when I bought it. That and it needed to be vacuumed and the windows needed cleaning. But that was simple and obviously free.

The 1995 Del Sol S transmission is the same as only a 1992-1995 Civic DX or LX.

When I got my Del Sol the shifting was pretty notchy, but once i installed my short shifter, polyurethane shifter bushings, and changed the transmission fluid it now shifts "like butter"

 

Doesn't matter now. Car had a salvage title, they title washed it, then it got to the current owner. No way I'm paying $3500 for a salvage Del Sol S. I looked in a 200 mile radius on autotrader.com and there's really not much in the area. Couldn't find anything. No Toyotas, Hondas, nothing really worthwhile at all. Oh well, tomorrow is Sunday and that's when all the fresh ads are placed in the paper. Maybe I'll have some luck tomorrow. I'm pretty pissed, since this Del Sol had grown on me, but it's out of my hands now. If anyone sees or knows of anything in the NY, NJ, CT, PA area, please let me know. I'm getting kinda desperate for a car. All I want is a Honda with a 5 speed tranny. I really didn't think I was asking all that much. Apparently I am. Thanks again everyone.