What is this Civic worth
 

I am interested in buying a Civic real shortly. Been looking at this car for sale here in my town. it is a 1997 Civic ex with 172,000 on the odometer. The body seems to be in good condition. the interior also seems to be descent for the miles on it. I am looking for a daily driver for driving to college, about 80 miles a day1 way. It has the 4cyl motor and a manual trans. Just wondering if you guys think 2500 is to much for this car and if i should be worried about the high miles on it??

RE: What is this Civic worth
 

I'm no car expert either but I soldmy '95 Toyota Corolla (equal in quality toa Honda that old I think) with 175K in miles for $1500. If i were you i would check on http://www.kbb.com/and punch in the specs of the car to see what the blue book value is. If the person selling it is asking more than what the blue book is saying, you are getting ripped off.

RE: What is this Civic worth
 

Well thanks for the advice. I already went to KBB.com and the blue book was about 3100 in fair to poor condition. So i guess my main question is do these cars start having problems at 200,000 miles. not saying once it hits that many miles stuff starts breaking, but in a general case around that many miles? I have no idea about how hondas run, so I am just trying to do some info before a potential purchase

RE: What is this Civic worth
 

Well around $200K miles i think it's safe to say that you're going to start having problems if you haven't already. My car at 175K miles had this annoying stuttering thing going on for like3 years straight, almost like the enginewasn'tgetting enough airflow when i hit certain speeds.i tried EVERYTHING to fix it and put $800+ into it and found no solution. It never got worse and i drove it across the US with it like that with no problems of it breaking down. Sold the car with it doing that too. I guess it all depends on the issue and how major it is.

Check with the person selling to find out if they have life records of maintenence history. If they have no proof of oil changes or part replacements, ect...then i wouldn't risk it unless $2500 is pennies to you and you can afford to get a new car shortly after if something happens. I don't know about you but I usually don't sell a car unless i start having problems with it.ESPECIALLY a car that oldthat's been proven to be dependable because it's lastedso long without problems, why get rid of it? why fix it if it's not broken, ya know? If they are getting rid of it now then it's probably starting to give them problems (if they are used to driving a car that old then you know it makes no difference to them to sell it to get a brand new car, right?)So chances are there's probably something going wrong or about to be wrong.

I don't know, i thought MY '95 had alot of miles on it, but for a '97 to have just as much, i personally wouldn't risk it...

Go to www.craigslist.com usually you can find locals selling decent cars for not very expensive and at least you get to test drive it and research before buying.

Also, are you buying privately or through a dealer?

RE: What is this Civic worth
 

going to be buying it locally. well not sure if i'm going to buy it or not, but just looking at it. He said that he had his father in law change the timing belt and put new tires and brakes on it. I think a kid used to own it before this family because it has an aftermarket muffler on it. I need something not to expensive to drive to school for a semester which is 80 miles one way. I'm guessing i prob shouldn't risk my money on something with so many miles

RE: What is this Civic worth
 

Yeah if you are driving that far every day, i really wouldn't put all that money at risk. You might as well use it for a down payment and take out a loan for like $10Kand buyan'02 oraround that year,the at least youdont have so much history to track down to find out if it's a good car or not.

RE: What is this Civic worth
 

Yeah, your right. I might wait around and see if I can't find one around 3-5 grand with less miles on it. I'm not scared of a car with 100,000 miles, when it gets close to 2 and i don't know the history i get sweemish

RE: What is this Civic worth
 

Yeah 100K miles is nothin. Or you could skip the car and get a street bike for the same price, get there faster,and save gas $$!!!

RE: What is this Civic worth
 

Had one of those already lol. great gas mileage and it was old. I bougth it for like 1400 bucks. to dangerous though. I had it for like 2 years and then sold it. After starting a family just recently and finishing up school my last semester.

RE: What is this Civic worth
 

I know all about the unsafeness, that's why i won't let my boyfriend get one hehehe