imported_130hp

ok here's my situation:

i currently share a car with my brother but he is going away to med-school and taking the car with him. i want to get an EG sedan for myself mostly because it's within my budget and it has a lot of potential. the problem is, my parents don't want me to get a car thats about a decade old. they're paranoid that it will breakdown all the time and be unsafe. their worst nightmare is having a car that has to be fixed every week (from a bad experience in the past). i keep on telling them that hondas are very reliable but they keep saying stuff like 'you don't know how the previous driver treated the car' etc... i have to convince them because insurance would be put under their name and i would be the secondary driver.

they want me to get something 99+ but i can't afford that. i need to find a way to convince them about the reliablility of the EG sedan. how can i do that? they always assume that if the car is like 10 years old that it will be in bad condition.


i'm looking to spend $3000-5000 on the car. i can get a nice reliable, rust free 5th gen sedan for that right? what should i look for when shopping to make sure it will last?



thanks.

Nova_Dust

I wonder what car that is 99+ can be had in your price range... a KIA?

Honda, the name sells itself. What brand of car does your family own? Any Honda in the family? If so, then they should know how good it is. But if they are European or Domestic lovers, then I guess it is hard to convince.

Are you handy to some extend? Can you fix a few things here and there by yourself? If so, then then you can do just about everything on the car except the engine part. That will save you a lot of money when it comes to repair. Hondas are very straight forward.

As for shopping the car, look for rust (you know, bring a magnet to check for filling spots), look under the car, look inside the enginebay, bring a tech. guy to do some basic engine test (compression and whatnot) and do a brief test drive (try all 5 gears, on a highway for instance).

Good luck my friend

punkindrublic

my parents said the same thing to me when i was buying my car.... like 3 years ago... they wanted me to blow like 8000 on a 99 saturn.... not even the sc2... so i just keep pressuring them until i found a nice civic for sale... then the rest is history... i'm getting very close to 300 000 kms and it still runs better then most civics with under 200 000 kms

bbarbulo

iTrader: (2)

rust free??? is there such a thing in Canada?

I've had really really good luck with the following:

Honda
Toyota
Saturn....

that is all

If I were you, I'd try to go get me one of those repo'd cars from bank seizures, and try to score like a 98-99 Ford ZX2 - that's hot or like a non J-body GM. I've always wanted a later model (pre-ghay looking though) Monte Carlo or Lumina in all black and put it on spinners in 20". Ridin spinners!!

imported_130hp

i want to stick with a honda. down the road i hope to do some mods to it and eventually do a swap, but my priority right now is good solid means of transportation with 4 doors (for family and insurance reasons).

is it really hard to find a 1992-1995 civic without rust? is rust really expensive to fix? i've been looking at autotrader.ca and there's a few '95 sedans that look pretty mint with only 70-80k on them. but they cost like $7-8k

another thing i've found is that most of the sedans listed for sale on autotrader are automatic. i want to find something in stick (might as well learn while im young)

StewPiddass

The good thing about sedans is that it's probably easier to find a stock one since they are less popular... I know if I was selling mine I wouldn't expect more than 5 g's and it's a '93 with 170k that's only seen 4 winters out of 12...

imported_130hp

StewPiddass, sweet ride!! it's a beauty.
is that factory paint?
i want my sedan to look like that

StewPiddass

Thanx man, I actually just had it painted in May... it is the factory colour though. It looked good but the paint was starting to bubble just a tiny bit over the rear wheel wells and I wanted to colour match the mouldings and handles and shave the emblems and antenna. Most people never even noticed I got it painted.

The good thing about an EG is that they're fairly affordable and Hondas always run like a top... even if not you can get a whole new motor and tranny for like $500. Plus the TCC is a phenomenal resource for used parts and even services.

BTW are you 130hp on TOProtege too? I use the same username there...

PS: get a 5spd, automatic Civics are soooo horrible!

The G2 Racer

Hondas last a long time. I only had to do regular mantanence on mine.

bbarbulo

iTrader: (2)

I've never HAD to to anything on my Civic... it's still cost me $30K+ :| but that includes purchase cost.

shlammed

first of all, if you're spending your own money then tell your parents to STFU. second of all, if they really want you to get something that new then tell them to help you pay for it. simple as that.

imported_loudsubz

my cars been uber reliable, no problems what so ever *knock on wood*

and i treat it like crap sometimes neglecting maintenance etc but Im gonna get on top of it in the new year

imported_EG4door

Sounds like a New Years Resolution.

punkindrublic

thats right pat it does

imported_130hp

hey, yeah im from TOprotege and i post there with the same name.



do you guys think it would be wise to get the car from a used car dealer or should i look for private sale? with the dealers i can get warrenties and make sure everything is certified but it will cost more. do you think it's worth paying a bit more to get the car from a dealer?

imported_Gatsby

I know this dealer guy who used to buy used, high milage, rusted cars for really cheap from the private sellers.

He would sand off the rust, put a $100 paint job on it, drop a few 10,000 Kms off the odo and then wax it really shinny !!! You would fall in love with the car in the first sight!!

There was a warrenty of 1 year that he was offering, that however, was on the engine and tranny ONLY.

Then he would sell it for a GOOD profit to people.
Used car dealerships aren't the best place to buy used cars. You have to pay extra tax and its not any better than private sales.

If you ask me, I say go with private sales. Take someone who knows Civics with you and check it out. Who knows maybe you could work out a good price too....

Good luck.

kwikb16a2

go private sale, its hard but not impossible to find an honest person who will not lie to you about the car