So what exactly do you mean about the sorry trips? Well I have serious problems with this car? I think being as old as she is (92) it probably took her 10 minutes to drive the two miles. I would think the engine would warm up in that amount of time? And I'm sure some off the rides were 5 to 10 miles. I just don't want to have to throw money at this thing just to get it running good.
A google search on why short trips are bad for cars will give you all you need. The short and sweet is that it never gets a chance to get rid of the water that builds due to combustion. With the constant short trips, you keep building more water in the engine and it never gets a chance to correctly expel it. Water leads to rust and also breaks down oil. Oil that is broken down doesn't do it's job at keeping stuff lubed like they should be. This all causes extra wear and tear on an engine.
You can't prove that she took long enough on her trips to let the car actually warm up to it's proper temp and stay there long enough to do what it needs. Her being 92, I bet she never even "blew" the crud out of the cat or the exhaust either. Also bad. I have seen plenty of cars that run like complete s*** because little old ladies feel the need to buy them and putt around in them never driving them like they should be driven. Most vehicles need to be "gotten" on every once in a while to blow the cobwebs out so to speak.
Most people don't like to hear this but if you are going to be taking so many short trips, you need to be changing your oil more frequently. I seriously doubt she was keeping the oil changes to the low frequency they should have been. Unless you have records, you can't even prove that she was changing the oil at all.
I change the oil in my cars around 2500 miles because I put so low of miles on them per month.
The low miles can be a really good thing, but on a car that is already 16 years old or more, it can just as easily be bad too. It all depends on how the car was taken care of (or lack there of) and how it was stored.
I can't tell you if you are going to have problems or even if you are going to need a bunch of money to get it running proper. YOUR inspection should determine that. If you can't figure that stuff out on an inspection, I highly recommend taking it to a shop that does Pre-buyer inspections. They will be able to tell you what, if anything the car will or won't need. The way I look at it is, Hondas are cheap and the parts are very cheap. Buy it, drive it, enjoy the gas mileage, then sell it for a profit.
