Buying advice.

[Ollie79]

Was wondering if anyone has any advice when it comes to buying a 6th/7th gen. Nasty stuff to look out for etc. Going to look at a few tomorrow and would be awesome to have an idea of what makes a lemon.

 

[XpL0d3r]

Here's my advice:

#1 - Rust. Run if you see it.
#2- Take it for a test drive. If you hear any weird noises, ask the seller. If they don't let you test drive it, walk away.
#3 - Ask seller if you can both bring it to a mechanic for a quick inspection. When I was selling my g35, the buyer requested this. I obliged and brought it to the dealership for a tech to simply start it up, take it for a test drive though all 6 gears, and return back. Sold the car that day.
#4 - Ask to see maintenance papers, ask when the timing belt, water pump, and clutch have been changed.

Good luck!

 

[Jared "Unce" L]

Also, in addition to what xploder said, watch out for small spots of different color paint, its probably painted over Bond-O, which means rust. Look underneath the car at the subframe and look at any possible bent places. That'll indicate an accident, since body panels are cheap to replace. If you feel any severe vibration in the shifter (if its manual), thats tranny problems. Run. Fast. Also, welcome to the forum

 

[lethal6]

This is to add what the others have said and this could be just a personal preference, but I wouldn't buy someone's project or a highly modified vehicle that isn't from someone I know or that is reputable. You don't know what you are getting into and why they are dumping the car. I would never buy a swapped car either for this same reason and the fact that there are so many shady jobs done again unless I knew the person.

 

[XpL0d3r]

^ Touché to both of you. Buying a modified car is never good.. chances are they modified it to go (or try to go) faster, meaning they probably romped on it a good bit.

Oh and get a Carfax. Some will swear they are useless, but there are somethings on there that a mechanic cannot tell you by looking at it.. ie odometer rollback, accident history, etc.

 

[Ollie79]

Thankyou guys and gals for all your help. It was very helpful. Although I didn't come across any of those issues today, It gave me the confidence to think clearly about what to listen for. I will be organising a buy tomorrow and your help is much appreciated.

Big love to all those who advised and the same to everyone else just because.

 

[MyLittleTeg]

Don't buy from a car lot. They are overpriced and they will screw you over. We haul scrap cars and I have personally bought some cars from them and been behind closed doors. I have seen them patch job a car so bad and sell it like nothing ever happened with a smile on their face

Buy it from an individual to save money. Check it out very well, there's a reason they are selling.
(Got a new car, lost interest, too many issues, car became a money pit)
....just think it over and don't fall in love with it and overlook major issues like rust

" I’d rather lose by a mile because I built my own car, than win by an inch because someone built it for me. "

 

[pantyraid]

Yeah that's true, finding out why they're selling it is a good idea, I got an 04 dx from a guy who was moving out of the country and it was in great shape (he wouldn't have sold it if he didn't absolutely have to and you could tell he loved it haha, I kind of felt bad for him but his loss was my gain), also he just seemed like an all around good guy, he even threw in a camp stove and some fishing poles that the mover forgot to grab (also he happily let us test drive it and kept detailed records of all the major -and minor- maintenance he did on it, and was the original owner so he got all his oil changes brakes and tire rotations done for free regularly at the dealership, definitely a plus). I think the best cars would probably be from a case like this, moving and can't bring the car, or a car owned by someone who passed away that's being sold by a relative who has a much better car and lots of money and has no use for it (although those always seem to sell the fastest so they'd be harder to get, idk how many times I found a craigslist ad for a car like that with low mileage good carfax and a great price that were already sold within 30 minutes of posting - of course due to this I never actually got to check any of them out so maybe they weren't quite as incredible as they appeared from the specs)

Depending on how much money the person selling it has I feel like a car that's being sold because they got a new one could be good or bad, if they're rich then I could see them just buying a new car cause they wanted one when there's nothing wrong with the one they're selling, but if they don't have money to throw around like that (this applies to most everyone I know anyway, although I'm sure there's plenty of exceptions) I couldn't see them getting rid of a car until it's become too much of a money pit to hang on to or too much of a pain in the ass to work on themselves

Another tip that was pointed out to me when I was car searching was to be wary if the engine and really everything under the hood looks way too clean and nice for the price and age of the vehicle, I guess it's more of a dealership practice from what I gathered but they'll clean everything up to make it look nice so that people assume it's in great condition and don't check into it much further (of course it could also mean that they just keep everything in really good shape but it's worth a deeper inspection anyway)

At this point this thread is kinda old so I'm guessing you've probably already found a car but I figured I'd chime in since it's the internet and I can pretend like I know stuff (also I'm always getting information from here and never giving any and this is probably the only topic that I actually have firsthand experience with haha)

Hope you found (/find) a good one! <3

 

[Mr.Baker]

This is to add what the others have said and this could be just a personal preference, but I wouldn't buy someone's project or a highly modified vehicle that isn't from someone I know or that is reputable. You don't know what you are getting into and why they are dumping the car. I would never buy a swapped car either for this same reason and the fact that there are so many shady jobs done again unless I knew the person.

This is at least half the problem when looking for Civics', especially the older the car is.