97 civic hx question

[disbjon]

Red 1997 Honda Civic HX two door coupe for sale. 168,000 miles. Has new engine, needs work on transmission. Gets 38 miles to the gallon. $1,000 or best offer. Body and interior are in good condition.

Tranny. $550. Jdm hx cvt low miles I would have to drive 2 hours to get it..

My question is should I do this or wait till I can find a manual hx or vx?

Do you think this is a sweet deal? And how much of a difference in MPG from cvt to manual?

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by disbjon

Red 1997 Honda Civic HX two door coupe for sale. 168,000 miles. Has new engine, needs work on transmission. Gets 38 miles to the gallon. $1,000 or best offer. Body and interior are in good condition.

Tranny. $550. Jdm hx cvt low miles I would have to drive 2 hours to get it..

My question is should I do this or wait till I can find a manual hx or vx?

Do you think this is a sweet deal? And how much of a difference in MPG from cvt to manual?

Your hypermile possibilities are what are most limited by the transmission, and best facilitated by the manual trans. What kind of "work" does it need on the transmission? Is the current trans a manual? You might buy the car and carefully go over the transmission... maybe the "work" is far simpler than the seller imagines?

[brucepick]

I'll second what California98Civic wrote:
If you want to optimize your mpg, get a manual transmission.

Here's a link to the EPA's page for the '97 Civics.
EPA page for 1997 Civics

The HX w/ automatic is the first one at top of the list; you can recognize it by the continuously variable tranny.
29/31/35 mpg: city/combined/highway.

The HX w/ standard tranny is the first of the manuals listed.
31/34/39 mpg.

Both cars show they have the VTEC-E engine, if you follow the link for the individual car's page and scroll to the bottom where the engine is ID'd.