Quote:
Originally Posted by JDMFan87
When I test drove it everything seemed fine but once I bought it things started happening that previous owner didn't tell me about. There was a wine that would get louder as the rpms went up and the previous owner said the timing belt needed to be tightened. So I had the timing belt replaced and the noise is still there and come to find out its either the throw out bearing or input shaft bearing. He also forgot to tell me that the driver side window comes off the track and now the ac compressor is going out.
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The lesson here is pay less attention to the owner and more attention to the car when buying used.
Info from the previous owner is useful, but should always be viewed with skepticism. They are trying to sell you something, and it is not in their interest to point out every flaw with the car. Honest people will tell you more, but even so they will almost never tell you everything. CarFax and Autocheck are great tools for checking out the history of the car (you may want to run it even after buying if you believe it has been in an accident).
That said, these Civics are great little cars and super easy to work on. If you want to learn how to work on cars, you picked a good one to start with. The issues you mention don't sound like deal-breakers and I would personally keep it. But, I fix my own cars. If you are not confident in using a wrench, learn with the little issues and bring the big ones to the mechanic. If you plan to take it to the mechanic to fix every little issue that comes up, your mechanic will love you (for putting his kids through college).