03 Honda Civic Hybrid 165k miles
 

I'm considering purchasing an 03 Honda Civic Hybrid w/ automatic transmission and 165k miles on it (for $4k). It has the original battery pack in it and the owner says there are no problems with the car, no lights on the dash, etc... I realize this is pretty high miles. Is this reaching the top end of the life of the battery? Is it likely i'll be replacing/refurbing it soon? Thanks for any advice.

If the battery hasn't been replaced it is likely not in the greatest condition. Sadly, it is passed the warranty period so if you did buy it you would have to DIY. That isn't the hardest thing though and we have write ups here.

Another thing to watch out for on the Civics is the CVT transmission. I've seen a few for sale with bad trannies. I'm not sure what it is that goes bad, but it doesn't seem horribly uncommon to have a problem with them.

The trans has no filter access and must be disassembled to replace it fluid changed at every other motor oil change help but plan for the 1300 rebuild.
it is what killed my honda. The car never noticably slipped till going up large hills in Alabama on trip. And it slipped then grabbed, jumped time, bent valves, damaged head and sits in my backyard waiting for me to quit being mad at it!
4 mos later...

I hope im not breaking any rule by posting this but do your homework here for starters, I wish I would have!
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civic was top of the list 2 months back its dropping now. 01 through 05 are virtually same.

you probably saved me some pain with that. I had a 2003 hybrid lined up with a bad IMA I figured I could fix. Looks like the trans is a time bomb on those.

Wow I think at 165k it's probably past it's sell by date

I know of CVT insights that made it to 300k, I wonder how much it costs to swap it to MT.

Oh really that's pretty cool