Honda Civic for new car?
 

So I have been thinking a lot since my accident last month, and I just can't find any Toyota Corolla's/Echo's in my area that are under 5k, at least not without having over 100k miles... I seem to be finding a lot of 98-2003 civics that are under 100k miles, clean title, and 4k or under. Would this be good for a new car? I'm being careful to look for any signs of the car being 'riced' and just want some extra input. I looked at fuelly and some other mpg sites and see that those years are only rated for 33mpg highway, what are some real numbers I would be looking at? My Camry was rated for 27 and I got 33 out of it consecutively. Also I'm buying automatic, not manual.

Here is one I found, I'll update with more as I find them. I don't like the aftermarket air intake on it, and will probably mod that to make it a warm air intake, but only 71.8k miles for 4k isn't bad: 1998 Honda Civic LX (green)

Here is another: 2004 honda civic 104k auto

Here is the criteria I'm looking under if anyone wants to help me look because tbh, I have no idea what I'm looking for. Nothing over 110k miles please: inland empire all for sale / wanted classifieds "honda civic automatic" - craigslist

Well, I've got a bit of a love-hate relationship going on with my 7th gen ('01-'05) Civic.

7th gens are prone to tranny failures. Autos are worse, but even manual trannies often get input shaft bearing failures. They also commonly get headgasket failures. I've now had both to deal with (as well as some other small issues like motor mount failures).

The 6th gens ('96-'00) seem to be more robust and I would probably lean towards one of those if I were to buy a Civic again.

Oh I see, well I found a '99 civic with only 59k miles for 5k that I was going to go look at, just waiting for the guy to send me some pictures. Thanks for the tip I'll avoid anything 01 and older.

I have a soft spot for the 96-00 Civics.

Check for a crack in the exhaust manifold, right around the top-front oxygen sensor. It's right on top in front so it's easy to see. Not to bad to fix either - I think I paid ~150 for my new one and a few hours of work (rusty bolts were the worst part).

An automatic will get better highway mileage for normal drivers, but a manual allows much more in local driving.

Wow, that is quite low! If it's in good shape, snap it up!

Timing belts are always a concern. While most people only worry about the miles (it's due every 90k miles) age is also a concern, according to the manual, every six years, IIRC. Documented proof is important. If it's never been done, I would replace it immediately as it's 15 years old now...

What model? HX, CX, DX/LX? HX should be best for mileage, EX and Si worst.

I drive 71 miles freeway, 8 miles highway and 1 mile city to work and back, other then that I'm not going to drive the car so yea idk. And thanks for the tip, that will be the first thing I look for.

Can't speak for the automatic as mine was a manual, but everything else in my '97 Civic DX was fine with over 225k miles. Engine burned a little oil, likely the valve guides from what I've read. Solid economy car. Check for rust, as that will have better chances of killing it than miles/time.

The 2001 to 2005's are pretty decent. But, like Darcane said, they can have head gasket issues, manual and auto trans issues. My input bearing makes a little noise. I might replace it whenever I change the clutch out. So maybe in 10,000-200,000 miles...
Headgaskets are hit and miss.

I am getting low 40's with a manual transmission. I am not doing very well at hypermiling either (not using my kill switch or P&G)!

I just replaced the oil pan on my 00 HX and rusty nuts were indeed the worst part. I needed to detach the front exhaust pipe from the exhaust manifold, but the nuts\bolts were rusted. PB Blaster did not seem to help, neither did a heat gun or propane torch. By then, the corners were rounded. I ended up removing the manifold, wrestling everything out, and hammering a 13mm socket onto the 14mm nut, which seemed to crack the manifold.

So, uh, yeah, do not use a hammer on your car if you can avoid it.

To check the manifold, detach the cable to the oxygen sensor, pull the two 12mm bolts, and slide the heat shield down the cable. If it is cracked, I recommend an offset oxygen sensor wrench, I tried a normal one and it seemed to want to damage wires on a very expensive component. If you do need to remove the oxygen sensor, be sure to hit it with PB Blaster! :)

There is a local place with a used exhaust manifold for $150, although someone recommended a welder, who would hopefully charge much less. Car-part.com is great for finding parts, but I would also check Craigslist, and I just discovered frugalmechanic.com, which compares different sites and shows available discounts. It showed this aftermarket part:

Amazon.com: ATP 101122 Exhaust Manifold: Automotive

The comments indicate that the metal is thinner than stock, but that should be fine, the original one is very thick. If you want a new one from Honda, this might be the best price:

CONVERTER, MANIFOLD - $496.11

$500 plus shipping.

I think that I have already given too much advice that may or may not be useful! :)

Well, I know what I will be doing in 5,000 miles. Of course, many people will give me hassles for changing my own belt, but I paid Pep Boys $1,000 to do that on my Forester, and then needed to have them fix it.

If it is an HX or EX, it has an aluminum oil pan, which are prone to stripping. Again, everybody says to have a "professional" change my oil, but when that is a kid with an impact wrench, pans get stripped.

I would recommend going wherever changed the oil last, if they do vehicle inspections, have them check out the car, and then, if everything is in order, have them change the oil. Had I done that with my HX, I might not have needed to change the pan. Finally, everybody recommends Fumoto Valve | Qwik Valve™

Here is the car I am talking about. I should have enough money by the end of next week to get it if he still has it. Also guys you are talking way out of my league, could someone show me an engine and circle where I need to check for the crack?

Redlands, Honda CIVIC 99 Low Mileage, Excellent Condition

Also trust me, I know exactly what you guys mean about the timing belt, timing belt broke on my dads truck, moms car and my old camry that I used to drive all in the same month, both the truck and car burned valves, luckily when it broke on the camry, it was idling.

On yet ANOTHER note, what model is that civic? I don't see any branding on the back whatsoever, and he doesn't have it listed.

- no tachometer.
- hand crank windows.
- black side mirrors.
these say DX to me

- body color door handles.
- body color panel around rear license plate.
- body color door trim accent line
- it has a center console armrest
but these say LX

Edit: Ah-ha! I hadn't considered the VP trim. It's basically between DX and LX in features, and introduced in 1998. My year, 1996, didn't have that option. I think this is a VP. Mechanically it's the same as the DX and LX.

The lack of a RPM gauge is the only beef I have with this car, but for 5k,no way can I pass that up, I'll just put a SG2 or ultragauge, haven't decided yet, and monitor rpm's with that.

Oh also, this will get decent mpg right? Think I could achieve 40mpg with careful driving?

I agree with Pale: Civic VP. Not that it matters much. For mpgs, DX/LX/VP will be the same; same engine, same tranny.

Functionally, the SG2 and Ultragauge are pretty similar but the Ultragauge is cheaper... I'm happy with my Ultragauge.

And I'd guess 40mpg will be an upper limit for a set-it-and-forget-it approach with that automatic. High 30's will be more likely.

Awesome, I don't really know what the difference is between the Ultragauge and SGII so I'll probably just get the ultragauge because it's bigger, and cheaper, and then buy the SGII later on and see which one I like.

So I talked to the guy, he is going to hold it for me until I can get the money on Thursday yay!!

There are just 2 questions I have for you guys here on the forums, I know this is the VP model so it doesn't have cruise control, would it be possible for me to install Cruise at a later time? I'm not sure if this is possible but it's a big thing for me.

Second, Ultragauge WILL work with this right? This is another big thing, it will make or break the sale.

Third: Does anyone know anyone on these forums with this car? I would like to know the best mods for this car to decrease Aero and find out what kinda mpg I will be looking at.

If you want a tach, you can swap out the cluster. I think I paid about $70 for the CR-V cluster I put in my Civic (CR-V cluster is orange instead of blue, which I liked). Swap was easy as can be. I prefer analog tachs to digital like the SGII or Ultragauge. The digital ones have a little lag.

You can add cruise. My Civic didn't have it either, but my dad installed an aftermarket cruise when he owned it before me. I think it was $300-400.

Ultragauge will work with it. I personally wouldn't buy a SGII for it. SGII is only worth it for hybrids and other vehicles that make use of the X-gauges.

As darcane and Pale have said, it'll get the same MPG as the DX and LX. Just remember that most of the Civics on here are manual. With your mainly highway driving, 35MPG should be doable stock.

Awesome! I didn't know it would be that easy to add a tach, I will most certainly be doing the swap, maybe I'll do some LED mods if possible to make the cluster green as the car itself is green and would look awesome. The cruise isn't that important so for 400 I think I'll wait a couple months before adding it. As for the ultragauge, I mainly want it for the instant MPG stuff. Also, tbh, I just think it looks 'cool'.

As for basic mods, what are some of the easy ones for this model? I'm kind of curious what can be done to increase MPG right off the bat.

I would be very skeptical on these low mileage cars. $5k is a lot of money for a 6th gen Civic. Low mileage doesn't always mean it's in good condition. I would rather buy a car with 150,000 miles that has been driven on the highway than one with 60,000 that has made nothing but short trips over it's lifespan. Make sure you check out the service history. The seller claims it has been maintained well, so they should have records to prove it. And make sure they have owned it for several years. Whenever I see someone that says "need to sell ASAP" it makes me nervous.

He is the original owner, he is some arabian guy that has all service records and everything that has ever been replaced. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it at this point anyway as the insurance company isn't giving me enough, and my parents won't help me out.

Guys I'm legit confused... My Camry is only rated for 26mpg highway, and I get 33 with it highway consecutively, should I be able to get 7-9mpg more then what the EPA rating are for with this civic? That would put me at 39-42mpg... I know every car behaves differently but still... Also, it's 0.8L smaller engine, I have a hard time believing that it's only going to get me 3-4 more mpg driving the same way I do now.

I have another question :(... Sorry for all the questions, would it be possible to replace the stock LED's in the cluster with green ones somehow? I would love to have the whole green look going on as I think it would look awesome! (screetches like a little girl).

Comparing the Camrys and Civics on Fuelly in those years, the Camry averages about 25MPG and the Civic is 31-32MPG. This isn't taking different trannies and trim levels into account, but I think it would be safe to say that mid-high 30's would be doable in a auto Civic.

For the LEDs, I don't think using green ones would make much difference for the blue parts. You might be able get a different colored overlay. I would check out Civic forums for more info.

What civic forum xD (I think I found it but I'm not sure)? And yea, I guess I will have to see about the MPG, I'm kinda thinking about not getting it because I can get a corolla with double the mileage for only 3.5k, and I figure that the gas I will save in the 50k less miles I will get out of the transmission will pay for itself if I can get 5-8 more mpg out of a 00-01 corolla... Idk MPG is my main concern. I got to drive my boyfriends moms civic (2013) down to the gas station (15 mile round trip) and I averaged 49mpg (did a little coasting in neutral and had a headwind going there/tailwind coming back) and I noticed his mom only gets 38.1 average so. Idk. The MPG concerns me because I drive 80 miles round trip a day, and would rather spend more money now to spend less gas in the long run, making up for the difference... I'm confused right now tbh. I just want to be able to average 38-41mpg and I'll be happy but if I can't even get that out of this Civic, I won't even bother getting it.

Why not a Civic with twice as many miles?
The way I see it, the two biggest obstacles are that you want a car with low miles and an automatic. Low miles isn't necessarily better, especially in a car that's 10+ years old. Low miles generally means it wasn't used often, either for short trips or only occasionally for long trips. That can be brutal for some of the fluids. A manual tranny will generally get you better MPGs, especially if you're hypermiling (though your mostly highway driving may negate that advantage). They also tend to be low maintenance, and cheap when they do need fixed. I think you said something about having a bad back in another thread, making it painful to push the clutch, but have you tried it?

With your commute, it looks like you would drive around 20k miles a year. At 40MPG, that's 500 gallons. A quick search shows that gas prices are over $4 a gallon in your area, so that's at least $2000 a year for gas at current prices. At the 33MPG your Camry got, that would be over $2400 a year. So keep that in mind when looking at the money spent now vs later.
The best way to reduce your costs would be shortening your commute, either by moving closer or getting a job that's closer. Dunno how viable either of those are, but remember that commuting by car is pretty expensive and a cut in pay/increase in living costs may balance out a shorter commute.

First off, yea your right about the low miles, but the guy that owned it changed the oil once every 8 months (if he wasn't driving it) and the tranny fluid once a year. (He has records to prove it). Second yes, I tried to drive a manual, I finally convinced my little brothers boss to let me drive it, and at first I was fine, but after about 20 minutes my back started hurting extremely bad and I had to pull over and have my brothers boss drive it home.As for a job that's closer, or moving, neither is an option at this point in my life my boyfriend lives up the hill near me and even then, I don't make enough at my job to move closer, the housing is double what I'm paying now, just for rent, let alone utilities and food. And getting a job closer, isn't easy either. I had a job that was more then 1/2 as many miles that was going well, but I had to lift 20-80lbs crates of soda and that just isn't possible with the way my back is now. I'm going for an MRI on Wednesday so I hope the damage isn't permanent but I have a feeling it is.

For the record VSkid, thank you for your help, I'm sorry if it seems im shooting everything you say down but I'm really not.

What's the issue with a G1 Insight?

The one I just bought (5 speed, 83k miles, 2000) was 5k, and a friend just bought one (2005 with 133k, 5 speed) 5.5k. These are on the pricier end- although a CVT will be lower than a standard MPG wise, not much else comes close.

I don't want a hybrid due to the battery. I know they go out eventually and I don't have time to mess with them, that's the only thing keeping me from buying one.

You could flip the on off switch and make it gas only. It's pretty simple, I would have taken some pictures when I did an Insight IMA swap last night. Pull up the rug, take out two 10mm bolts, red cap, flip the switch.

On the highway it would probably be more efficient without the battery, to be honest. They're heavy.

EDIT: There is a LITTLE more to it, please check post below.

What kind of mpg does it get without the battery? And do you think it could power up a 6% grade for 2 miles? Because I have to do that on a daily basis... You have now sparked my interest knowing that you can just rip the battery out when it goes out until I can find a new one... Also, I looked about 20 mins ago and couldn't find any of them for under 6k. All the ones I found are 7.5-9k...

Also, I want to make a point, I would be perfectly happy to see 40MPG (with whatever car I do get) so anything over that is just pawsome.

[Edit]: I did find this one, but the question is, why would he rebuilt the CVT at only 130k miles? Do they go out that fast? http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-s...71008788&Log=0

Hybrid Automotive - Honda Insight (2000-2006) Battery Bypass Instructions

It takes a few minutes. 15 at most. We did two IMA battery swaps last night, and it took maybe an hour and a half- in the dark with one light.

The Integrated Motor Assist works different from the Toyota/Ford system that uses battery power to move it. The Honda system is integrated into the motor to assist.

So in a Prius of Fusion, one can use the all electric system to drive.
In a G1 Insight, one uses the 3 cylinder engine: unless they want more power, and then they get Assist from an Integrated Motor :thumbup:

No power is weak on hills, but it should not have an affect on highway AT ALL, but city it will affect. No stop start, no boost (IMA helping on take off), less get up and go torque. Even the people who do the engine swaps for the Insights (for racing/autocross) seem to see 40+.

Oh wow... So is 6k for one with 130k miles worth it? I might be able to talk the guy down to 5k but even if I can't, is 6k worth it?

My friend bought her GORGEOUS 2005 w/130k for 5.5k. It looked fantastic, new brakes and rear shocks, premium sound in it. Everything together and a good battery. I'll be honest, I was a little jelly. I found 4 that are .5k under your goal for initial price, and 5 at or below the price of that Civic. Keep in mind, autotrader prices are inflated by at least 10%. Sometimes they are almost 2 times higher.

Look for Insights at dealers. They usually have no clue what is there, and the resources to get underneath, read codes, so on. It depends on worth it.

A red sun beat 2000 with mix matched panels, not stock and worn tires, not even rims, missing underbody panels, bad battery, and throwing codes- not really.

A 2006 in Midnight with brand new RE92s, everything there and attached, no issues- a lot more.

I am not saying don't get a Civic! The Insight is just so overbuilt, and a great car if one has a matching lifestyle (it's only a two seater, can get stares because of the look, regardless of what some may say-it is not a sports car).

I just want to make sure you keep this included with your search. The utility is surprising in it. I have hauled lumber and lots of building materials in it. It hasn't beaten my Mustang in utility, but I now use an Insight as my workhorse and commuter.

Yea but I don't think I will ever have a need for more then another seat, and if I do, someone can go in the trunk. I called the guy and he said that the tranny only has 40k miles on it, he has ALL the service records for it, every oil change, transmission service, EVERYTHING. He put in an aftermarket stereo, did something with spraying the headlights with a special material so they will never "yellow" out again, and the list goes on and on. I also got him to come down to $5,200... I honestly think I want to pull the trigger on this... It's extremely nice...

So for 300$ more, I can get car that will get almost double the mpg, nicer looks (I love the way the insight looks tbh) well taken care of, and already has cruise control, rpm gauge and an aftermarket stereo eliminating about 1-1.2k work I was gonna have to do on the civic...

It sounds nice.

I move slower. I do a LOT of research and work to figure out what I want, and how I want it. I don't go to look at something unless I want it, and I have a set price. I bring x dollars that I am willing to spend. I examine, and make my mental price. My offer is a balance of what work I need to do, and the value. I can wiggle depending on the situation, but I don't go to look if I am not willing to walk away. I'll drive 3 states or take a plane just to turn around and walk away- which is why I do it so rarely! lol

I don't have that luxury though, I have to go back to work next Tuesday (13th), and I'm 200$ in debt with my parents as it is. I just need a car that the community I trust (this one) when it comes to reliable, good mpg cars says is good...

I think that Civics and especially Echos exceed at cheap and cheerful, with their utility level.

Where the Insight fails at interior space, seating, excessive power, it makes up for in design and technology.

But other than the XL1, nothing compares to the G1 Insight. All things being equal, solo/two people, and just driving, the Insight is top dog.

See that's the thing. The way my life is right now, that's all I need, is something that fits 1 person that is 5'7 and weights 135lbs (me) and maybe another person about the same height/weight. If I want more utility like carrying 3-4 people, 'power' or interior space I have my 91 Mustang (5.0). It's not up and running right yet but within the next 3-6 months it will be. And again, I don't need it, or even want it at this point.

Oh also, I got my camry up and running again, it runs extremely well, it just took 6 hours of some bending, hammering and pulling to get the trunk to close and back right tail light to be working again. So again, i have another 'utlility' car so to speak.

I hope others chime in- I don't want to be the sole person saying go G1!

I chimed in so it wouldn't be forgotten, but as you more so describe your personal situation, it seems like it is the way to go. Hope all goes well, and you do have IC.N for a resource. I use it for learning and guides, but prefer the community here.