Hi Everybody who has helped me out.
I just got off the phone with a guy who has a 1998 Honda Civic Manual 130,000 miles.
Owned it since 2000. Autocheck (yes, I know we should take it with a pinch of salt)
gives it a score of 88 when similiar vehicles are in the range of 22-63 points.
Asking 2200$ for the car. He told me that the 100,000 mile tuneup needs to be done. He claims that no repairs have been required on the car since he bought it. Tyres are 2 years old, paint is in trouble, interior has seen 2 kids grow up in it.
The good is that the mechanical condition seems to be okay ( I’m taking it to a mechanic tomorrow). The interior can be cleaned etc, the paint , who cares?
Any suggestions, advice, comments and blessings people???
Thank you so much, I am EXTREMELY grateful for all the advice people have posted here. I have learnt a lot from the website.
And some of the knowledge that I have gained can be seen in some other threads, summarised best by my ad in Craigslist:
http://community.cartalk.com/posts/list/2130898.page#2648837
Cheers!!
Unless the Civic owner can prove with documentation that the timing belt has already been replaced, then you should deduct about $500 from his asking price immediately. Unless it can be demonstrated that the timing belt has already been replaced, you have to assume that it has not been done.
That means that you would need to drive the car to your mechanic immediately for this procedure. Otherwise you risk engine damage that would probably exceed $1,000–over and above the cost of replacing the timing belt, water pump, serpentine belt, and belt tensioners.
The main thing is if 100k tuneup needed it needs a timing belt replacement ASAP if not performed as the motor will get ruined if it snaps. It is a +/-$500 job for Honda.
The tuneup itself otherwise is not critical to the cars operation. The only tuneup my wife did on an 96 Civic was by her dad at 100k along with timing belt. We sold with 200k doing nothing between except unrelated repairs running well. We sold our 200k 96 Civic to a grad student revealing the info for $2200. She did not care as timing belt had another 5k left on it and she only had 6 months left in the US.
One of those joys of owning an older Honda product.