I was presented an opportunity to purchase a 2002 Honda Accord EX (very good condition - 1 owner with 130,000 miles on 'er) from a workplace acquaintance for $1,500 (verbal offer). That would mean I’d have to sell my 2007 Chevrolet Aveo LS (good condition - I’m the 2nd owner; total of 140,000 miles racked up) that I feel strongly I could sell for $2,000. I’m seriously considering doing the deal…any thoughts on this transaction? Would y’all do this deal? Feedback would be greatly appreciated!!
Id get the accord.
Why can’t I find these kind of deals? In my area that accord would be a 6-7k car… the aveo would be a 3-5k car
@WheresRick–We can’t find deals like this because we live in Indiana. I just got back from visiting my son and his family in Tennessee. As soon as I crossed the bridge on I-65 the gasoline prices went up 20 cents a gallon.
Take it. If the 2002 has a timing belt, make sure you know when it is due and take care of it. Might want to have a mechanic go over it and give you a list of what it might need (tires/brake).
Keep your Chevy!
And give me the phone number for that Honda!
Seriously, if everything is as you state, it’s a heck of a good offer IMHO.
Each of my kids bought Accords with 100k and easily got well over 200 k out of them. It’s amazing the Aveo is still alive. Go in style…get the Accord. The only problem…rust on the Accord. Carefully check the body condition. You know your history, You don’t know the Accord so have a mechanic check it out if you aren’t sure yourself.
Accords are wonderful cars; Aveos are not. Buy the Accord ASAP before the current owner comes to his senses. But get a pre-purchase inspection by a mechanic to find out if anything is out of whack. It might be priced low for a reason. The timing belt should have been changed around 105,000 miles or after 7 years, whichever came first. If this is the original timing belt, get it changed immediately. It should cost $700 to $1000 for the timing belt, water pump, new coolant, serpentine belt, and pulleys.
Thanks everybody!
@WheresRick and @Triedaq - believe it or not, this offer is from a fellow Michigander!! He is a colleague of mine. We RARELY get these kind of deals in Michigan - he was originally going to sell it to me for $800, but after I showed him the private sale value on KBB.com (aprox. $4,600) and told him he was a damned fool he said "OK, give me $1,500 for the thing!! He simply wants to be rid of it as his family already has two late model cars and a late model truck; inherited the Accord from his 80+ year old mother-in-law and drove it for 4 years prior to his purchase of a new Ford Fusion. I’m going to jump on this deal.
Just curious, with your Aveo experience, what do you think about it? I rented one and found the driving experience disquieting, it seems liked the transmission was fighting with the engine. But maybe I could have gotten used to it after all. What is your experience with the Aveo? And what about its reliability, did you ever have to get it repaired?
Are you sure the engine wasn’t just fighting to keep going? The Aveo was one of the more underpowered cars of recent years. The Spark seems to have inherited its lack of guts, but with quirkier styling. Some quirky works, but not the Spark.
At the San Francisco auto show in Nov. they had Sparks in the oddest colors, sort of like the retro colors they use on the Fiat 500, where at least they make sense. One Spark was sky blue, flat, not metallic, like a color you’d paint a baby boy’s room. And another was light yellow, not quite butter yellow, faker, more margarine yellow. Along with the trendy metallic lime green all small cars seem to offer. I wasn’t fond of the Spark styling before the show, and it looked even worse in those hues.
I was happy to aee automakers offering more than just white, black, and four shades of gray/silver (along with red, for those of us with more cheerful outlooks). I saw some very nice burgundies and dark blues and greens that had been missing for years. Also the various mochas and bronzes and other shades of brown that reappeared a year or two back. At least they’re practical.
@MarkM, I think the colors you mention are grape ice, lemonade, and lime respectively. There are less gaudy colors too, like white, black, denim (medium blue) and salsa (bright red). I’m not fond of the Spark body design. When my daughter and I went shopping for her first car, we both thought the Spark as just plain ugly. The Sonic hatch was a bit better and the Cruze best. The Sonic LT and Spark LT2 were about the same price as the Cruze LS and all were comparably equipped. It seemed like a clear call in favor of the a Cruze.
@bddayton
This is just me talking and I’m sure it doesn’t apply to your situation but, I am very skeptical about anyone dumping a car for a low price. Regardless of what the offer is, I would have it checked over, body and mechanics, just before I handed over the check. A “trusted” fellow co worker burned me once on my very first car purchase many years ago…I never forgot it.
@GeorgeSanJose, my overall experience with the Aveo has been positive. While I agree that it is a bit under-powered, and the tires are not quite as wide as an Oreo Double-Stuff cookie, it has been a reliable vehicle for me. I purchased it in 2010 from a woman who drove round trip to Cleveland, OH from Kalamazoo Michigan every weekend. When I bought it from her, it had aprox. 107,000 miles racked up. Repairs have been limited to wear items: one wheel bearing, four new tires, a battery, front brakes (rotors and all), and a serpentine belt. I drive a limited number of miles/year - to work and back and around town - about 10,000/year. All in all, I would recommend the car. I’ve owned worse…ask me about the 2001 BMW 323i I bought…to me, BMW stands for ‘Big Money Waste’.
@dagosa - will do, it is only right and proper to have it checked out by a professional. I’m sure the seller will completely agree with my decision and will not be offended. Thanks for your input!
Thanks for the interesting comments @bddayton . Maybe it is possible to just get used to the way the engine and transmission interact. My complaint isn’t so much the Aveo’s engine is vastly underpowered. It isn’t a super high HP engine no doubt about that, but I was able to accelerate to freeway speed in the allotted length of the on ramps ok. And maneuver in and around urban driving off-freeway traffic. The problem I noted was the way the transmission is constantly shifting, presumably in reaction to the modestly powered engine. I think if the Aveo I rented had a manual transmission I would have probably liked it better, and it sound like yours at least had good reliability. So that’s a good thing. Just curious, does your Aveo have an automatic or manual, or does the Aveo even have a manual transmission as an option?
@GeorgeSanJose - My vehicle has an automatic transmission. I have noticed the shifting issue as well, particularly around the 40 mph mark. Not certain about the manual transmission option on Aveos, but I would imagine that would have been a purchase option.