So my fiancee is considering purchasing a 2006 Honda Accord EX-L (4 cyl) with 28,000 miles on it.
Everything seems great about the car (it looked appearance-wise better kept than many of the 07s and 08s we looked at). However, when we test drove it, the brakes creaked (briefly) several times (including when pulling into the lot at the end of the 10 min test drive).
In general, I don’t know what the implications of that are. The salesman told us that it was normal, that there was probably some rust build up from not being driven so long…
It is almost exactly 3 years old (from original purchase date), so the Honda Certified Pre-Owned warranty would be 7 yrs/100,000 miles non-powertrain and 1 yr/12,000 miles from purchase date.
So my questions are:
1) Should we buy the car? Is there nothing to worry about because of the Honda-backed warranty?
2) Is the salesman totally BS’ing us? Seems unlikely that an 06 Accord would be so unpopular as to have creaky brakes due not not being driven for a long time.
3) What are the possible reasons for these brakes being creaky?
4) If we don’t feel entirely comfortable, would a cpo dealer ever pay for us to get the car inspected by a mechanic? If not, should we do it ourselves?
Thanks a ton in advance! We are hoping to go by the dealership tonight! Wish us luck -
K & M