Hey all together, I'm interested in buying the 2004 CIvic with CVt...

car should have 25-40 k miles..

do you think it is a good buy and which price should i pay in the texas (houston-dallas) area??

which things i should put special attention on and ??

Quality issues or no-gos??

Best wishes and thanks a alot

FLORIAN

Well, get a carfax report on the vehicle. There have been a surprising large number of flood and accident damaged hybrids making their way to other states and provinces.

Also, if possible, get a hold of the service history on the vehicle. A good and detailed service history raises the goodness factor on the car. Of particular interest is the CVT transmission.
Third have it inspected by a trained Honda technician so that they can perform an evaluation on the HDS system. Most mechanics will miss issues that could hurt your ownership experience. After all the car should still have a good factory warranty and checking in with Honda is a good start.


Cheers;

MSantos

I'd second msantos's suggestions. All good precautions to take.

I have an 03 CVT with 60K miles. To date, I have had zero repairs. Just gas, tires and regular maintenance. My family owns 5 Hondas, one is at about 275K miles. They're solid cars - in terms of a used car buy I'd say some of the best. So the question is whether it was cared for or abused by the prior owner. The earlier suggestions would help determine that.

I can't comment much on price, but researching car prices in your area would give you a general idea. I would also recommend spending some time on this and other hybrid forums to get a better idea of what you are getting into. For example, if you have to use the A/C on a lot and race around at 70 miles per hour you're not going to get 45 MPG. But then again, any car would take a hit. The big difference is in the hybrid you'll be aware of it. :-)

There are others on the forum with 90K miles on their Civic and they do just fine. Good luck!

*** Retired after 65,000 outstanding miles ***

We bought an 04 HCH with about 21K miles last December. It was from a Honda dealer, and it was a former lease car. From my point of view, it was in great shape, basically new. And, they threw in free oil changes, as long as I get it serviced with them. So far it's been great. And the best part is that, judging from the mileage data on GreenHybrid, I'm getting mileage as good as a Prius.

Cheers,
rumpole

My Troop Support

Next Car to Go

I have an 04 HCH CVT with 50k miles on it. I bought it 18 months ago with 14 on it and i have only done regular preventative maintenance. The only problem I've had, which isn't fixed yet, is the passenger window doesn't roll down all the way because of some sort of obstruction inside the door panel. I have just not gotten around to fixing that. Otherwise it's a great car. The CVT is really cool. I am a Manual-only kind of guy, but the CVT doesn't have the annoyances that bothered me about traditional automatics, so I love the CVT. I find myself getting annoyed by the smaller things, design decisions that I would have done differently, but that's personal preference mostly.

Buy it, drive it, love it, and feel good about it. That's my advice.
:-)

i bought a used 97 vw cabriolet I also got a carfax report, no accidents reported. 6 months later when I went for inspection my mechanic tells me the frame is bent and the motor mount bolts HEX HEADSwere just welded on the top. The carfax agreement states you must discover damage withing 30 days or something like that . I paid for carfax but was not protected, true story

A/C I have to use a lot between march and november....
driving will be most around city (1 million inhabitants....) and a little freeway, 70 miles per hour is not possible very often and not my aim...

im also interested in the prius, the point of stress is more my wife, who has sometimes problems in imagination (size of cars..)..which returns of dents and so on...

therefore im also interested in CIVIC IMA, parts of body are easier to get....

CIVIC 2 IMA is available here in mex. but to expensive for my imagination... also can't sit inside cuz of the hand-brake..

BEST WISHES

What do you mean by 15K miles? 15000 Kilometers or 15000 miles? There is a big differance.

A Carfax report IS better than nothing, and I'd always recommend one.
However, if an accident is not REPORTED (by Police Report, insurance or the repair shop), it's unlikely CarFax knows about it either. Flooded out cars have shady repair shops fix them up without reporting them as flooders. Car rental agencies often have their own preferred repair shops and do not report some accidents this way (ask me how I know).

Your BEST defense is a very good mechanic that will take the time to really pore over your "candidate-for-purchase". I avoided a probable nightmare MB purchase by using a trusty mechanic. They look for things like repaint, a new front clip, mismatched VIN#s, replaced body and trim panels, shock tower damage & repairs, frame issues, etc. They may not catch all the "tricks", but a good mechanic, with an hour or two of your money, can tell you a lot about the vehicle. For instance, a new radiator in a pretty new vehicle is a sign of possible front-end repair-work - so then you look that area over even more closely.

Steve

STOP terrorism - Drive a HYBRID

Vehicles:
350 miles a week ------------ 2006 HCH II, Magnetic Pearl, w/NAVI (born on May 25, 2006)
350 miles a month ---------- 2003 Mazda Tribute ES-V6
350 miles a year (for now) - 1986 Mercedes 560SL

This is a no-brainer. NEVER buy a former rental car. Think about it, nobody is nice to those cars. There's a reason they say "Nothing corners like a rental."