$6000 sounds about right for a 5+ year old Civic with 60k miles on it. It's probably a little beat up, but that's standard for used cars really. You can get used car calues at autos.msn.com or kbb.com which is basically front-ended to kbb.com anyway. You can also just go to autotrader.com and do a search for used Civics and see what all the asking prices are. When in doubt, ask whoever the most knowledgeable car enthusiast friend of yours is that can look at cars in person with you to help. Sometimes just having someone physically there to help you look over a car is the biggest assistance.

Anyway, as for fuel economy, I would think 35mpg from the standard Civic shouldn't be hard at all. If you can find an HX 5-speed model you can do even better (I've averaged 42mpg so far this year in mine) but HX's are very rare. If you do happen to find one, they're great cars and will do 35mpg even with bad techniques and 40+ with good technique.

 

Prior to the recent gas price spikes about a year ago, I sold my 94 Civic in good condition with 90K miles for $3500 the same day I advertised.

In general, trading one car for another is a bad move financially. You may have to, because you cannot afford your payments, but net you will very likely lose money. The current hybrid mania might change this a bit, but Civic hybrids have never been in short supply AFAIK, and the '06 has come out, so I doubt your car will command a premium in the $15K - $20K market. Used ICE only Civics, OTOH, are in premium demand and are going for higher prices than a year ago.

Are you sure you want a car at all ? A bicycle, and occasional car rentals may be a smart move.

 

Keep the hybrid.
Think long term.
You are going to live much longer than either car.
The hyrbrid will last longer.
You will save on gas in the long run.

Every time you buy and sell, you lose money especially if it is not private party, you will be giving a third party a cut of the money you claim to be short on.

There is a good reason everyone wants hybrids; You HAVE one.
I vote to keep the hybrid, economozie elsewhere if possible.
Work on your hypermiling.

 

You know, I was driving around in my wife's very safe VW Jetta today and I remembered one of the reasons I got my hybrid in the first place. It's a safe car with the ABS and four airbags. An older Civic will not give me those features, to my knowledge. I had a 91 accord that had no airbags, I think in 92 they put them in driver side and if I'm not mistaken ABS came around in after 2000 for Hondas. So, with that said, I don't think I could get a car with the same safety features and not have a payment, at least for a little while, so I'm backing off of my original thought. I'm going to try to find a lower interest rate, hike up my payments, and be done with car payments for a very long time in three years. Let's hope the transmission doesn't go out at 90k like those fleet cars. Thanks for all the help and advice!

 

BBB, I'd also take into account the possibility that your current HCH will last longer once your $11,000 is paid off (free driving) than whatever used Civic you may find now for a one & done buy.

 

What about the used civic breaking down? That won't be that big of a problem since it IS a honda but I heard those brakes need to be changed pretty frequently. I almost never use the breaks in my HCH. Anyways, just make sure to factor in the more frequent maintenance and headaches of having an older car. Also, you never know how the previous owner drove it so its a bit of a gamble.