Thank you shipo. Can you tell me a little more about your car? Anything else I should know about them?

 

Unscheduled repairs of note:

• Two wheel hubs (one front, one rear)
• Both front brake calipers
• One front ABS sensor
• Driver's side seat belt receiver
• One sparkplug coil
• One pipe in the exhaust system

Everything else has been routine scheduled maintenance; things like timing belt, water pump, fluids and filters, brake pads and rotors, tires and alignment, and transmission fluid service (i.e. NOT a transmission flush, those are bad).

 

Thank you. How much do the scheduled repairs cost on these cars? It is highly likely that I will need the timing belt done, and the water pump as well as I believe those need to be replaced at the same time(?).

 

I'm about the have the timing belt and water pump done on my 2001; quoted prices range from about $600 at a local shop to about $1,000 at the dealership.

 

Long response for you as a new buyer.

Yes, any 4 cyl A/T compact sedan that's been maintained. Best if it's a one or two owner car described as a "daily driver," because that means the current owner saw it as a long lived vehicle, used it and would have maintained it. Budget spending $500-700 right off the bat, frequently for brake work or tires.

Where do you live? Really where? I see decent sounding cheaper private cars in local ads weekly. $1500 - $3500. Just watch your local paper - or Craigslist, if you're careful. EDIT: now see you're in Victoria, Canada. I've no experience with Canadian car prices. Despite the ad, you will not get anywhere near 31 mpg from the V-6 driving in the city.

Since this is your first car buying experience, the most important thing is:
1) to learn to walk away from the for-sale car. Just because you've been driven an hour and a half by a friend to get a car, with money in your pocket, doesn't mean you should buy the car. You can walk, and you should for most cars.
2) the 2nd most important decider in used car private purchase is whether the seller is honest. If he seems to be misrepresenting anything I immediately walk.


Timing B and H2O pump is ~$900 before taxes here for a 4 cyl., possibly a bit more for a 6.

I'd look at a first car as a driver and repair only those things that affect driving / safety for the first 2 years. Don't buy a car if you expect, or are warned about, upcoming big repair bills. Why buy someone else's problem?, there are a lot of other vehicles out there. Like 11 million car sales a year.

End.

 

If you can find an Acura 2.5 they are such a sweet ride. They have an inline 5 cylinder. Plenty of get up an go, Bose sound system, and handle great. Every time I get to work on one I wish it was mine.

 

The problem with 4-Cylinder Accords with automatic transmissions is they're pretty gutless when it comes to acceleration.

Canada uses the Imperial gallon which is larger than an American gallon; a Gen 6 Accord with the 3.0 liter V6 will easily get 31 mpg when calculated with the Imperial gallon.

 

Put an external filter on one of the transmission cooling lines, and you will have eliminated lots of the potential problems with these tranny.

The problems with this transmission is the genius engineers at Honda make it where you have to pull the transmission, and take them apart to change the damned filter.

So most people don't ever change the filter, or have it changes as its a big job to do yourself, or an expensive job if you hire it changed.

Just buy a universal fuel filter with a 3/8 inlet/outlet, and cut one of the trans cooler hoses, and clamp the filter in, and your good to go, just keep the filter changed.

Another tip is to find an open parking lot, and drive the car in a tight circle, one circle clockwise the other counter clock. Keep the windows down, and listen for any knocking coming from the front end.

Any knocking sounds might mean something like a bad ball joint, or bad CV joint, or bad tie rod end. Not the end of the world as they are not too hard to fix, but an issue to haggle over to get the price down.

 

Too funny, people don't change the filter because the filter doesn't need to be changed for the life of the vehicle. If at some point the filter clogs, it's because the rest of the transmission is failing, not the other way around.

 

mkt1 - 'tis your first car, you're probably young and kinda cash-strapped, so I again suggest take your time and walk away
from car after car. I've never bought a used cheap car from a dealer, only from private sellers, so good luck there.

... am suggesting buying an economy car you can afford fuel to drive and do minimal work on to maintain drive-ability.
And then drive it into the ground. Good general suggestions that I and my sons have lived by. So ... luck to you.

EDIT: Dodge Neon, Honda Civic, Nissan Altima/Stanza (or smaller model - name?), any of them are pretty good candidates.
Older or newer Accords. Don't know Mazdas. The Geo Metros / Suzuki Swifts have a local following, seems like.