A neighbor up the street from me is selling his 1996 Accord EX Coupe. Now, the reason this interests me is because I have an '03 F-150 FX4 with the 5.4 liter and oversized tires and I only get around 12 mpg using it as my daily driver. Needless to say I love the truck, but I need a car to drive back and forth to work (30 miles per day rt) that won't break the bank so much on gas and also on the purchase price... and my wife won't part with her '03 EX-V6 (and doesn't like to trade either).

For the specs:
It has the VTEC engine...
It's an automatic...
And it has 159K miles on it. (any other car I wouldn't even consider with that amount)...
It's in FAIR condition cosmetically...
Needs new paint, new driver's side door speaker cover (or panel), AC ***** are gone, windshield is cracked, and there is a small boo boo on the right rear bumper (probably from backing into something (but no major body work).

I drove the car tonight... it idles rough, but it runs/rides great, and has plenty of pep... it's just really dirty. It also does not appear to have any leaks... I haven't looked under it (almost dark tonight when I looked at it)... but it has been sitting in one spot in the street at the guys house for nearly a week and the pavement was dry where it was sitting when I returned with it tonight.

Finally, the question is... the KBB value of the car is about $3750 in "Fair" condition... he's only asking $2000 for it. I can do quite a bit of work myself... and I figured it might be a good semi-project/commuter car with a lot of miles left on it. My bro-in-law has a '95 of the same model and it has 245K miles on the original engine...

So lemme have it... what do you guys think?

Thanks,
Nathan Hi Nathan...I moved this post to the General Question Area Thanks for posting..

 

does the motor make any knocking sounds or does it just run rough? also have someone drive behind you and dump it and have them watch for any smoke. if it fails both these tests i would say go for it cause thats a good deal.

 

The motor doesn't make any knocking noises. When I say it runs rough... I think it may only need an idle speed adjustment... possibly a motor mount. There's a lot of vibration at idle from the engine. At speed, however, it's very smooth. I didn't have anybody following me, but I made a point to look for smoke on startup and didn't see any. I also got aggressive with the throttle at one point to test the power and looked in the mirror to see if it dumped any visible smoke... and didn't see any. I did notice that at lower speeds the transmission shifts very precise but hard sometimes, and small steering inputs around 40mph did not "auto-center" when releasing the steering wheel (tracked toward the direction of the input).

The car doesn't look the best at all... but for $2000 I guess I can't expect a whole lot... but my main concern is that I don't want to sink money into a money pit. The car does feel solid though when driving it...

 

my 97 has that same vibration as well. i cant seem to find any help here on what it is. i did a tune up with all honda OEM parts, timing belt, balance shaft belt, and waterpump change....still have the idle vibes.

 

Since he let the outside go to hell I'd be concerned about maintenance.....what was and was not done? Oil changes, trans fluid changes, timing belt, water pump, cooling system, brakes, air conditioning, fuel filter, and more would be primary on my mind. You don't want to spend $2000 (I'd offer $1500 myself) and then have to drop a wad of bucks on all the crap he didn't do. Oh, and word of mouth doesn't cut it, receipts or a maintenance log do.

 

the vibration is the motor mounts. and i know that has been discussed a few times in here.

 

Well, I went ahead and bought it. I knew he wouldn't take $1500, and the engine runs smooth. I offered him $1800 this morning and he took it. I went up there again yesterday afternoon and crawled under it. There is a small amount of seepage from the oil pan gasket, and I noticed a little behind the valve cover gasket as well. Those are both things I can probably replace myself if I get brave enough. I heard a little scuffing from the front wheel this morning when we took it out for a spin, so I know I'm going to have to replace the brake pads on the front. I've never done that before either, but I will more than likely start with this one. My plan for this car is for it to become a project car after my wife and I move. I figured for $1800 I hopefully couldn't go wrong. The only thing about the car that concerns me at this point, is every now and then when I start it, I will hear a small squeal for a split second and then it abruptly disappears. I have a feeling it may be the starter, but I'm not sure. Other than that, the car runs great (in fact, it rides as well as our '03 V6), it tracks straight... and it was cheap... hopefully it will save me some money on gas too.

 

the pads are easy. we can help you out with those you should be able to do them in about an hour. that squeal is a loose belt with two possibilities.

power steering belt..

or alternator/ a/c belt....

both of these belts have a simple adjustment on them that will stop that squeal

 

its a fixer upper....no big deal. im sure its well worth 1800 bux! good luck with it!

 

Yeah, that's kinda what I was shooting for... a fixer-upper... I just hope it's worth it. I will take all the help I can get on the brakes... thanks for offering it up. I like to learn to do things for myself because I subscribe to the phrase "If you want it done right... do it yourself" I know I will take the time to learn how to do it the right way and not the quickest way. I had a '96 Camry that I took in to have the front brakes done one time and they "split" a box of pads and only replaced them on one wheel because "it was the only one that needed it". I will also be glad to learn where the adjustment is for both of those belts... I want to do that pretty soon. Oh... and one other question... How would a guy go about getting the seat mechanism to lock on the passenger seat. He told me it wouldn't lock, but my wife told me I needed to fix it if I wanted her to ride in there with me because she doesn't want to go sliding to and fro (she's almost 7 months pregnant) every time I hit the brakes or the gas.

Thanks guys...