Hi all, I'm hopefully about to buy my first Honda Accord!!

Not much of a car mechanic so stumbled across this site looking for info....

 

Avoid 98-02 Accords like the plague, they have terrible automatic transmissions.

Look for clean title, maintenance records, recent timing belt and water pump, good tires, all the usual things. If there is no record of the timing belt and water pump then budget an extra $600 to have that done professionally and get it done (assuming the mileage on the car is high enough that it is due) because you really don't want those parts failing, they will likely ruin the engine.

Have a mechanic look at the car (usually costs you about 1hr worth of labor) and give it the OK before you buy. If you can't do that, at least get a CARFAX. It is well worth it for a little peace of mind. If you decide to buy and can't get it checked out beforehand, have a mechanic examine it afterwards and let you know if there's anything that could give you trouble.

For the Civic I just bought I've budgeted an extra $1,500 for the things I like to do after I buy (timing belt, water pump, oil change, all new tires, new spark plugs and wires, distributor cap and rotor, alignment if I need it, K&N drop-in filter and some other small cosmetic things I prefer to do). That much might not be reasonable for everyone, it's taken me a long time to save that up

Basic price list (estimating prices, changes slightly for model/year/V6 vs 4cyl)
Oil change: $20
Distributor cap+rotor: $30
Spark plugs and wires: $50
K&N Filter (this is purely personal preference for me, a new basic filter is about $15): $60
New tires: $500
Timing belt/water pump: $600

My Civic has no record of the timing belt, so I'm not going to risk it. If you have records of it, that's a huge expense you can avoid!

Sorry for this wall of text... I got a bit carried away, I've been in the buying market for about a week myself and just finally settled on a car this Sunday after my Accord threw a rod

If you have any questions feel free to PM me, I'm trying to get on the forums more regularly

 

Good post Peli..by the way..did you get my e-mail yesterday.?

 

I did! Very good price. I'll start putting some money away for it

 

Sounds good to me..let me know when and how..

 

Good advice Peli