Long time lurker, first time poster, so let me start off with some background info. (A little long so feel free to skip to second paragraph)

I bought a civic from a place in toronto at the start of the year. Sorry to say it was pretty riced out, being my first car though I loved it.
I'm not sure if the previous owner really knew what he was doing as there was bondo and crap everywhere. So I spent the last couple of months fixing some mistakes such as switching out the crap coilover sleeves he had on it for some tokico whites and h&r springs. The car drove like a dream afterwards, even with the stock D.
I had major plans for the new year to de-rice it and swap it but then on a rainy day I was driving out in the county and tragedy struck. The car ran off the road and got beat up pretty bad.
The insurance company considered it a total loss and gave me a big fat cheque for it (almost what I paid for it).

Now I'm in need of a new car and was looking at buying another civic. I kind of got swindled on the last car so this time I want to get it right and spend my money alittle more wisely.
So I come to TCC to give me some advice. Ive been looking and I think I'm going to buy a car with a swap in it already considering I can't really afford to take the car off the road for that long, as I'm working a couple jobs and school, if I wanted to swap it afterwards. But I also don't want something with as much work done to it as my last car.

What should I look at when going to check out these cars, especially if it has a swap done to it by the owner and not a shop. Also does anyone have tips on haggling the price down, I kind of suck at that.



Here's a pic of my last car before the accident



Here's one after (I was going the opposite way the car is facing in the pic, and yup thats a gas meter)



Those big orange cement posts were there because that particular meter has been taken out 5 times prior to my accident.

 

damn, hope u were alright after that man.

 

holy crap man, i hope you didnt hurt yourself badly

as looking at civics.. visit the site www.automotive.com to see current values of cars you looking at, and compare it to the asking price.. from that point start looking or asking why the price is the one being asked... as in rust, mods, whether or not accident free.. maintenance that where done, what parts of the care were changed, like belts and pumps, stuff like that

good luck with your search

 

Sorry to hear about your accident. Would've turned out to be a decent lookin EK.

As for the new car, run up the VIN through a Carfax report (sometimes you'd be surprised at what you find).

For purchasing a car with an already swapped motor, not much of a guarantee here but take it to your mechanic to run compression tests and stuff. Make sure it's running right.
Maybe ask for receipts, find out where the motor was purchased.

Good luck!

 

Run Carfax on a new car?

What are some of the things you found? Just curious.

 

Well by "new" car, I meant for his next car. lol

Some of the things I found when I was looking around (prior to finding my Civic), were cars that showed up as being in accidents on the Carfax report.

Mind you, the only downside on the whole Carfax report thing is, these accidents that show up on the Carfax are only reported accidents.

 

ya nothing happened to me, was pretty shaken up but nothing wrong.
I get kind of nervous driving in crappy weather now though.

By new car, I meant next.

I was thinking about get some carfax reports but it seems kind of pricey if I'm not looking at too many cars.

 

Do yourself a favour and buy a new Si... deals on those can't be beat right now.

 

I bet!

 

cars just dont run off the road...what the hell were you doing?

 

Nothing,

It was just really wet out and I guess I was going alittle too fast.

There was a random curve in the road there and when I came out of it I just lost traction and overcompensated.
The guy that lived at that house told me he sees it happen all the time but most people just go into his lawn and drive away. His gas meter has been hit five times already and the gas company just keeps replacing it.
A couple mins after I stepped out of my car, a neon came around the same corner and started swerving as well but didn't go off the road.