blacktankdriver

Last week while in the middle of a road trip my Honda Civic died. Luckily we had already stopped and were in the parking lot of a gas station. After we had it towed to a shop in the area, they figured out the the timing belt had broken. They ran a compression test and came back with 0 compression in the cylinders. Putting a new motor in would have taken too much time there, let alone not be worth doing since the car only has a "fair" KBB value of 3k. Being about 400 miles from home, I was out options and had to leave it there and continue the trip with a rental car.

I can only have it junked or sold for parts at this point. I bought it new and it had about 135k miles when it died. Can anyone tell me what the value of the car would be for parts? I actually have someone who may be interested in buying it. I know I probably won't get too much.

alpine87

Sorry about your car, that really sucks that it let go at only 135,000km. That's right around the time the belt should have been changed for the second time. A couple years ago my family sold our 2001 LX Coupe with just over 300,000kms for $2,500, there was a lot of maintenance done to that car to prevent anything fatal. My current DD is rocking 230,000km and still ticking. Might I ask if you were aware of the timing belt service?

You can probably recoup something like $200 to $800 for the car as scrap or in parts individually. I mean there is really no set value and it depends on the condition of the body parts like interior plastic, outer body panels. If you go the scrap route just emphasize that a lot of people are going to want parts from this car and it's worth it's weight to the buyer.

If you really wanted, you could probably research the cost of a new engine and installation. It would certainly cost less than a new car and last you a good number of years. But it depends how much time you're willing to spend on the car. Good luck!

lazlong

^^ He's pretty spot on. It's worth $3K in excellent condition.

Shop around your area for labor costs only on R&R (remove and replace). They will charge $1000-2000. $500-600 to have the car transported back. $500-1000 for a salvage engine (depending on mileage). You can usually find rebuilt engines for less than $1000.

Nationwide salvage listings: Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market

prodjay10

Where is the car? What condition is it in aside from it not running? Did it have any other major issues? Wrecks?

blacktankdriver

Thanks for the info, all.

Right now the car is in the parking lot of the shop I had it towed to in VA. There were no major issues before this. Cosmetically there are a few dings and dents in the body, I was rear ended once at a low speed which caused the rear bumper to be slightly bent but it didn't effect much else. Engine ran fine before the timing belt snapped.

I am thinking about having it shipped back to where I live in TN before I decide to do anything else. I need to figure out if it is really worth it to get a new motor for it or if I should try to get a new car. From those price estimates in alpine87's post, it looks like this whole thing would cost about $3600 at the maximum depending on what I can find. Either way I can't do much with it just sitting up there in that parking lot 8 hours away.

In the meantime a friend donated me a 1995 Caprice Classic to get around town with. It's quite the heap but it runs.