sarcastik

I am an avid motorcyclist and I ride a 2006 Kawasaki 636, I haven't owned a car for a while, but I recently got tired of getting caught out in the rain, not being able to carry a whole lot, and other stuff that goes along with only having a bike. I decided to get a car and at first I was going to get a mustang, but that I got to thinking about insurance/maintence and switched to a civic, but then I wanted something a little bigger so I went for an accord. I'm getting a used 03-05 and I really wasn't worried about it having too many miles because I don't plan to drive it a lot. If the suns out and I'm healthy I'm still going to take the Ninja.

So attached is a picture of the car I test drove on sunday 2/15. It's a 2003 4 cylinder, cloth interior, 115k and besides being bottom of the barrell in terms of features it seems to be in good cosmetic shape. My parents actually own a 2005 Honda accord v6 hybrid and one thing I noticed about this car is the engine sounded kinda loud, like it was working really hard. I know nothing about cars and I've never driven honda accord 4 cylinder manual so I could be wrong, but this is just something I noticed. I talked the guy down to 7900 bucks cash on the price which seems like a decent price to me, but I figured someone here could let me know if thats really worth it or not. I still plan to take it to a mechanic and have it look at further.

The owner did not have many service records because he was the 2nd owner and only had it for a few months. If the car has 115k miles is it safe to assume that the timing belt and water pump were definitely replaced (as in would the car have given out by now?) or should I have the mechanic make certain that this was done? Anything else I should be looking out for in terms of cues this could be a lemon? Just want to make sure I check all the bases before I take this one home. Thanks for your help.

P.S. once I buy this thing best believe I'll be back to get it hooked up. The rims are freakin hideous I plan to swap them with either black, bronze, or gold, stereo, 5% tint all around, suspension, etc....

98BabiGs-T

If your heart is set on getting an Accord then the first stop would be having a trusted mechanic check it out. As for the car running "hard" I would have to say that there might be something with the engine. One of my co-worker has a 04 at 140k (owned brand new 0 miles) and his **** sounds pretty much like mine at 32k, quite and smooth. He runs her both normal DD and hard every now and again. Both our cars are manual 4 cylinders. And of course Honda vehicles are low maintenance.

TheMuffinMan

iTrader: (1)

Take it to Honda, have them do a Pre-Purchase Inspection for like $70. Money well spent as it can save you from spending thousands getting a car running right again.