I love Preludes, and am in the market for a newer one. I found one at a great price, but it has already been modified, and I am scared to buy a car that's had things done to it, which means its been pushed hard and not babied. SO, i wanted to get your opinions on the modifications to this car, and whether or not they are damaging, cheap, or helpful, and good.

The car is a 2001 Prelude with leather interior, AEM intake, DC Imports Headers, Ground Effects, and coil overs. Is this a good buy? Car has around 30k miles and is selling for 16000 dollars. My other choice is an automatic ( ), cloth, 30k mile silver coupe for 17000 dollars.


Thanks!


Modified by elementforlife at 3:38 PM 8/9/2004

 

even if has been pushed on its still a honda with 30k. im sure my car was pushed b4 i got it and it has about 85k right now. still runs great. does it still have a warranty? ask why hes selling.

 

a dealership is selling it. And i just looked at pictures, it has some ugly aftermarket taillights. Whatever I can always replace those. I've talked to some friends and am looking seriously at the car, just wondering if these mods are any good.

so right now its a tossup between this prelude, a '01 with as many miles but an automatic for 1000 more, or a 2000 with 5k more miles for 500 less, but again an automatic.

 

definitely dont take the automatic, u'll regret it. but buying a car shouldnt be something you do fast. take your time. new cars come out all the time. you'll find the right one eventually, and if you think this one at the dealership is it, then do it. you'll know when you find the right car. you wont have to question much about it. goodl uck

 

ttt

 

don't get the auto.

look around and get a manual. i know waiting and searching sucks when you could just buy a car now, but, you'll be happy in the long. good luck.

 

dont get the auto, trannys have problems and u'll prolly end up replacing it in a year or two, those mods aren't enough to damage the motor, its not like its been nawzd or turbo'd, its basically breathing easier and performing better than a stock one is....so i wouldnt worry about buying a lightly mod'd lude as long as its not leaking and it passes a compression test...

 

As it has been emphasized..

DO NOT get the auto. forget if it's been beat on, the auto tranny will give you problems regardless.

 

**** man, get the one with leather interior and the little dc header and aem intake. lol thats not modded man. Take her for a test drive. Make sure its alll smooth shifting and look for rips in the leather and ****. i got my SH spd with 45K miles cloth interior in PERFECT condition for 16,500 with 100K mile warranty as a certified used car. jump on it and ditch the shitty tail lights.

 

the ad says leather, but the pics def. don't show leather lol. I'm about to go down to the dealership and tell them i'll buy it if they put on the stock tail lights. I do plan on modding the car, I was just worried to buy a car that was modded by some num nut who bought stolen parts and doesn't know how to drive. From what I've read the DC headers and AEM intake are good stuff. I will steer clear of the auto, i hate auto's anyway. Maybe I'll be driving a prelude home sometime soon!

 

is it $1600 or $16,000 if it is $1600 who gives a rats *** what it has on it buy it!

 

yea i noticed my typo too and forgot to change it... 16000 if it were 1600 and carfax checked out i don't think it would last more than 30 minutes on the market...

 

Take the modified Prelude and do a leakdown test at a good mechanic. If it passes that well, the engine is solid and hasn't been abused. If not, nothing less than a new engine can fix it.

 

ttt

great advice honda-tech is by far the best forums i've ever been involved in!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by elementforlife &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the ad says leather, but the pics def. don't show leather lol. I'm about to go down to the dealership and tell them i'll buy it if they put on the stock tail lights. I do plan on modding the car, I was just worried to buy a car that was modded by some num nut who bought stolen parts and doesn't know how to drive. From what I've read the DC headers and AEM intake are good stuff. I will steer clear of the auto, i hate auto's anyway. Maybe I'll be driving a prelude home sometime soon!</TD></TR></TABLE>

IIRC, leather was only available on Canadian Ludes. Unless they had the seats recovered, or just got their hands on the Seats.

..Prelude the luxury/sports coupe w/out leather

 

So that car has been sold, and is out of the question now. Seems that the only other cars on the market around here are automatics, people must not want to get rid of their manual preludes...anyway, my dad found a prelude for blue book value with only 4300 miles on it, not 43,000 but 4,300. Nice blue color, only problem is its an automatic.

But honestly, you can't beat a 3 year old car with only 4300 miles on it, should I go for it and start saving for a manual swap when the tranny goes out?

I'm basically getting a new car here, or should I look to spend 1500-2000 less and get a car with 30,000-40,000 miles more just to get the manual tranny?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DsR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
..Prelude the luxury/sports coupe w/out leather </TD></TR></TABLE>

lol. thats great.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by elementforlife &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm about to go down to the dealership and tell them i'll buy it if they put on the stock tail lights. </TD></TR></TABLE>

You dont need to worry about them doing that so much... i'd hope its not a breaking point whether or not you buy the car... You can replace them for less than 100 bucks i would bet.

you need to be worried about the quality of the engine. My lude was modded when i bought it... and it defaulted the extended warranty on it when it spun a bearing and blew a rod... I ended up suing the dealership for selling me the warranty when they shouldn't have(since they knew about the mods and the warranty policy). It was a REEEAL pain and i lost about 1,600... so make sure you know what your warranty covers if you get one... and what you can and cant mod w/ the warranty still being valid.

 

dooooooo nnnnnnttttt doooooo itttttttttt. do not buy automatic, you will be slow! they run 16's, the manual lude is quicker, more fun to drive, and alot LESS hassle. please just wait, its better then rushing into things and just buying the auto. dont do it

 

I'll sell you my 5th gen.
Teins, Volks, etc.
If you're interested, PM me.

 

thanks for the quick responses. We're looking at a manual prelude now, I'm taking everyone's advice on the automatic, i hate driving auto anyway. I was also just offered a beautiful RX-7, so I'm looking at that. I favor the Prelude's reliability though.

 

Hell ill sell you my 2000 Lude to. Milano red, KYB shocks/Ground Control coilovers, 17 inch Volk Le-37. I also have a brand new Greddy exhaust and a used supercharger in my garage. If you buy my Lude ill sell'em both to you for way cheaper then market value.

 

hell il sell you my 4th gen! and il give you a good deal too!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by elementforlife &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> I was also just offered a beautiful RX-7, so I'm looking at that. I favor the Prelude's reliability though.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yea man - be ready for the maintenance or the rebuild with the rx-7

good luck though

 

OK, I didn't even waste my time reading any of the replies, let me just ask you one question:

If you see a 2001 anything with that little mileage on it and they're asking $1600 for it, just how fucked up do you think that thing could possibly be?

BUY IT...... ONLY IF YOU PLAN ON DROPPING ANYWHERE FROM $2000 TO $4000 JUST TO GET IT RUNNING!!!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TxTuner &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">OK, I didn't even waste my time reading any of the replies, let me just ask you one question:</TD></TR></TABLE>

sometimes it pays off to read the replies

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by elementforlife &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yea i noticed my typo too and forgot to change it... 16000 if it were 1600 and carfax checked out i don't think it would last more than 30 minutes on the market...</TD></TR></TABLE>