I'm currently looking at a 2001 Honda Prelude SH
29,000 Miles
$17,000
Manual
White

I'm waiting for the carfax report to come in, I think it looks like a great deal, I've been in the market for a 5th gen Prelude for 2 years now. My only concern is the car is white. Which will be a bitch will it be to keep clean. Also is it the Premium Pearl White, or just white? Car looks great, no rust, extremely well kept, and drives very tight, unlike the last Prelude I drove.

Should I go for it?

 

that seems like a pretty decent price. Id say talk the guy down a little bit and walk away with it.

 

White actually is great color to maintain.

As it gets dirty, it just becomes a different shade of white. Its not like black, blue, etc, that shows every single water drop or spec of dust. It doesn't show scratches very much either.

I had a white lude for a while. I would go quite a while without washing it, and the only way you could tell it was dirty is if you stood right up too it and looked at your reflection (or lack of). But then you wash it, and you're like oh yeah, THATS what it looks like clean!

 

anything I should look for on the car? I drove it and was really impressed, the last lude I drove had "45k" miles on it but felt like over 100 :-\ . Like I said this one was tight, and nice, made no cabin noise or rattling.

If there is rattling in the ludes, where does it come from, where should I look for it?

And in the SH model was there a white and a premium white pearl? or just the latter?

I've heard the white of the 5th gen ludes looks amazing when the lighting is right at night...is there truth to this?

thanks! I'll post soon if anything comes up on carfax, you're advice is greatly appreciated!

 

just check all the normal junk. Does the seller have all the service records? just look at the CV boots to see if they are ripped, no interior booboo's. Looks clean to me.

 

I'll check the CV boots. The only 2 interior "booboo's" i noticed were where the A pillar comes down into the dash, whatever is normally tucked under has come up (same thing happened with my mom's 3.2TL but the dealership trimmed it before they sold it to us), and there is a small hole, probably from a box, in the back of the passenger seat in the leatherette/nylon? part, nothing that detracts from the vehicle by any means.

Just to clarify the car is completely UNMODDED, big plus for me. I believe the only mod I would do to it would be a test pipe, but I'll get into asking advice about mods after I get the car haha.

 

Get the car. Low miles and pearl white!!!! It doesn't get any better...

 

i wish i had cool leather interior, but then again i dont. It would probably be dead if it were me.

Hit it up then man. Pop the hood and check out the bay as well. my sh is my daily driver now. bone stock but i need some SH wheels

 

Looks a super neat car to me and a decent price, best mod for looks by miles would be a set of JDM fogs in place of those plastic blanks.

 

yea try to lower the price down a bit and if everything is good get it i know i would

 

take a look at all the fluids, are they topped off? are they clean? I don't buy a car without seeing a compression test if its used. Nothing is worse than viewing a used car and the oil is low, I mean come on. I'm just kinda picky and critical I suppose.

 

17k is very expensive for the car. Talk him down to around 15-16k, if he says no leave your number, no one else is going to buy the car for thatmuch, so dont make a hasty decision, hasty decisions are usually bad ones. Take a lot of time examining the car, drive it again, and this time get on it and see how it feels at full throttle (if the guy lets you) check the AC and other electronics, and the fluids, also get a compression test (as was suggested) For 17K you definetely dont want to get a lemon.
Looks good on the outside though lol

 

well last june/july when i was in the market, I was looking at a 40K mile SH for around 19 -- and that seemed to be the average price around here for a low mileage SH.

Still waiting for the carfax...will definitely drive again (many times) before purchase

Edit:

KBB says the following:

Trade-In: 13,575
Private Party: 16,155
Retail Value: 18,810

So I should be shooting for around 15-16K right?


Modified by elementforlife at 8:28 PM 3/21/2005

 

Looks nice

 

is that diamond white? doesnt look like premium pearl white.

clean though. ide rather get a base model. easier to mod.

 

its a pretty color if its well kept up, and clean, talk him down to about 15-16K

 

Do what the other suggest as to price.
Something that you want to check is the service history of the car. Our car (FOR SALE) has ALL of its records in a folder. If the seller does not have this you may be facing the prospect of having to redo factory recommended maintenance and that can be costly. You also want to determine if any of the factory warranty, including the extended Honda Care is on the car. This is a valuable bit of insurance for you. If the car has been for sale for a while, that is not unusual. You may also want a certified inspection done (~$100).
The mileage on a Honda is generally not an issue until well over 60k and the first timing belt replacement. Preludes can go 100k without mishap. Ours has 35k and my dealer tech says that he sees nothing under the hood that needs special attention. You will be wise, considering how the car appears to live outdoors-to carefully look at the bodywork. Winters around DC can be hard on cars. I grew up there and the only solution is constant washing, to keep the salt off.
Good luck

 

I believe 99+ is Premium Pearl White, 3 stage paint job.

I used to have one. Just check the CV boots as stated. Make sure the title is clean.

Try to get the price down a bit.

 

VERY IMPORTANT! Check The compression on all cylinders. If you start hooking up the car with mods and the car has low compression chances are the thing would be running weak. I suggest you check how things are in the engine above all before you start making posts like: "Why is my prelude so slow"

 

The seller does have all the records for the car. The seller also claims he did not drive the car in the snow, or on salty roads, and its mileage is so low because he often biked to work as opposed to driving.

The carfax report came in (thanks to g1_teggy) and shows no accidents, and no fraud of any sort. Everything the seller told me checks out with the carfax.

Will follow up with more questions soon.

 

yea it looks like a pretty good deal... i paid 22, 000 cdn for mine and its a 2001 but its only base... it had like 45 000kms on it so thats good but i bought it like a year ago.... haha yea and white is prolly one of the best colors..... u ever notice that like 90% of all 97-01 ludes are silver(which is so lame)... the other 10% are black/white/blue/red so yea white is good yea what he was saying about the compression tests its 100% right to, i would take it to honda or something and have them run test on everything that way when u get it u know nothing is wrong...

 

carfax isn't always accurate but goodluck none-the-less

 

Beautiful car

 

I just recently bought a 2000 Prelude w/ 72k miles on it. Do the typical Compression test, fluid checks, and take the oil cap off and run your finger or a key accross it and see if you get an "chunks". Look at the oil cap for corrosion etc, and if you can, shine a flashlight down there and see if it's shiny. If it's shiny, you're good, if not, talk him down more and inspect it more thoroughly. Make sure the dipstick is not stained. Also, drive it somewhere, stop, and get up under it and check - we test drove a "clean" 2000 Prelude before the one I bought and when we got up under it, the right front looked like it had been smashed and the gas tank had been welded...

hope this help and that car is effin beautiful :D

 

might be able to find a better price. cousin bought a 02 s2k with mugen seats and rails and j's racing intake and a spoon strut with i think an amuse exhaust for 22000