Looking to buy a prelude. Found ad for a 1997, 148k.. muticulously kepted up and cleaned. Oil changes on time with synthetic oil.. timing chain was also replaced. The guy wants 5k for it. I will be going to look at it, what things should i check for, if everything looks good, is 5k a reasonable price.. is 148k miles too much?

 

hehe. "Kepted up and cleaned"

hehe. "Timing Chain"

It has 148k miles

 

-be sure it's not an automatic, cause if it is, get ready to buy a new tranny for it if it hasn't already been changed.
-Try and get all paper work if possible
-do a carfax on the car
-Check under the hood around the fenders to look for any body damage like near the bottom of hte headlights
-Check and be sure the whole car's body paint matches(hood, fenders, trunk lid, back bumper). If there are any spots where the color looks different, as about it. Then it's probably been in an accident and was repainted and check to be sure the VIN#'s haven't been painted over, cause that's another sign it's been repainted
-See about having it scaned for any codes. Take it up to Auto Zone if you can and they'll do it for free
-When you turn the key to the second spot, be sure all the dummy lights work

That's about all the major things I can think of

 

sounds ok (price per miles) i woudlnt buy it was 148xxx on it. thats just too much for me. i got my 98 for 9500 with 30xxx miles on it.

 

Get it inspected first, I thinks its about 100 bucks or maybe less but worth the investment. I just bought my 97 Prelude SH with 90k on it and its driving awesome. Got timing belt, front disk brakes, and some other minor work done on it and now its running perfect. Wouldn't trade it for anything else. Paid about 7.5k for it which is a reasonable price on the market. Everyone who sees it from a couple of feet say that it looks new.