Should I buy a 2005 Honda Civic?

[jo552006]

Let me take my facepuches right up front.  My wife and I drive... a lot, we have several vehicles.  Even if we thin our herd, we'd still need 2 good reliable vehicles due to enjoying our house, and jobs that are in opposite directions.  We also drive on weekends frequently 100+ miles to visit our families (hers is 100 miles one direction, mine is 100 miles the other!).  While we could optimize parts of this situation, we don't want to.

I want to replace a 16-17mpg Jeep, and currently am looking at a 2005 Honda civic ex coupe automatic (my wife can drive stick but we stumbled on this car).  KBB rates it at over 8k in "fair" condition.  Since I know there is a large knowledge base on the forums here, I wanted to ask for opinions.  If I can get the car for 7k, it's only got 46,000 miles, is this worth it?  The car doesn't seem to have too many complaints (read: common problems) compared to a lot of cars out there, and as I work on my own cars I am willing to pay a small premium for ones that need less maintaining.  In this case according to KBB, it's about 2-3k price difference between the same car with 115,000 miles.

Does anybody own one of these cars?  If so, have you had many issues?  Am I thinking about paying way too much for this particular vehicle, even if I plan to keep it?  (Am I thinking about paying too much for a vehicle in general?) *Note that I estimate my out of pocket cost will break even in 1-2 years due to gas mileage ($2,000 savings) and selling of current vehicle ($4,500).  I know this vehicle never makes MMM list's of cars to buy, but we don't have kids, so we don't NEED tons of room.  We have a truck to haul things with, so we don't need cargo space.  Should I be looking at different vehicles all together?

[Mr.Chipper77]

Great car...7k so so...imho.

[2ndTimer]

We have two Honda Civics a 2001 and a 2008 (or so, I have trouble remembering that one for some reason).  The performance of the 2001 is why we bought the 2008 (or so).  It looks like raccoons live in it, drives like a tuna can and wears like iron.  Has about 200K miles on it.  We put on the last 150K.  We buy it a new timing belt every 60,000K and give it what it wants otherwise.  When it finally dies we will buy it a rebuilt engine and start again.  Have only had the 2008 for two years and put about 6,000 miles on it so can't say much except it hasn't had any trouble.

To summarize, we love them. 

[APowers]

The EX model tends to be gushing with luxury options (A/C, power windows/locks, etc.). Also, '05 is pretty new. You'll likely find a better value (and probably better fuel economy) with an older model ('92-'99), manual transmission, and a lower trim level. For example, we bought our '95 Civic (DX) for about $1,500 (plus a $500ish repair), and we bought our '96 Civic (CX) for $1,800 (plus $700 head gasket replacement). No problems since then. If you can find a similar deal, you'll end up spending less than $3k on a car and your break-even period will probably be even less than a year.

TL;DR-- Great car, buy an older model.

[Jack]

I want to replace a 16-17mpg Jeep, and currently am looking at a 2005 Honda civic ex coupe automatic (my wife can drive stick but we stumbled on this car).  KBB rates it at over 8k in "fair" condition.  Since I know there is a large knowledge base on the forums here, I wanted to ask for opinions.  If I can get the car for 7k, it's only got 46,000 miles, is this worth it?  The car doesn't seem to have too many complaints (read: common problems) compared to a lot of cars out there, and as I work on my own cars I am willing to pay a small premium for ones that need less maintaining.  In this case according to KBB, it's about 2-3k price difference between the same car with 115,000 miles.

Are the KBB rates realistic for your area? Sometimes they can be way, way off. (For example, 1999 Miatas actually sell for fully 300% of what KBB says they should be.)

If that $7K Civic really is being sold at a $1K+ discount to market value, flip it.

Then go buy the car you actually want (i.e., with a manual transmission).

[jo552006]

Great car...7k so so...imho.

I thought this at first as well.  When I looked on KBB to determine the value I was shocked.  You need to manually change the mileage to 46,000 after you go through all the other options and the price goes up significantly.  2005 Honda civic coupe ex, 46000 miles, very good condition.

We have two Honda Civics a 2001 and a 2008 (or so, I have trouble remembering that one for some reason).  The performance of the 2001 is why we bought the 2008 (or so).  It looks like raccoons live in it, drives like a tuna can and wears like iron.  Has about 200K miles on it.  We put on the last 150K.  We buy it a new timing belt every 60,000K and give it what it wants otherwise.  When it finally dies we will buy it a rebuilt engine and start again.  Have only had the 2008 for two years and put about 6,000 miles on it so can't say much except it hasn't had any trouble.

To summarize, we love them. 

I thought they were supposed to be good cars (the 90's ones were pretty awesome).  I don't know if you are familiar or not, but when I was researching this car I thought it was a 2006, and I found out there was a somewhat common engine block cracking issue.  This is just an idea, but you might want to make sure you do a thorough look for the "cracked engine block" issue that has surfaced on many 2006-2008 civics, if you have the susceptible engine 1.8L.  It was common enough that Honda extended the warranty to 8 years and unlimited miles for that particular issue, but that's 8 years from original purchase, and you would want to know BEFORE 8 years if you had an issue.

The EX model tends to be gushing with luxury options (A/C, power windows/locks, etc.). Also, '05 is pretty new. You'll likely find a better value (and probably better fuel economy) with an older model ('92-'99), manual transmission, and a lower trim level. For example, we bought our '95 Civic (DX) for about $1,500 (plus a $500ish repair), and we bought our '96 Civic (CX) for $1,800 (plus $700 head gasket replacement). No problems since then. If you can find a similar deal, you'll end up spending less than $3k on a car and your break-even period will probably be even less than a year.

TL;DR-- Great car, buy an older model.

It is newer and does have plenty of luxury options that I can personally deal without (including A/C).  The wife won't.  Several reasons, 1. She doesn't want to, 2. She has a bad back, and generally the older the car the worse it is on her back, and 3. The jeep we're replacing was a gift from her parents, I want an upgrade from that in terms of age, maintenance required, and mileage.  (Read, selling a gifted $4k vehicle for a $2k one is out of the question.  Also Getting an older 90's civic could cause me headaches (since I do all my own work) and they salt the roads heavily here.  Also, it would be harder to find one with such low miles.

I want to replace a 16-17mpg Jeep, and currently am looking at a 2005 Honda civic ex coupe automatic (my wife can drive stick but we stumbled on this car).  KBB rates it at over 8k in "fair" condition.  Since I know there is a large knowledge base on the forums here, I wanted to ask for opinions.  If I can get the car for 7k, it's only got 46,000 miles, is this worth it?  The car doesn't seem to have too many complaints (read: common problems) compared to a lot of cars out there, and as I work on my own cars I am willing to pay a small premium for ones that need less maintaining.  In this case according to KBB, it's about 2-3k price difference between the same car with 115,000 miles.

Are the KBB rates realistic for your area? Sometimes they can be way, way off. (For example, 1999 Miatas actually sell for fully 300% of what KBB says they should be.)

If that $7K Civic really is being sold at a $1K+ discount to market value, flip it.

Then go buy the car you actually want (i.e., with a manual transmission).

I'm not sure there's really much money to be made off flipping or not, but I'm really not interested in trying anyway right now.  I like the idea of being able to sell without losing much if any money should the wife decides she doesn't like it in 5 years though.

[Joel]

I've owned a 94 civic, 97 prelude, 03 civic, 07 civic, and a 13 civic. All of these hondas have been great cars.

7k for a 2005 civic with only ~40k miles on it is a great deal. Very low miles, and the car will last you a very long time. I would jump on it, especially if blue book is 8k. From what I have found with buying/selling my hondas in the past, I have been able to get better than the good kbb values and sell the cars immediately. Very rarely finding a car available for a discount.

Minimal maintenance. Oil changes, tires, and timing belts.

[I'm a red panda]

I just got rid of a 2001 Honda Civic EX with 120,000 miles.  I was the original owner.
If it wasn't for the fact that it had 2 fewer doors than I need now, I would have kept it for another hundred thousand miles.  Great gas mileage- I got up to 44 on the highway with a fully loaded car (moving across country).  Over the 13 years, I'd say a typical mixed tank was about 30 mpg.

It's a fabulous car- the only problems with it were cosmetic (the driver's side visor was being held on with duct tape).  Timing belt was the only expensive replacement I've had, other maintenance is minimal, brakes replaced recently, near batteries when they die, tires, oil.


An older one like this though won't have quite as many safety options, but possibly by 05 they were doing all the side curtain air bags and such.

[2Birds1Stone]

Good price IMO. I purchased a new to me 2004 Nissan Sentra in 2011 with 13k miles on it for $7k.........so far its been oil changes, brake pads, 2 tires, and one oxygen sensor. Car now has $58k miles and total maintenance/repairs has been like ~$750.

It only depreciated ~$2,200 in 4 years and 45,000 miles.

[jo552006]

Thanks everybody for the responses so far!  Just to be clear, I'm not already sold on this particular car or anything. (My last post reads like I am)  I would just like a car I don't have to work on often, and when I do I don't want everything rusted solid.  I want a reliable car with 80k miles or less, and 2004 or newer.  Also, must not leave my wife cripple for days after long rides.  Since the car I'm selling I did not have to pay for, I'm willing to add money to the proceeds from that sale, if it means less headaches for me.

[alsoknownasDean]

Yes, a 2005 Honda Civic should be a decent Mustachian vehicle to buy.

If you do a lot of miles (sounds like you do, how many do you do per year?), the lower mile one should be worth it if the premium isn't too high.

Is an automatic coupe what you need/want? Would you be better suited with a sedan or hatch model?

Maybe jump on Craigslist and see what others are available before pulling the trigger too.

On the salted roads issue, is it worth buying a car from a state with more moderate temperatures that's less likely to be rusted to shit?

[thedayisbrave]

My first car was a Honda Civic.  My younger brother now drives it and it's at 107K miles... still runs well, but it gets shaky on the highways if it goes over 55 mph, but he just drives to school and back so it's not really an issue.  It's a 2004 model.  It has required minimal maintenance, just the normal stuff (I believe we've done timing belt, new tires x2, oil changes, and that's about it).

So, I'd say go for it.  We paid about $13K for ours back in '07 (at the time it had about 35K miles).

[Can't Wait]

7k seems a bit high to me. That's what I paid for my 2005 Honda civic with the same amount of miles, but that was nearly 5 years ago. I guess the Hondas really do hold their resale value!.. I'd buy a 2nd gen Prius for that amount instead of the Civic.

[MayDay]

We had 2 '03 civics and just sold one with 115k (I think) miles for 5k.

I would look for a 4 door for resale but other than that, yes, very good car.

[jo552006]

So the results are in, we took the car for a test drive last night, and didn't find any big red flag issues beyond a heat shield, and an alignment (both of which are being fixed before be buy the car).  Wife really enjoyed the ride.  They told me the car had sat about 1 month (could tell from brake rotors they weren't lying) so it needed a jump, but otherwise had no issues.  Also, after the test drive it started fine without a jump.  Final price would be $7,500 and I think we're going to buy it, I was hoping to get it for slightly less, but we're already significantly below KBB value at the asking price of $7,900.  I looked underneath and that thing has VERY little rust.  From the look of it, I estimate I'll get 100k-200k out of with minimal maintenance.  Which is great so I can spend my time working on MY beaters, rather than keeping my wife on the road!