£500 Civic, Good choice?

[beatngu]

My other thread mentioned me looking for a cheap, reliable and economical car and the 306 seem to be a good choice but there's just not many around and the one's that are around are the opposite end of the country.

So me wanting to have my cake and eat it with a nice looking car for under £700 have decided to just go for the best car for the money, so EK9 Civic's seem to fit the bill and plus they're actually good looking cars!

Good choice? 1.6 Focus, Leons etc all seem to be over a grand for anything half decent.

[Butter Face]

Just to be a pedant, it wouldn't be an EK9 for that money, you would mean a 1.4 EJ9?

Good little cars, just reliable turnkey cars.

[imagineifyeswill]

You need to watch out for noisy gearboxes, bearing failure most commonly first motion shaft bearing. Ive repaired 2 lately and diagnosed a 3rd. Remove gearbox, dismantle and replace first motion shaft bearing and seal, reassemble, refit gearbox and refill with correct oil, my price £400, your £500 car rapidly becomes a £1000 car

[beatngu]

Butter Face said:

Just to be a pedant, it wouldn't be an EK9 for that money, you would mean a 1.4 EJ9?

Good little cars, just reliable turnkey cars.

Oops, that's the one. Those EK9's are quite rare it seems.

imagineifyeswill said:

You need to watch out for noisy gearboxes, bearing failure most commonly first motion shaft bearing. Ive repaired 2 lately and diagnosed a 3rd. Remove gearbox, dismantle and replace first motion shaft bearing and seal, reassemble, refit gearbox and refill with correct oil, my price £400, your £500 car rapidly becomes a £1000 car

Thank you. So unusual noises from gearbox, any other checks you can do on this?

I'll bare you in mind.

[pits]

As much as I hate them, you can't go wrong for £500 on a Civic as you can break them and get your money back fairly easily.

[beatngu]

pits said:

As much as I hate them, you can't go wrong for £500 on a Civic as you can break them and get your money back fairly easily.

Seems to be the best choice at this price and they actually seem very well built inside and out. I've found myself upping the budget every time a better model comes alone, there's a v-tec 1.6 for £150 more than the one in the OP.

Grrr, spending more negates the reason why I'm buying a cheap car. Soon I'll have a £2.5k budget.

[Butter Face]

Find £800-£1000 and buy an MB6 VTI/S.

[beatngu]

Butter Face said:

Find £800-£1000 and buy an MB6 VTI/S.

This is dangerous, as soon as you up the budget, you up it more and more. I'm staying put at a £500 run around, cheap as possible.

(as much as I'm starting to like these Honda engines) Those EK9 Type-R's!!!

[beatngu]

Wow, who knew a £500 civic would be so much hassle.

According to the dealers (all of which were grumpy bds) , being a £500 car means you shouldn't expect service history. The general opinion on this seems to be "It was part exchange, any papers would be in the car" So these idiots don't even check?

I guess a cheap civic turns out to be not so cheap. None seem to have history.

[GreatGranny]

Go private then.

No dealer margin and you can see who the last owener was and get a feel if the car has been looked after.

[Butter Face]

History doesn't really matter.

The D14 engine will go on pretty mch regardless, and anyone buying a £500 Civic wouldn't really be bothered about history in the mainstream (and I run one of the biggest Civic owners clubs in the UK) as most of them are bought by younger drivers.

Just buy it and enjoy, watch out for rust on the rear arches.

[beatngu]

GreatGranny said:

Go private then.

No dealer margin and you can see who the last owener was and get a feel if the car has been looked after.

Would be my first choice but in this range most are P/X from dealers.

Butter Face said:

History doesn't really matter.

The D14 engine will go on pretty mch regardless, and anyone buying a £500 Civic wouldn't really be bothered about history in the mainstream (and I run one of the biggest Civic owners clubs in the UK) as most of them are bought by younger drivers.

Just buy it and enjoy, watch out for rust on the rear arches.

Cheers. What's the average length of the timing belt if there was no papers?

And what's your opinion on the 1.6 i-VTEC SE engines?

Edited by beatngu on Monday 24th March 10:28

[Butter Face]

I had one from 2003-2007 that was a 1998 car and it never had a cambelt.

My last Civic was a D15 and that had 190,000km and had never had a cambelt (AFAIK)

Piss easy job though.

[beatngu]

Butter Face said:

I had one from 2003-2007 that was a 1998 car and it never had a cambelt.

My last Civic was a D15 and that had 190,000km and had never had a cambelt (AFAIK)

Piss easy job though.

Now try that on Alfa! :P, thank you, will go and have a look at one.

[graham22]

My mum sold her 2000, 78k 1.4 Civic for £1000 last week if this give you an idea of value/age etc.

She had hers since 2 years old, no mechanical woes but it did need several exhausts over the years - probably as a reflection of how it's driven & dad using cheap motor factor parts.

Whilst it didn't suffer from rust, several compenents suffered from corrosion - door lock linkages etc which meant door panel off & a lot of fiddling with rods & linkages.

It was very flat to drive though, even compared to a 1.5LSi of the same model I had, Yo VTEC jokes aside, the 1.5 motor was significantly quicker and also better on fuel - also pre-2001 will be the same to tax.

[beatngu]

@Graham - I can definitely see around the grand mark the selling point for these cars, anything less is buying at the bottom of the barrel.

Went to Look to look at 2 Civics today, turned out to be 3.

First one £650 1.6 v-tech - Smokey engine, rattle behind manifold, badly dented backbox. Didn't bother with testing it.

Second Civic 1.4i sport - Lovely quiet smooth engine.....Clutch was on it's way out, stalled three times pulling away it was so high. Seller told me it's because the clutch was new. Okay. Was up for £600 I offered £350 he said he'd do £400, which made me even more wary. Worth the punt? How much profit would he then be making lol?

Third Civic was also being sold by the above guy. This was the 2005, sporty shape being sold for just over £600.. I drove it back to the station and it was a lovely drive and I'd love one but for that price, something's wrong.

All in all, spending under a grand with a trade seller makes me feel very dirty. You're usually given below average customer service and need to expect the very least in every aspect of buying.

I'd much rather go private for that price now.

Edited by beatngu on Monday 24th March 22:06

[GBTurbo]

Had an EJ9 1.4 for 2 years and had an EK3 for 3 years (1.5 VTEC-E) both were faultless and cost £700 each privately.

Oil and filter every 10k/year and keep an eye on the oil and they will bang off the limiter all day long. Some are completely shagged but you can find good ones.

Watch out for rear arches but overall they are a great get to work car with no hassle.

The 1.5 was better on fuel than 1.4 getting 45mpg+ measured properly. If you can find one get it.

[beatngu]

GBTurbo said:

Had an EJ9 1.4 for 2 years and had an EK3 for 3 years (1.5 VTEC-E) both were faultless and cost £700 each privately.

Oil and filter every 10k/year and keep an eye on the oil and they will bang off the limiter all day long. Some are completely shagged but you can find good ones.

Watch out for rear arches but overall they are a great get to work car with no hassle.

The 1.5 was better on fuel than 1.4 getting 45mpg+ measured properly. If you can find one get it.

So I guess me going to used dealers with 500 quid is really scraping the bottom. Some nice clean ones, I may still
Up the budget for one, will just avoid dealers.

[morgrp]

beatngu said:

Cheers. What's the average length of the timing belt if there was no papers?

And what's your opinion on the 1.6 i-VTEC SE engines?

Edited by beatngu on Monday 24th March 10:28

For 500quid, I wouldn't worry about it unless it looks utterly knackered. If you are hell bent on changing it I would say personally on a car of that vintage I wouldn't want to do more than 60k or five years without changing.

[lgs22]

GBTurbo said:

Had an EJ9 1.4 for 2 years and had an EK3 for 3 years (1.5 VTEC-E) both were faultless and cost £700 each privately.

Oil and filter every 10k/year and keep an eye on the oil and they will bang off the limiter all day long. Some are completely shagged but you can find good ones.

Watch out for rear arches but overall they are a great get to work car with no hassle.

The 1.5 was better on fuel than 1.4 getting 45mpg+ measured properly. If you can find one get it.

+1 on this. I picked up an EK3 for £450 last summer as my first car, it's been great. Mine wasn't in great nick cosmetically (I think pretty much every panel has a dent or scratch) but inside it's worn it's 150000 miles well, and mechanically it's been pretty sound. In 7k miles I've replaced consumables (oil&filter, front discs and pads, having 2 new tyres tomorrow) and I've also replaced a stuck thermostat, seized brake caliper and snapped a driveshaft. Apparently the driveshafts are prone to snap; there's a rubber boot that perishes with age letting water in, which leads to rust. Overall mostly regular consumable stuff on a car of this age.