My 17 year old son has had enough of feeding my ol F250 gas. (Lesson Learned!!) I have come across a repairable '95 Civic at a local yard. I know and trust the owner of the yard. He said it was an older woman that owned it. Car is in very good shape other than the light damage to the front end. It will need a hood, bumper and the left headlight. It is driveable as is (134k mi)and I can get it for $1200. Yard owner says I should have less than $500 in repair parts and paint. I am going to test drive it and look it over real close. Heres where I need help. I know ZERO about Honda's other than their reputation is GREAT.
Any guidance ???

Seems like a potential good deal. Test drive it and check that all assories work. Look at bumper and try to see if it bent the body at all. Did the air bag go off in this car??

Can the yard supply the parts? You might even get ones the right color and skip the paint which can be expensive to do a good job.

You may also be up for a timing belt at that mileage just for maintenance. I think they suggest every 60ish K for those and if it's on the original it's just luck,

T
Tom Greenleaf - MetroWest Boston - USA
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http://www.autoacsystems.com/tomgreenleaf/

Good to hear from you Tom..

The air bag is OK. The radiator support does have alittle bend to it, very minor. I dont think it will be any problem to straighten even if I have to weld in alittle support for it.

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I talked to the yard owner late last week and he said he had just looked at another '95 Civic that had a good front end and it happened to be black (same color!!!). He didnt know whether he was going to get it yet. I may get lucky!!

Timing belt is probably a good idea. I'm going to give it a good once over somtime this week.

From what I read in Consumer Report and such the Civic's will run forever if you take care of them, and get 35mpg!

These cars and others do have a nice history. You have to take Consumer's Report with a grain of salt though and how you drive and care for a car is probably still the #1 way to get good life out of a car. There are exceptions to all. A good history helps wonders for used cars,

T
Tom Greenleaf - MetroWest Boston - USA
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http://www.autoacsystems.com/tomgreenleaf/