Bought it local off a Craigslist listing.  Owner (a foreigner) had all the previous maintenance records.
So I did "my inspection"  LOL.  Well, when I took it in to see about the door locks, turns out it needed a crap load of other things too.
Now I have to eat crow, because my wife tried to get me to take any used car I wan to buy to a mechanic to get checked out.

Apparently, if I had done a little more research, I would have found out that more than a few civics around that year start having major trouble around the 100K mark.
I thought I was getting a good deal since it was $3K and had only 105K miles on it.
I have already sunk an additional $2500 into it.  Timing belt & cover, rear suspension parts, power steering pump and a small list of other things.

Live and learn.  

I will never again buy a used car off Craigslist without first getting the owner to agree to let me take it to a mechanic.

I have a 98 Honda Civic Hatchback DX. Thing runs like a Swiss watch...

Timing belt is a maintenance item - not a failure.

I have a '97 Civic EX that had a head gasket failure at ~120K and it was less than $600 to repair - I did the work myself, bought a rebuilt head.

Brian

Wait a second, I thought that Honda stuff lasted forever without any failures?  Are you sure it wasn't a GM you bought.  You know if you take the letters 'G & M' you can make it looks like it stands for Government and Motors instead of General Motors.  You see this is funny because of the bailout of a few years ago.  And its like the government now owns the company, because they are the only car company to ever take and government money in the whole world.

"'98 civic", what year is it again?  Oh yeah, 2012.  Poorly maintained 14 (15?) year old car has trouble?  O M G HONDA IS CRAP!

3/10

The subject matter in your rant is wrong. He's complaining that he bought a vehicle that hasn't received it's 100k mile service, not that it's failing...

Oh, and GM wasn't the only company to ever take a bailout.

What are the crapload of other things?   Scheduled maintenance items don't count, y'know, like timing belts, oil changes, tires, brakes, etc.

Are you high?



 

He's butt hurt obviously......

Name one successful car company subsidized by a government

Sounds like the only thing you got screwed on was by the mechanic who charged you $2500 for a timing belt, power steering pump, and a basic suspension overhaul. Those cars are super simple to work on and parts are cheap.

Sounds like the previous person didn't take care of it as well as you had thought.

I personally would will NEVER buy a civic cause of the people who generally own them are younger and/or people who think because it's a honda they don't have to take care of the car and end up rallying on the poor car, seriously most civics are just beat on.

I'm SURE there were visual cues on the exterior and/or interior to clue you in that car wasn't well taken care of, I would bet $100 right now that this is true.

I stick to Accords due to the type of people who own accords are older  and generally only buy from someone I know so I know the history of the car.

Also, you have to understand that at 100K Honda's are at the point they need their 90k/100k service and that's why the person is getting rid of it in the first place more often then not.

These are the things you have to educate your self on, you can't just buy a used car with a Toyota or Honda badge and expect it to be flawless.