Should I jump on this offer?

[Steve G]

OK, here’s the story. 1999 Civic DX Hatchback, 5-speed manual tranny, with 136k miles. I’m the original owner. Car was inspected in February, and needed a tie rod end replaced to pass inspection. $400. This past Tuesday night, car blew out its rear brake lines. $500. Last night it developed an exhaust leak. Got it fixed today at Monro Muffler for $300. I consider all of these things to be understandable problems for a 14 year old car with 136k miles in the rust belt.

When I picked up the car, the service manager said to me, “Hey, nice car!” He then pointed to his winter car–a 2000 Civic LX Sedan with auto tranny and 145k miles. He told me that he used to work at a local Honda dealership until a year ago when he came to Monro. So he’s a fan of Hondas. As I’m getting ready to pay for the exhaust repair, he asks me, “Where did you get the car inspected last month?” I told him. He says, “Your car is in great shape, except for the cradle.”

“What’s a cradle?” I ask. “Let me put the car back up on the lift and I’ll show you.”

So he raises the car back up. The cradle, also known as the front subframe, is all sorts of rotted out with rust. “There’s no way this car should have passed inspection last month”, he says, and I believe him. He looks the job up in his computer and tells me that the labor alone would be over $500, and that the part is probably close to that much too. So that’s another $1k on top of what I’ve already spent on the car over the past month.

Then he says, “I’ll trade cars with you.” I ask him why he’d want my car with the rotted out cradle. “Because I like hatchbacks, I want a standard transmission, and I like your car’s red paint better than my car’s green paint.” He tells me all the scheduled/preventive maintenance he’s done to his Civic. He tells me that everything works on it. My Civic has a small amount of body rust, and his Civic has even less. He tells me that his Civic’s cradle is solid.

So I’m trying to decide if I should trade my hatchback for his sedan in order to save myself $1k in repair expense, even though I also prefer hatchbacks and standard transmissions.

Advice or suggestions?

Topic

[Tanner]

Hard to say without actually seeing both cars in person. Just to many variables. If you have any friends that know cars good, ideally a mechanic to have a look at both cars and help you make a decision. Might be a good deal, might be another fix er upper.

Good Luck

[Steve G]

For the purposes of this conversation, let’s make the following assumptions:

• The bodies on both cars have similar (small) amounts of rust.
• Both cars had maintenance performed on schedule throughout their lifetimes.
• My Civic has 136k miles, his has 145k miles; I don’t consider this difference to be significant.
• The interiors of both cars is in similar condition.
• Neither car has been in an accident.

So let’s assume that both cars are basically in similar condition, except that mine has a rotted subframe and his doesn’t, mine has a stick and his doesn’t, mine is a hatch and his is a sedan, mine is a 1999 and his is a 2000.

With these assumptions in mind, what would you do?

[college man]

If all the things that you just had fixed on your
car.Does any of that need to be done now or in the
foreseen future? what I’m driving at here is its not
a deal if you have to start dumping money into the car
for the same stuff. do you want an automatic? do you want
a sedan? I would take the car to a trusted mechanic and
have the car gone over. compression check the engine.
if the car gets a clean bill of health.Go for it if thats
what you want. 🙂

[twiggy]

I would spend the 1k for a new cradle and keep what you have. That way you have a nice hatchback with a frame that has NO rust and you know the rest of it is in good shape.

[Steve G]

[quote=”college man” post=53674]If all the things that you just had fixed on your
car.Does any of that need to be done now or in the
foreseen future? what I’m driving at here is its not
a deal if you have to start dumping money into the car
for the same stuff. do you want an automatic? do you want
a sedan? I would take the car to a trusted mechanic and
have the car gone over. compression check the engine.
if the car gets a clean bill of health.Go for it if thats
what you want. :)[/quote]

Yeah, the guy with the Civic sedan recently replaced his brake lines and exhaust system. So his car has recently had many of the same services done to it that my Civic has had done. Makes sense, since they’re similarly old with similar mileage, driving in similar conditions.

Since he’s a Honda guy who can easily do his own work, I strongly suspect that his sedan is in good working order. But I appreciate your concerns. No, I don’t particularly want a sedan or an auto tranny; I prefer a hatch and I prefer a stick, which is why I bought my Civic the way it’s configured. But I’d prefer to not sink another $1k into it.

You should know that the Civic is my back-up car. Its primary purpose is that it’s the car my kids drive. My 19-year-old daughter is in college, and drives it when she’s home. My son has his learner’s permit, so I teach him to drive on my Civic. It’s not my daily driver, it’s the spare car for the kids to use. I’d prefer that my son master the skill of driving a stick, but this isn’t a prerequisite. I just need a 3rd car for the kids to use.

[Author]

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