Re: Carfax, Buying Used, & Craigslist.org

"Elle" <honda.lioness@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:iSQ7k.1145$oY2.648@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> I finally got serious about looking for a second Honda 
> Civic, c. 1989-1997. A few observations:

What kind of money are we talking about here?
In other words, how much do you want to spend
and where are you located? Maybe I will have
a car for you.... :-)

> -- A friend of mine convinced me Carfax was worth $35 for 30 
> days, unlimited checks. For the four cars I checked, it 
> revealed: (a)
> Odometer tampering with two, with the advertised mileage 
> being over 100k lower than the Carfax title re****ted 
> mileage; (b) lying about the number of owners for a third; 
> it had had four owners in 18 months. Many re****ts attest to 
> how Carfax is not perfect, but so far it sure saved me some 
> trouble.

With the car that old I would say actual millage is not
as im****tant as the current technical condition of the car.

> -- craigslist.org has been my best resource. (Thanks to 
> regular poster JT for sending me there!) Ebay, 
> autotrader.com and dealers have turned up little. Dealers do 
> not like to deal in cars that do not involve financing, so 
> low price beaters generally are not advertised for sale by 
> them. Though oddly, on my Carfax checks, there's always an 
> advertisement by dealers for a 199- Civic, complete with 
> VIN. Then I call the dealer, and the car is not there. Maybe 
> when a car is traded in, carfax automatically retrieves it 
> and its filter puts the ad up? But in fact most of these 
> cars are sold at auction?

I am not surprised new car dealers do not keep these cars.
The car you are looking for probably is worth much less than
a 1000 and takes the same amount of space on the dealer parking
lot as tha 20k one. Also, on average it will look horrible
compared to new cars, so new car dealer selling not old used
cars does not want to clutter his parking lot with trash like 
top down rusted 1989 honda civic.

> -- used car dealers are a hoot! Unless you know what to look 
> for on these older Hondas, do not buy from a used dealer. A 
> fine looking Honda Civic DX came up on Craig's list at a mom 
> n' pop used car dealer****p. I went to see it. Great body, 
> engine compartment sparkled, fluids looked clean and topped 
> off; but no muffler; no radio; check engine light was on; 
> wind****eld was cracked, miles advertised were 124k and 
> carfax said it was in fact over 271k miles a year ago. I am 
> considering making a very low offer (after telling the 
> dealer****p about the flawed title tampered odometer) just 
> for the shell.

What do you consider a "low offer" for such a car?
Junkyard is probably paying between 100-200 dolars
for a car which can be driven to the yard... Slightly
less if it has to be towed. If you see a car on 
some dealer's parking lot than it means the owner 
hopes to get much more for his trashy car than he
could get from the junkyard.

> Further advice? 

Look at your local junk yard. Sometimes they have
cars these old in quite good condition and you 
might score good find this way...
Of course it is junk yard, so the car will not
look good, guaranteed.