Which car to buy
 

I'm moving to the San Francisco bay area and wanted to pick up a smaller car once there. I looked in Craigslist and there's plenty Civics, Metros, and CRX's to choose from. I'm familiar with the Civic since I had a 1991 Civic Hatch back in Japan (1992 in the states). The prices range considerably all the way up to $4,000 for a CRX. I was planning on spending about $3,000. Opinions please.

I bought a 1990 CRX HF for $2K and it is a good car, but if I had to do it all over again and wanted to spend $3K, I'd look for a 96+ metro, 3cl, 5spd with AC. There seem to be enough of these that they shouldn't be too hard to find. I've seen very clean versions of these in CA with less then 100K miles and have AC.

While a Metro may have a back seat, I would still consider them to be a 2 seater, the back seat is tiny and considering the seat back is practically at the rear hatch, I wouldn't want my daughter to be in the back if it ever got rear ended by an SUV.

Civic VXs are also great buy if you can find one.

Thanks for the input.

Nab an early/mid eighties compact for ~$500-1000 if you're mechanically inclined. If not, get something early nineties/low miles for more.

smaller cars near san fran...
 

What about : this Civic

Or this 626

Or maybe this suzuki?

A saturn sl2

Saturn SC2

n0rth0npr0:

Thanks for looking. I'll be leaving in late Oct early Nov. So those might or might no still be available. We'll have to wait and see.

Oh I thought maybe you would be moving like next week. They won't be availible, let me know closer to the time of your purchase so I can help you then.

n0rt0npr0 -

I think waiting for a 1996+ Saturn S?1 with manual would be a winner because of the tall MP2 5th gear you would be getting for free. It's gotta cost less than a Honda.

CarloSW2

I wouldn't go for a mazda 626, maybe a 3 series, but really I wouldn't want a mazda unless it was older. I think you could get a vx that would be very similar to your old civic for a decent price. I think the metros are better little cars then I had ever considered them to be before finding this site. I'd have one, esp. because you can get one newer than a crx hf and it'd be cheaper, and about the same FE as a vx. I've never driven in the 92-95 civic hatches, but I loved my 89 maybe more than my crxs, and I really like my dad's 02 si. If you could get an 88-91 civic hatch and put an hf tranny or just buy a 92-95 vx or newer hx. I'm not sure how your civic's backseat was, but the 89 hatch I had there was plenty of room, felt less cramped than my dad's 02 si hatch. I don't know if you have to have a CA emissions car in CA or if you can bring in a 49 states version, but I'd avoid the CA models because they get lower mileage. Its probably a wash to say there is lower emissions on the CA model, esp if its a 49 standard tranny and you hypermile it. DEFINITELY get a standard.

Can someone explain the differences in the Civic trims? I was looking at auto trader and it seems the HX is the most fuel efficient.

I wouldn't buy the Metro if you have any intentions of ever driving someone around. I was driving two friends yesterday (granted both are probably over 200 lbs) and it was the worst driving experience I've ever had. The Metro could hardly make it over the tiniest of hills, pulling them at 30 mph with the pedal pressed to the floor. Then when I finally built up speed and had to brake, I also had to press the brake pedal to the floor to get it to slow down. Handling was horrible. Nearly ran out of the road several times.

The Metro really is a one person car. I wouldn't ever reccomend driving more than 2 at the most....

Go with a Civic.

VX was discontinued and HX is the new high fuel efficiency gas only all though not nearly as good FE as a vx... really the hybrid is the true VX replacement because it has similar FE... my sister has a new honda civic hybrid and she said they only get 40mpg. I think its a shame, I told her she should join gassavers, but she hasn't replied. At any rate Si is the highest trim with largest motor, EX is the highest trim with the LX, DX, HX motor. Depends on what years you are looking at as to if the HX is a hatch or if the Si is a hatch or so on. Hatches are generally lighter than the standard civics.

There is a great resource that I always go to for my cars... auctions. You simply can not beat the prices. Many of the cars just need bolt on body parts to become drivable again.

Here are a couple examples...

1996 200SX paid $1200 with parts sold for $2500 two years later.
1996 200SX paid $1100 with parts sold for $1500 a year later.
1991 Integra paid $1000 with parts sold for $500 five years later (with no clutch!!)

Point being, if you have any skill (or a desire to learn) in fixing up bumps and scratches, then there is big money to be saved, or even made, by buying cars at auto auctions. Just try to go for the cars with clear titles.

Erdrick:

I'll have to look into the auction thing. How far is Toyota from Tokyo? Didn't they rename that city after the car company? I should have went to the plant while is was in Japan.

Welp, in atomicradish's defense, it is an auto. That being said, my 45bhp when brand new diesel can pull me, my buddy, and groceries uphill in 2nd at ~45mph, and it has 350k miles on it w/ way too much oil consumption. A standard is definitely nice for certain cars...

A standard is nice for any car its available in, I think that some people shouldn't be driving and maybe an automatic is the only thing allowing them to drive. Erdrick how do you get into an auction?

Yeah, unfortunately it is an automatic.

It does need to have the steering re-aligned, but it is not nearly that bad. I was fighting the manual steering all the way. It is definetly not for curvy mountain roads, which I was driving on. The grades were not exceptionally steep though. I can't imagine trying to drive it up an actual mountain. I laughed just thinking about how the car would drive with the AC on.

A manual is always nice. I am very capable of driving one.

I wasn't aiming the comment towards you atomic, just to how people drive in general. I think highly of most drivers on this site.

What kind of driving do you expect to be doing? All city? Highway? What kind of communt? Considering where you are moving to, like others have suggested a Civic would be best with any freeway travel.

Yes, auto auctions are the way to go. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions about how they are run.

Toyota is about a 4-5 hour drive from Tokyo. It is to the west, kind of a mid-way point between Tokyo and Kyoto. As for the town name, yes, it was renamed after the car company. The car company's founder's names were originally Toyoda. They actually changed it because they knew that they would one day dominate the global market, and they wanted a name that would be easy for all people around the world to be able to pronounce.

88HF: Simple answer: become a dealer. For all of us who aren't able/willing to go through with that process, you can "hire" a dealer (read: person who buys enough auction cars that it made sense for them to get a dealer license) to buy the cars for you. Most auction sites have excellent photos, information, etc. on the cars that they are selling. The place I buy from runs at least two auctions a week, and has all of their cars listed a few days before the auction is held. Basically, you just choose the car you want, and tell your dealer how high to go. If you are lucky, you might be able to check out the car in person before you have the dealer bid for you.

GM would dominate if they stopped putting out crap. All their concept cars are just concept and their not listening to what people want.

popimp -

The HX was a previous generation Civic coupe optimized for lean-burn. I would call it the successor to the VX because it was a "conventional" car, even if it didn't achieve the same MPG. IMO they stopped making it because it overlapped with their Civic Hybrid market :thumbdown: .

CarloSW2

Thats great clench. My stepfather is looking at semi-retiring as a used car salesman and doing the Atlanta, GA auction for his company here in LA working only a couple days a week. He'd be a good connection if it pans out. They are moving to GA at the end of this school year as my mother is a retiring school teacher.

didn't they make an HX hatch?

88HF -

You may be you're right, but I can't find a reference to HX that is a coupe. Here is one reference that implies "coupe only" :

Honda Civic Parts Catalog Library
https://www.procivic.com/pages-honda_...ary/index.html
From the above, I think that when the VX hatch ended, the HX coupe started. The only hatch you could get in the USA from 2001 to 2005 was the SI, :thumbdown: . When I think of the HX, that last coupe is what I always think of because I seriously considered getting one.

CarloSW2

theclencher -

Now I want to go to one!

CarloSW2

I don't think any of the newer civics are in a 3K price range unless you are talking auction. I think the cx was what I was thinking about... you're right the hx was a coupe.

So if I were to get a CRX it would need to be an HF, or if I got a Civic it would need to be a VX or HX. What's a CX?

CX is lowest model civic hatch, it doesn't get as good mileage as vx. Its just the cheapest, no options / a/c.

So how do you find out about the police auctions?

Contact the police dept??
Sometimes listed in the newspaper classifieds but I guess it's up to the police dept.

I just googled "Los angeles police car auction" for LA and came up mostly empty because they are all "go betweens" on the Internet. However, I did go here :

https://www.lapublicautoauction.com/inventory.php

There were so many Saturns (nobody wants 'em :thumbup: )! Here is their location/bidding info :

https://www.lapublicautoauction.com/aboutus.php
Here is another site :

https://www.autoauctions.gsa.gov/

CarloSW2

Hello -

Here's another reference that is actually from the LA police dept, so it must be more legit :

Miscellaneous Information
https://www.lapdonline.org/join_the_t...asic_view/9126
CarloSW2