Honda Civic - I failed to find a decent car with A/C for buttons

[pandamonium]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, my exercise in how cheap you can get a car with Air con has ended badly.

 

Car is horrendous, air con worked for about 2 miles and my insurance company won't touch it. 

 

I was going to sell it cheap to my uncle as he is desperate for a car, but I wouldn't inflict this on my worst enemy. 

 

Brakes are fucked, steering is vague and wandering, interior was super minging, engine feels flat and unresponsive, oil is pissing out from more than just the sump gasket, oh and the knackered air con.... Just feels generally like a heap. 

 

Obviously caveat emptor, so not whinging at anyone, but man did I get the raw end of this deal! 

 

 

 

 

Ps. I know that sounds like a massive rant, but I find the whole situation hilarious actually. I technically didn't pay a penny for it, as the bike I swapped it for was free, so when I scrap it I'll be 150 quid up. 

 

[Cavcraft]

But you could have sold the bike and bought a decent car with the money, instead of an ('allegedly') fucked one. Have to say I'm not seeing this as 'hilarious', no offence or anything.

[SiC]

Brakes are fucked,

 

Don't you drive a modern Bini? Probably got too used to massively over assisted brakes that slam on when a fly farts. They do them like that now so people think they have strong brakes, but the reality is it just makes it harder to brake smoothly and progressively.

 

steering is vague and wandering,

 

The non sporty models are often like that. TADIS. Possibly alignment out given the age of the car. Could be EPAS as they can give trouble on these. Or just needs a wheel realignment.

 

interior was super minging,

 

Scrubbing brush and an hour. Or local car valet.

 

engine feels flat and unresponsive,

 

It's a Honda, you need to rev it to get power.

 

oil is pissing out from more than just the sump gasket,

 

You knew it was leaking tbf. Not a massive job to change the gaskets allegedly.

 

oh and the knackered air con.... Just feels generally like a heap.

 

Summary: It's a 200 quid car. It appears to have got you from Somerset back to London ok.

What were you expecting?

[Guest Hooli]

You should have seen the last car I bought, air con didn't work, the gearbox was fucked, suspension clunks......

 

 

 

 

 

 

Proper bargain

[Bucketeer]

What were you expecting?

A description that even vaguely matched the car perhaps?

 

It's good of you to pass judgement on a car you've never seen or driven but if it's all the same I'll take my information from the guy that's just (unfortunately for him) bought it and driven it.

[pandamonium]

I'll clarify... 

 

Brakes fucked = pedal goes almost to the floor before anything happens and the ABS light intermittently comes one. 

 

Oil pissing out = not just sump gasket. Definitely more leaks, from higher up the engine. 

[SiC]

 

 

A description that even vaguely matched the car perhaps.

It's good of you to pass judgement on a car you've never seen or driven but if it's all the same I'll take my information from the guy that's just (unfortunately for him) bought it and driven it.

I see a car that matches its described description. There is an oil leak, it drives (as said, got it's occupant from Chard to London) and was 200quid. You struggle to even get a working car that has MOT for 200 quid that isn't Autoshite.

[SiC]

Brakes fucked = pedal goes almost to the floor before anything happens and the ABS light intermittently comes one.

 

Ok well that isn't normal. Fluid level ok, or leaking?

[doubleyeller]

I'm sorry to see the car described in this way. PM sent.

 

I did plenty of long haul trips including Somerset to Yorks return without problems.

 

What can I say? I drove it 163 miles to do this exchange I wouldn't do that if I thought the brakes were fucked, yehitsryan drove it 250 miles to me.

 

Unless something has radically changed its perfectly driveable and the aircon worked fine for me.

It's an old banger, nothing remotely special, but driveable. 

 

I described it as a car which would probably get its owner about till December. I would happily drive it again.

[twosmoke300]

The ac on those didn’t work from their third birthday . Condensor made of cheese.

It’s a 200 quid car

[Guest Hooli]

Hard or soft cheese?

[twosmoke300]

Brie at best

[Guest Hooli]

Fake cheese then, no wonder.

[Dick Longbridge]

We test drove a derv model of these around four years back. It was a £1500 car. Steering was more vague than May’s Brexit plan, boot was pissing in water, build quality felt poor, most of the horses had broken free and it was generally a big disappointment. We ended up spending £600 on a tired, but reliable Pug 306 derv estate, which somehow continues to escape the scrappy with its current owner. It was infinitely a better car than the Civic.

I can only assume that Honda’s build instructions must have been something to the effect of,

“Make Type R good. Make all other Civic shit.”

 

At least it was only £200.

[pandamonium]

Just to be clear, the only blame I'm assigning here is to myself, for agreeing to a car without viewing it, and expecting more that it turned out to be. 

 

That's what we do here, buy crap cars and whinge about them, don't we? 

[Andyrew]

To be honest, the way it's written sounds like you are blaming someone, and you was expecting the moon on a stick for £200.

[loserone]

I seem to recall it being advertised for a fair whack more than £200 earlier. Caveat emptor indeed.

 

I also seem to recall a similarly shrugged off optimistic description..

[The Moog]

£200 car from AS isn't like a random buy on eBay.

 

We are a bit odd so often what would put people off elsewhere, is just grist for the mill. See the S60 roffle for that - crank pulley noise - turn the radio up!

 

Normally I am surprised how good the cars are and sometimes come with free pies

 

AS car buy should be as close to hassle free as possible whatever the price.

[captain_70s]

Mk7 Civics are just garbage. Perhaps the sporty models are different but the steering in mine has always felt super unresponsive.

 

Is it the 1.6? No power under 4.5k because Honda, no faster than my '83 Acclaim. Smaller motors must be gutless...

 

Brakes ranged from decent to fire and mine has 4 wheel discs. That is likely lumbered with rear drums.

 

They do seem to hold value though £200 is usually spears and repayers.

[The Moog]

 

 

Is it the 1.6? No power under 4.5k because Honda, no faster than my '83 Acclaim. Smaller motors must be gutless...

 

.

1.4 engine although was said to go like a rocket.

[loserone]

But you could have sold the bike and bought a decent car with the money, instead of an ('allegedly') fucked one. Have to say I'm not seeing this as 'hilarious', no offence or anything.

 

I have to agree with this.  AS should be the place where you *can* buy a £200 motor,  unseen, and know pretty much what you're getting.  So if you're told that it'd be a good option for someone looking for working air con, it should have working air con.  Or go like a rocket.  Or be generally ace.

[doubleyeller]

I seem to recall it being advertised for a fair whack more than £200 earlier. Caveat emptor indeed.

I also seem to recall a similarly shrugged off optimistic description..

All I will say is this: Both the Scirocco and the Civic are cars that I bought off autoshite, and both are cars which I improved from the condition I took them on in. I thought the whole point of Autoshite was to take on unpopular and worthless cars, try to improve them or at least give them a stay of execution from the bridge.

[SiC]

Mk7 Civics are just garbage.

I'm not sure I agree with that they are garbage. What I'd say, personally, that the ones remaining are mostly garbage/worn out. This is based on my experiences of them when they were a fair bit newer.

 

I had a 2003 Civic 3dr back in 2005. Bought it at 2 years old. When looking for a replacement car for my first I looked at the Focus MK1 (didn't like the dash), Alfa 147 (all had faults and problems), Golf MK4 (boring and expensive) and Astra G (too old fashioned).

 

The Civic was what I chose out of that list. It wasn't the best but there wasn't a massive difference between them. The Focus drove the best, Alfa was nicest inside, Golf too floppy and the Astra grim. Civic wasn't any of those but comfortably sat in the middle of all the choices. Steering on a newish one I never had any complaints. However I did notice as it got older it was stickier in the middle. I believe this was a common fault on them and required a new rack or something to fix. Wasn't annoying enough for me to get it looked at further.

 

From 2 years old to 7 years old I put on over 100k miles. Only thing that it needed was tyres, brakes, oil, filters, coolant pipe (sprung a leak) and air con condenser. Sold it when I finished uni and got an RX8 (and a lesson in running thirsty cars).

 

I had the diesel (Isuzu unit). Went well and pretty economical. Despite driving it hard, I always got better than 45MPG.I have had several 1.6 petrols as a curtosy car and it felt plenty quick enough to me. But again that would have been a brand newish one (i.e. sub 20k). My parents had one like yours and again performance was never something they moaned about it. Maybe that sticking rear caliper you had was taking some of the performance away?

 

I reckon that many are either neglected or just worn out as they get older. Because it's a Honda you don't need to do maintance ... right?! I remember a Polish neighbour telling me that he doesn't buy Honda's as when they start breaking, everything tends to start breaking together because everything tends to wear out together. I.e. everything hits its design life and things rarely fail prematurely. This I suspect has a lot of truth in it.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the Spaceship Civic will have the same problems. Especially as they were not quite as well built as the Mk7.

[Christine]

Now I've put the proper synth 5 -30 oil in my Honda HRV...  It flies .  

 

Using the much cheaper 10- 40 ..  gawd,  it was a  depressing slug..

[Lacquer Peel]

Did this work out to be more expensive than repairing the BINI's A/C?

[dollywobbler]

The brakes are a concern, I'll grant you that. I've bought many cheap motors on Autoshite, but I'd be pretty miffed if the brakes felt dangerous. It's telling that when I bought the Rover from Mr Bollox, I didn't even try opening the bonnet until the next day (and then failed to understand the release!)

 

I've only had one bad experience buying on here, when my £4 ROFFLE ZX shat a wheel bearing on the way home. However, my own video feedback proved there was no noise to start with, so there was nothing the seller could do. He wasn't to know, so there was no upset. I found it all pretty amusing to be honest, and we got it sorted, had an unexpected and pleasant night with friends and it was all part of the fun.

[doubleyeller]

Now I've put the proper synth 5 -30 oil in my Honda HRV... It flies .

 

Using the much cheaper 10- 40 .. gawd, it was a depressing slug..

There's probably a lot to be said for that. I've just been putting in the cheapest crap available - no point spending money on 5w 30 if it's just going to piss out the side of the sump.

 

It's had a new sump and new brake lines, so for one new tyre, a sump gasket and possibly a bit of attention to the brakes (although I thought they were ok) it would probably pass the MOT in December.

 

But I still honestly believe that it's a perfectly competent car at leat till the next MOT.

[Junkman]

One thing is for sure. Had the GGG started this thread, it'd be a metric shitload funnier.

Having said that, I actually find it hilarious.

[captain_70s]

I'm not sure I agree with that they are garbage. What I'd say, personally, that the ones remaining are mostly garbage/worn out. This is based on my experiences of them when they were a fair bit newer.

Most likely.

 

All the same I don't think it was every a particularly engaging car, even on release in 1999, stodgy steering and heavy pedals seem par for the course. The drivetrain is fairly indestructible though, I reckon another issue is that genuine Honda parts and servicing isn't cheap so cars tend to get run into the ground.

I don't think any car of that size/age with a 1.4 is going to "go like a rocket". My 1.6 plods happily with me changing gear at 3.5k, if I want to merge into 70mph traffic it's red line time as all the power lives at the top. With more than 2 people in it the thing was genuinely slow. I wonder if the less torquey 1.4 is less happy plodding and requires thrashing to get any life out of it.

 

I filled my car with 10w40 recently, made fuck all difference. Some people say it results in worse fuel economy and more sluggish performance but I can't say it was noticeable, at least not on a 13 year old 100,000 mile car.

 

But fuck, it's a £200, 16 year old car with 5 months of MOT.

[Junkman]

Let's face it - it's shite.