We're going out to pick this bad boy up this weekend.
http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/2238544510.html
Highlights:
$2700
441,000 miles
Original Owner
5 speed
No pics yet, but.. It's a silver Insight.
This will replace my fiancee's Civic. Even with that many miles, that is a phenomenal price. I can't believe we got it.
Will save us about $50/mo in transportation costs. :thumbsup:
Edit: Posting from Barstow, CA. Picked the car up. Got it for $2500. Bought it without hesitation. What a nice surprise! We had no idea what to expect by his "needs paint" comments. The body is straight as an arrow, but it has a couple of primer patches on the rear bumper and the body. No big deal overall. We were expecting the worst.
It runs and drives great! Has every bit as much power as my car. Battery discharges through the whole range without issue. In fact, I'm almost jealous. Just makes me realize that I need to do some maintenance on mine. Everything seems nice and tight, and operates as it should. Though, 1st and 2nd gear synchros are worn and it is difficult to downshift without grinding. It up-shifts normally. That will probably need to be addressed sometime in the next 10-20k miles.
I have, in my hands, receipts that total $10,805.07.. not including a couple of sets of tires. The last IMA battery he paid for out of pocket. He thinks there's a warranty on it, but I don't think that is correct? The paperwork doesn't say anything about it. I don't even know what some of this stuff is, as it just lists a part number. Axles have been replaced. Two clutches, two brake sets. Fixed a window regulator. Radiator, hoses, belts, water pump, thermostat.
I am really pleasantly surprised. We were expecting the worst, but I don't think it could have ended up any better for a 441,000 mile car. The transmission is the sour grape, but like I've mentioned several times.. You almost have to expect transmission problems with a used Insight, unless you know it's been dealt with recently.
Woohoo! We're happy.
Update 4/11/2011:
Just thought I would give a little update.
It has now been about a month and over 1300 miles since we bought the car. We have had the new OEM wheels and tires for about 300 miles now. Wow! What a difference. I really encourage anyone who doesn't think that the tires/wheels make a difference to try it for yourself. It's easy to become accustomed to how your car feels. Since I knew what the car should feel like, steel wheels with no brand 175mm tires really made the car feel like it had concrete blocks for tires. It now coasts and feels like it should.
While the car was up on the lift getting the new wheels put on, I noticed that the transmission was leaking pretty badly. That prompted me to move the transmission work up to the front burner, so I found a nice used transmission with 84,000 miles on it. I picked this transmission over some specimens with lower miles for a few reasons:
1) It came from a car with a high LMPG of over 67.
2) The case has been opened before. Since it is unlikely that any synchro work would have been needed on such a gently driven car at less than 84,000 miles, it is likely that the ISB has been replaced. That corroborates well with the high LMPG, as that likely implies above average use of regen.
I will be doing the work with the help of a friend. Originally I had planned on sourcing another worn out transmission to rebuild at my leisure. I will keep the transmission I remove and rebuild it at some point.
As it turns out, the Check Engine Light was burned out. As I posted in the Problems and Troubleshooting forum, there were several codes, all of which were LAF O2 sensor related. So I'll be ordering a new O2 sensor shortly.
After driving both cars back to back several times, I have noticed that this car does have a bit less power, especially below 2800RPM before VTEC engages. Hopefully the new O2 sensor will help alleviate that. I still plan on doing a compression check at some point.
Something I'm very happy to report is that the engine has not used a single drop of oil so far in the over 1300 miles we've had it. It's still right smack dab in the middle of the full mark/circle. That leads me to believe that the rings are still good.
So all told, we are still at less than $4000 total cost of ownership, even including the new wheels and new clutch that will go with the used transmission. Still extremely pleased with the purchase, and with these things out of the way we expect to get at least another 100,000 miles out of the car without any major problems.
http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/2238544510.html
Highlights:
$2700
441,000 miles
Original Owner
5 speed
No pics yet, but.. It's a silver Insight.
This will replace my fiancee's Civic. Even with that many miles, that is a phenomenal price. I can't believe we got it.
Will save us about $50/mo in transportation costs. :thumbsup:
Edit: Posting from Barstow, CA. Picked the car up. Got it for $2500. Bought it without hesitation. What a nice surprise! We had no idea what to expect by his "needs paint" comments. The body is straight as an arrow, but it has a couple of primer patches on the rear bumper and the body. No big deal overall. We were expecting the worst.
It runs and drives great! Has every bit as much power as my car. Battery discharges through the whole range without issue. In fact, I'm almost jealous. Just makes me realize that I need to do some maintenance on mine. Everything seems nice and tight, and operates as it should. Though, 1st and 2nd gear synchros are worn and it is difficult to downshift without grinding. It up-shifts normally. That will probably need to be addressed sometime in the next 10-20k miles.
I have, in my hands, receipts that total $10,805.07.. not including a couple of sets of tires. The last IMA battery he paid for out of pocket. He thinks there's a warranty on it, but I don't think that is correct? The paperwork doesn't say anything about it. I don't even know what some of this stuff is, as it just lists a part number. Axles have been replaced. Two clutches, two brake sets. Fixed a window regulator. Radiator, hoses, belts, water pump, thermostat.
I am really pleasantly surprised. We were expecting the worst, but I don't think it could have ended up any better for a 441,000 mile car. The transmission is the sour grape, but like I've mentioned several times.. You almost have to expect transmission problems with a used Insight, unless you know it's been dealt with recently.
Woohoo! We're happy.
Update 4/11/2011:
Just thought I would give a little update.
It has now been about a month and over 1300 miles since we bought the car. We have had the new OEM wheels and tires for about 300 miles now. Wow! What a difference. I really encourage anyone who doesn't think that the tires/wheels make a difference to try it for yourself. It's easy to become accustomed to how your car feels. Since I knew what the car should feel like, steel wheels with no brand 175mm tires really made the car feel like it had concrete blocks for tires. It now coasts and feels like it should.
While the car was up on the lift getting the new wheels put on, I noticed that the transmission was leaking pretty badly. That prompted me to move the transmission work up to the front burner, so I found a nice used transmission with 84,000 miles on it. I picked this transmission over some specimens with lower miles for a few reasons:
1) It came from a car with a high LMPG of over 67.
2) The case has been opened before. Since it is unlikely that any synchro work would have been needed on such a gently driven car at less than 84,000 miles, it is likely that the ISB has been replaced. That corroborates well with the high LMPG, as that likely implies above average use of regen.
I will be doing the work with the help of a friend. Originally I had planned on sourcing another worn out transmission to rebuild at my leisure. I will keep the transmission I remove and rebuild it at some point.
As it turns out, the Check Engine Light was burned out. As I posted in the Problems and Troubleshooting forum, there were several codes, all of which were LAF O2 sensor related. So I'll be ordering a new O2 sensor shortly.
After driving both cars back to back several times, I have noticed that this car does have a bit less power, especially below 2800RPM before VTEC engages. Hopefully the new O2 sensor will help alleviate that. I still plan on doing a compression check at some point.
Something I'm very happy to report is that the engine has not used a single drop of oil so far in the over 1300 miles we've had it. It's still right smack dab in the middle of the full mark/circle. That leads me to believe that the rings are still good.
So all told, we are still at less than $4000 total cost of ownership, even including the new wheels and new clutch that will go with the used transmission. Still extremely pleased with the purchase, and with these things out of the way we expect to get at least another 100,000 miles out of the car without any major problems.
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