On Mar 5, 8:46 am, steve <tinker...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi;
>
> I've been driving a 1991 Honda Civic automatic 4 door for 10 years. I
> bought it used with 50,000 miles on it. It is at 183,000 miles
> now. It has died on me twice recently, is having things break from
> metal fatigue and it is getting harder to get new parts for it.

I bet the dying problem can be fixed easily. But the rust can be a
dealbreaker. I just sold my 91 Civic LX manual transmission mostly
because of the rust.

> Are the 21st century Honda Civics still a good deal for
> dependability ?

I would be looking at the Consumer Reports reliability matrices (based
on surveys of about 1000 people per model-year) for the year 2000 and
younger Civics. The April issue every year has these matricies. My
recollection is that, yes, by this measure, the newer Civics (c. 2000
and later) are still about as good as one can get for reliability.

Go after a one-owner car using autotrader.com for listings and
autocheck.com to check the title for salvage vehicles and odometer
tampering. Craig's List is another resource, but multi-owner cars are
the rule there. If a one-owner car comes up at Craig's List be ready
to pounce, cash in hand. Best bet is probably to leave your name with
a number of dealers and say you are after a used Honda year ----. Or
you can usually go to their web sites and see their used car
inventory. Believe me, salesmen will get back to you. Use www.kbb.com
to get an idea of a fair retail price.