With my 1996 used civic experience I would recommend you to check
especially the transmission (manual or automatic). If you notice even
little shifting problem simply do_not_buy it. You might have to spend a
lot on fixing the transmission.

For an auto transmission car, do a road test especially to check
transmission behavior when turning (left or right). Also check
transmission behavior by slowing down slowly to 20-25km (but not
stopping) and trying to accelerate (slowly, quickly) to speed up. These
are out of my first-hand experience with my first car bought about 4
months ago. I had to do a major overhaul of the transmission recently.