Honda Car Forum

I'm looking to buy a Prelude. Found a 1997 for 3900. He says it has a new engine(H22) and tranny. Engine has about 58000 on it. Does it seem like a good deal? I know alil about cars and cars with new engines put in scares me alil. This is my first car so i just want to be careful. What some good things to look for and would you buy a car with a new motor?

Preude is beauty, and thorw him an offer for 3500, proably has a vtec enigne which is a beatuy

It may be a good price unless the miles are really high, but that sounds kind of sketchy. Honda engines and transmissions generally last really well and I would guess the car might have been abused for the owner to ruin both, so I would be careful. Good things to look for in a used car are signs that they took care of it, like waxing it a lot, or keeping the inside clean. In most cases, people who trashed the car didn't maintain it either. Hope this helps.

id check the oil make sure its not black,take it for a test drive and make sure the transmission doesnt grind in any gear make sure it does actually have the h22 in it and not the h23(dohc NON-vtec) let it run for like 20 min make sure it doesnt over heat or anything,when you look at the engine look and make sure you dont see a whole lot of oil or radiator fluid everywhere,honestly 4,000 for a 97 prelude is a ok price i mean you could get something alot better and save alot more money either way though its your money do what you want with your money,look and see if the car is still inspected ETC as a mechanic/friend to go with you..~marcus

First of all find out where that motor came from and ask for paperwork. If its legit, and really has 58,000 on it, the swap most likely came from japan, which will present other smog and registration difficulties for you in the future. If its just a dude lookin to get rid of the car quick with no proof or documentation of motors origin then he could tell you whatever the hell he wanted to make it sound like a good deal, when in reality the motor could have 240k miles on it. In my opinion this is not your best choice for your first car, im basing that on my gut instinct that the seller may not be 100% truthful with you. Also you want something more stable for your first ride. You dont know who did the work on this thing. It seems odd hes only asking 3900, that motor swap and labor hours would total almost 3900 alone. Just remember, you get what you pay for in life. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.