1997 prelude....need advice - Honda Prelude Forum

Her12345 · 01-18-2009, 09:42 PM

I'm thinking about buying a 1997 prelude. 50K miles, for $7500. First, is that a reasonable price tag?

Also, it is an automatic. I have been reading some things about the automatic preludes running into trouble. I need some advice.

Shimee · 01-18-2009, 09:49 PM

it's high by about $1000 (in my area that is). but that might be the intention of the seller, so he has room to work with.

as far as advice, it's difficult. you basically have to drive the car yourself or find someone who has an SS that's in good condition. so they can judge how the tranny feels. like someone said in the other thread like this, some people find trouble at 50k, some people find it at 150k; it's difficult to judge.

jmd471 · 01-19-2009, 08:23 AM

I paid around 7k for a 97 with 60k a few months ago. I think its a decent price, I purposely avoided autos though with all the failures I hear of.

Shimee · 01-19-2009, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmd471

I paid around 7k for a 97 with 60k a few months ago. I think its a decent price, I purposely avoided autos though with all the failures I hear of.

not right now it isn't. $7500 would be reasonable a few months ago.
in fact, i paid $8000 for mine which had 18k miles on it almost a year ago.

regardless of miles, the car is 12 years old almost.

h22jdmvtec · 01-19-2009, 04:48 PM

i paid 8500 for mine through a dealer...its a 99 base...it had 78500 on it when i got it..i bought it in may of 2008..it now has 95600 on it and shes runnign smoothly..minus the major oil burning its doing..(typical though)

pIERCE · 01-19-2009, 05:02 PM

Yes, you should think about wiating for a 5-spd to come along. One thing you amy be able to do, but is quite a stretch of the imagination, is let [I]them[I/] take you for a ride, see how they drive it. This isn't the best idea, but low milage doesn't mean it's in great shape, especially if they drove it hard(or harder than they should've). I would say 6500 is about right as stated before, but still, that auto is really touchy. Don't be too afraid, there are ways to dealing with them, if it is a good car with little to no wear on it. Many of the auto that do fail still go beyond 130K, some even to 160-180K. So even if your car won't last, you may still have a good 50K+/3-5 years left, and by then could sell it.

It is such low milage, you may not own it long enought to need to worry about failure, talk the guy down, it is a little steep...and good luck.