My new Prelude SH - Honda Prelude Forum

PDViper77 · 05-22-2008, 08:15 PM

Well I won a 99 Electron Blue Civic Si off of EBAY last week while I was in STL. The civic was outside of miami so when I flew back I went down to get it. The pics of the car looked good on EBAY. It was $7900. The car had a B18C5 swap with a GSR tranny and Type R head with the red vavletrain and a P28 ECU. But other than that the car was STOCK besides a lightweight flywheel and aftermarket clutch. So the AD says EXCELLENT CONDITION and NEW PAINT JOB. Well whenI show up that was a different story. The car's paint was ****ty. The front driver side fender had a huge dent and the hood was flat black. The engine swap was half-assed with zip ties being used instead of hose clamps. The injector plugs were zip tied. EVERYTHING was zip tied. The front and rear fender liners were gone and the engine undertray was missing too. Now onto the interior. It did have brand new good condition 08 Si seats but half of the interior was missing and what was there was trash. The trunk had NOTHING. No carpet, plastics, spare, jack, NOTHING. The car had no speakers and the speaker grills were all cut out. The only thing that the car had going for it was that it had "80,000" miles on the chassis and a CLEAN title. Well the odometer showed 10,300 but the number were clearly rolled back because the numbers were all "off-line." So I walked away from the ****box and was out $500.
Since I was so close to Miami, I went ahead and kept driving south and found a whole sale lot that specialized in salvaged Hondas. They had a CLEAN 2000 Honda Prelude SH with 97,000 miles on it. The interior was perfect minus no headunit or coin tray cover. Also the front floor matts were missing. The car had been hit in the rear and totaled. They wanted $7500 but I talked them down to $7000 out the door including tax and all the dealer fees bull****. Then once I got on the highway to get home, all the check engine lights freak out so I am like oh great I just got ****ed again. Also on the test drive I didnt get the car over 45-50mph but now at 70mph + the car pulls and sways HARD. Well I get home after driving for 10 hours all day exhausted and say **** it, I will check it out in the morning. I look under the right rear, where the car was hit, and see that the upper control arm is bent so maybe I lucked out. Also the muffler was basked in from the inpact so my exhaust was pinched off. So I took it to a shop to check out because I have **** for tools in FL. They put on a new control arm and the codes were for a clogged EGR and the exhaust was blocked bad. So everything is fixed and it cost me $432 for them to fix it all plus a synthetic oil change. I am getting the exhaust redone next week because it is blocked off bad. The car doesn't pull as hard but it needs a front and rear alignment. So after I am done with all of the repairs, the car would be the same price as the civic but in great condition- I hope..... The rear bumper support was pushed back all the way to the frame in the right rear and just kissed the frame rail so hopefully I will be ok. We will see what the alignment shop says. Also the car is leaking a SMALL amount of oil from the timing belt area. Anybody know what this could be?
Thanks and here are some pics:
AFTER THE WRECK

AFTER THE BODYSHOP FIX

Artifex · 05-22-2008, 08:42 PM

I have a really hard time reading your post. Paragraphs are your friend.

I would not drive around in a car that was totalled in an accident without taking it to a laser alignment shop. I can't tell from your post whether you did that or not. Merely replacing an LCA and exhaust is not a good approach. If the car was hit badly enough to be totalled, it almost surely has frame damage.

Also, $7k for a salvage title is a massive ripoff, especially with almost 100k on the clock. We have users selling ones with clean histories for close to that. Not only that, many insurance companies won't insure or offer very restricted coverage on salvage title cars. I don't want to be mean to you, but you got ripped pretty hard on this one I think.

lude4lifeh22 · 05-23-2008, 04:12 AM

Wait, so you bought the car for 7k with that body damage? Did you pay extra to get it repaired (the body)?!?!

Like Ken said, not to be an ass, but you seriously got ripped. I cant believe you even thought about rolling off the lot with that thing. Oh ya, and type so normal humans can read it. You dont type papers or letters like that do you?

PDViper77 · 05-23-2008, 06:24 AM

Sorry about the paragraphs. I typed that in a different forum and just copy and pasted the text. I bought the cr with all of the damage fixed. Those wreck pics were when the dealership bought it.

lude4lifeh22 · 05-23-2008, 08:43 AM

^Oh, ok. Thats not so bad then. Mine was technically in two accidents before I bought it. Yet it had a clean title, ahahaha

98auto · 05-23-2008, 11:45 AM

7K for a salvage title prelude? I'm sorry man but you got ripped off. Now that you already have the car, have it laser aligned. Chances are, it will never drive straight again depending on how bad the frame was bent. Why by a wrecked car anyway?

PDViper77 · 05-24-2008, 08:45 AM

Because I got it for $6500.

lude4lifeh22 · 05-24-2008, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 98auto

7K for a salvage title prelude? I'm sorry man but you got ripped off. Now that you already have the car, have it laser aligned. Chances are, it will never drive straight again depending on how bad the frame was bent. Why by a wrecked car anyway?

Meh, I don't think its that bad really. I certainly wouldn't have bought it with out having it checked and everything, but I bought my car and it had been in two accidents (I didnt know when I bought it) and it had a clean title. Mine drives fine, everything is good, etc. And for a 2000 Prelude SH, 6500 is pretty good. Although with the items that were wrong with it, I would have talked them down more than that. Either way though, I definitely would have had everything checked before I gave them my money.

Dude witha lude · 05-24-2008, 04:00 PM

My car was 3200 and it's in immaculate shape except for the noisy valves.

95 si

Dfwbb6 · 05-26-2008, 08:07 PM

definitely think you overpaid but the car looks very nice after the fixing.