Here is a story I thought I should share with everyone else in the forum so someone else can maybe avoid making a huge mistake! :blink:
I've been looking for a used car and came across a one owner 2003 Honda Civic hybrid, part gas engine, part electric motor. The fuel economy on the original window sticker from Honda said the car would get 48 mpg around town and 47 mpg on the highway. Outstanding!
The car only had 80,000 miles on it, had a receipt in the glove box for Zeibart rustproofing, (the car didn't have a spot of rust anywhere), and was free of any dents and scratches whatsoever. The interior looked brand new and the car was equipped with power windows, power door locks, air conditioning and cruise control. The car was in impeccable condition and looked like it had been garaged all its life.
The car looked like it had been immaculately taken care of and with the asking price of $5,800 it seemed like a good buy. But as I was looking the car over I thought, "Why would someone sell a such a desirable car in such great condition, especially since they had kept the car for so long?" Something just didn't feel right.
The original window sticker for the car was from the only Honda dealer in town, so I copied down the VIN and went to the dealers service department to ask some questions about this car. I told the service adviser that the car was now for sale, I might be interested in purchasing the car and if I provided him the VIN would he be so kind to look it up the history for the car in his computer database and tell me if there was any major problems with the car I might be concerned with.
Well, well, well, he discovered that when the car had last been to their service department, it had been brought in to diagnose a check engine light and the cause was diagnosed as the main battery for the hybrid system having failed and needing to be replaced. When hybrid vehicles aren't driven very much, (as this car hadn't been, only averaging about 7,700 miles per year), the main battery goes bad, as it's not being regularly recharged.
The price for the battery? $3,000 and that was just for the battery, not including installation, which would have been four to five hours of labor time at about $90 per hour!
So that is why this car had been sold at auction and a little checking saved me from what would have been a huge mistake in buying this car.
The moral of the story is, if you are ever going to consider buying a used hybrid vehicle, be very, very careful and thoroughly check out the history of the vehicle before purchasing it!
I hope this helps someone out.
I've been looking for a used car and came across a one owner 2003 Honda Civic hybrid, part gas engine, part electric motor. The fuel economy on the original window sticker from Honda said the car would get 48 mpg around town and 47 mpg on the highway. Outstanding!
The car only had 80,000 miles on it, had a receipt in the glove box for Zeibart rustproofing, (the car didn't have a spot of rust anywhere), and was free of any dents and scratches whatsoever. The interior looked brand new and the car was equipped with power windows, power door locks, air conditioning and cruise control. The car was in impeccable condition and looked like it had been garaged all its life.
The car looked like it had been immaculately taken care of and with the asking price of $5,800 it seemed like a good buy. But as I was looking the car over I thought, "Why would someone sell a such a desirable car in such great condition, especially since they had kept the car for so long?" Something just didn't feel right.
The original window sticker for the car was from the only Honda dealer in town, so I copied down the VIN and went to the dealers service department to ask some questions about this car. I told the service adviser that the car was now for sale, I might be interested in purchasing the car and if I provided him the VIN would he be so kind to look it up the history for the car in his computer database and tell me if there was any major problems with the car I might be concerned with.
Well, well, well, he discovered that when the car had last been to their service department, it had been brought in to diagnose a check engine light and the cause was diagnosed as the main battery for the hybrid system having failed and needing to be replaced. When hybrid vehicles aren't driven very much, (as this car hadn't been, only averaging about 7,700 miles per year), the main battery goes bad, as it's not being regularly recharged.
The price for the battery? $3,000 and that was just for the battery, not including installation, which would have been four to five hours of labor time at about $90 per hour!
So that is why this car had been sold at auction and a little checking saved me from what would have been a huge mistake in buying this car.
The moral of the story is, if you are ever going to consider buying a used hybrid vehicle, be very, very careful and thoroughly check out the history of the vehicle before purchasing it!
I hope this helps someone out.
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