Just got back from checking out the car. Owner and his girlfriend were nice people and pretty honest from what I could tell.
First thing I noticed was that the car was repainted. He admitted that it had been in an accident up front. The nose was repaired, and he claimed that the hood was so crunched that it broke the windshield... Indeed, there was evidence of a repaint. The top of the windshield's black rubber trim had a bit of overspray on it, as did the rear ends of the doors. The insides of the doors were noticeably more faded than the outside. Overall, from what I could see, the paint itself wasn't bad. Quality was good and the body only had a few dings in it. Front bumper had a sign of impact on the left corner, probably post-accident. He told me that both front air bags deployed but he only changed the driver's.
The engine bay was very clean. Owner seemed to know a bit about his car cause he said he only ever used NGK plugs and wires, and refused to put anything less than premium in it. He'd put a Spectre cold air intake on as well as HIDs. He said the clutch was two months old. The car ran very well and to me at least seemed to prove it was well taken care of. Unfortunately we had met up in a Lowes parking lot during rush hour and traffic was at a stand still, so I could only test drive it around the crowded lot and only reached about 30... not good. But the clutch felt great, shifter slid effortlessly into all of the gears. Never realized how silent these Accords were lol I kept hitting 3k when I wasn't watching the tach.
The interior was extremely clean, but I noticed that the passenger door handle had ACCORD 98 written on it, so that was obviously from a junkyard. He has a Pioneer GPS flip-out head unit in it with Alpine speakers and two Audiophile (I think?) subs in the trunk, included with the car for an extra $800. But I don't think I'll go for the system if I go for the car, I don't really care.
Overall, from the tiny test drive I got in, the car drove well. Mechanically, I have no qualms. But it was after I left and ran the VIN on AutoCheck that things got ugly...
http://michaelkiaofgroton.com/AutoCheckHandler.ashx?sid=5121681&vin=1HGCG31791A013977#full-history
What bothers me the most is the mileage. Notice there is evidence of a possible rollback. May be a clerical error but if you guys have any thoughts, please share. Kinda skeptical as to why the original owner only had the car for a couple of months before seemingly getting rid of it. Car was also at an auction at one point
So for his asking price of $4000 without the system, what do you think? My dad approves of the car.. he's some sort of Asian MacGyver, automotive/anesthetic/electrical/mechanical/aeronautical engineer. He said even with it having been in an accident, it's still a pretty good car. The repaint was apparently done two years ago and is holding up very well, so I guess no worries there for now.
So... $4000? Dad's saying to start at 3k. OR, should I stay away from the car in general?
Oh and my bad... completely forgot to take pics.
