Bunch o' newbie questions...

OK, last friday I bought my first car. I am 19 and have never owned a car before. I was able to get a 1999 Honda Civic CX HatchBack. It has 150,000 miles, but had one owner, an older couple and it was mostly highway miles. They took very good care of it, the interior is in perfect condition. I got it for $6,900 from a Honda dealer in town. The car is basicly stock but it has had tinting, CD player, wheels, cruise, and side graphics added. My first question is, did I make a good choice buying this car?

Now, having never owned a Honda (or any other cars) I don't know a thing. I have read several people talking about 6th gen, 5th gen, etc, does that mean, and what is mine? On the same topic, what is the HP of it?

The car has places to put speakers in the rear, (it's got the covers and the hole in some plastic on both sides pointing up at the rear window) but there are no speakers or wiring in there. Whats up with that? Also, whats the best way to put a couple of subs in there, and not have it take up a bunch of space?

What is the average milage lifespan of a car live this (how many more miles can I expect to get out of it?)

I'm sure I have other questions, but I can't think if any right now. Yeah, I know some of these questions are stupid, but I know nothing other than the fact that it is an awesome car. Thanks guys, Todd

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i think you couldve got an older car with less miles on it, beause i think the average life of a car is about 200,000 miles, but as for horse i think it has about 120-125 hp, and your car is a 5th gen 96-00


as for the speakers in back, they are 6x9, but its getting them out thats the hard part, u have to pretty much dismantle the entire back seat and paneling (atleast in my coupe they did) it could be differant in a hatchback

Hate to tell you this, but you got ripped paying 6900 for a 99 with 150k miles on it. However, if you treat her right, I can almost guarantee another 100k of that motor.

When people talk about 6th gen, 5th gen. We are referring to each generation of the Civic. 4th gen = 88-91; 5th gen = 92-95; 6th gen = 96-00 and so on. So your's would be a 6th gen. I believe that the CX's have 106 hp.

The speaker mounts in the rear should have wires back there. Do a little searching. When I bought my 4th gen civic EX, there weren't even holes cut out on the rear deck for the speakers, the rear speakers were an option back then. However, the wires were neatly tied out of the way with some electrical tape, so it took a little searching to find them.

I would say the best way to put some subs in there is to make a false floor. If you want to keep your spare, build the sub box around the spare. My friend's uncle owns a 4th gen hatchback with one Crossfire 12" sub. He built his box so that the bottom of it sits on top of his spare tire and he has a false floor over it. Very clean and leaves you some space in the hatch.

Hope that helps you out.

dang, i guess i know jack about civics, but dont worry, im learning

civics, well all hondas in general have a longer lifespan than most other cars, that is if u treat it right. is a a 5-speed or automatic? if its a 5-speed you'll have more luck keeping it for longer if u dont abuse it. also, thats more than twice the mileage the usuall '99 car has on it just to let you know.

It's a 5-speed

Nice, just do some work to her, maybe an engine swap and turbo or something and post some pics. Or better yet time slips.

dang, i guess i know jack about civics, but dont worry, im learning
don't worry about it, i have been trolling Nissan boards for the last 3 months taking in information about my Sentra, I know exactly how you feel.

Nice, just do some work to her, maybe an engine swap and turbo or something and post some pics. Or better yet time slips.

That reminds me of one other question, since it is a high milage car, would an engine swap down the road (50,000-75,000 miles from now?) be a good idea? And without getting into the tech. stuff, what would it cost to put something a little better in there?

Like I said earlier, I don't know anything, what would time slips be?

he wants you to go to the quarter mile dragstrip and run your car...then you would get a "slip" for your time. its a way of showing a cars performance.

if you want a great site to learn about cars in general, go to www.howstuffworks.com and click on the automotive section.

as for the speakers in back, they are 6x9, but its getting them out thats the hard part, u have to pretty much dismantle the entire back seat and paneling (atleast in my coupe they did) it could be differant in a hatchback

Dude I just went through that two days ago. Took me and a friend over an hour just to replace my rear speakers....sucked ass man..I dont know why they didn't just make the speaker covers detatchable so you wouldn't have to go through all of that just to replace them.

(This is on a coupe btw, I don't know if the hatch is different, but it probably is)

That reminds me of one other question, since it is a high milage car, would an engine swap down the road (50,000-75,000 miles from now?) be a good idea? And without getting into the tech. stuff, what would it cost to put something a little better in there?



Well, anybody have an idea?

To give you a range, without getting technical, let's say $2000 - $4000 for an engine swap. I have done a number of bolt on's on a 98 hatch - let me know if you've got any specific questions.

On the topic of speakers, I have a 5th gen hatch (92-95) and they have that grille deal you described, but there's no mounts for them at all back there. I'm not sure if that's the case with the 6th gens (your car), but for mine because they're not there, and because its not the current body style, honda doesn't even have the mounts to sell me so that I could install speakers back there :mad: .

As for an engine swap, if you want to end up tuning that thing and getting some speed out of it (which it doesn't seem like from your posts), then now's the time to do it, just get it done and outta the way so that you don't have to be replacing parts you put on the old engine. If you just want a reliable car that gets a gob of miles to the gallon, then I say just wait until stuff starts to go wrong before you even worry about it because then you'll better be able to assess your financial situation and weigh the cost of a swap against the cost of another car that would suit your tastes

wow you paid $6000+ for a 99 cx with 150,000 miles, that seems expensive for me.

i have 95 ex and i only have 91,000 miles on it.

but civics make really reliable cars in my opinion.

Dude I just went through that two days ago. Took me and a friend over an hour just to replace my rear speakers....sucked ass man..I dont know why they didn't just make the speaker covers detatchable so you wouldn't have to go through all of that just to replace them.

(This is on a coupe btw, I don't know if the hatch is different, but it probably is)

it is- it's WAY EASIER :iceslolan there are just a few screws around the cover, and then you drop the new speaker in. the hardest part is the screw for the speaker that is right up under the roof support- you need a little short screwdriver, and some patience.

as to wither there are wires in there or not, i don't know- my 96HB came with speakers (had the DX model), so i just replaced them and used stock wiring ATM.

as for subs, it depends on wither you want to retain stock or near-stock stuff-carrying capabilities. if you don't care if you can't fit big objects in your hatch any more, you can put a truely MASSIVE box back there.

i want to be able to fit my bike in the back still, and if you want to keep it looking clean, you can build or have boxes built to go between the rear wheel well and the back of the hatch, or if you want to give up your spare tire, you can seal that well and put a box/amp in there.

there are actually other places to hide things like that, you'll see this summer ^_^

first of all dude that's a shit load of miles for the car. and if it's an automatic. toss it. but if it's not put the b16 in it and it could be pimpin. also down the road try and get the type r tranny. it's amazing.
if you do show before go then well, so be it. make it look stock and make it fast as hell first.

That reminds me of one other question, since it is a high milage car, would an engine swap down the road (50,000-75,000 miles from now?) be a good idea? And without getting into the tech. stuff, what would it cost to put something a little better in there?

Like I said earlier, I don't know anything, what would time slips be?

If swap is what you want...this might be of interest to you, K20 in a sixth gen civic hatch.

http://www.hasport.com/News/Articles/ESK1.htm

If you want to keep the motor in there now...it should last you maybe 100,000 to maybe 200,000 more miles this considering the car was maintained and service regularly in the past.

By the way, the price you paid was a rip-off.

i want to be able to fit my bike in the back still, and if you want to keep it looking clean, you can build or have boxes built to go between the rear wheel well and the back of the hatch, or if you want to give up your spare tire, you can seal that well and put a box/amp in there.




Hey, I saw in you post that you wanted to fit your bike in the hatch of your car so you built boxes to go between the rear wheel well and the back of the hatch, is that right? I would really like to see some pictures and a description of the box, and the size of the subs. I think that would be a great place to put them to leave the back open for stuff (like my bike!) :biggrin:

Hey, I saw in you post that you wanted to fit your bike in the hatch of your car so you built boxes to go between the rear wheel well and the back of the hatch, is that right? I would really like to see some pictures and a description of the box, and the size of the subs. I think that would be a great place to put them to leave the back open for stuff (like my bike!) :biggrin:

the boxes i built were for my friends 97 hb, back before i had my honda (i had a 90 ramvan 250 with a 318v8 in it, so space wasn't TOO tight ;P )

i don't have any photographs, but i'll email the guy and see if he can take some pics. i'll see if i can dig up the schematics i drew.

i think i used some smaller Pioneer subs... something like this (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-4DSqTgRmnWw/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?s=0&c=10&g=67500&I=107MM2084&o=m&a=0&cc=01&avf=N) would work really well. it only need .35 cubic feet of volume in a sealed box. i had one on each side, powered by a polk amp, which i hid under the passenger seat (lousy placement, i know, but i was in a hurry).

for as small as the buggers were, with 2 of them, they rocked pretty hard.

i'm either going to do something like that with my car (Better amp placement, though), or i'd like to use the spare tire well.

thinking about it, you could probably put something in the hatch door, too... you'd have to seal it, and you'd need bigger pnumatic lifters to open the door.... *goes to start drawings*

i don't have any photographs, but i'll email the guy and see if he can take some pics. i'll see if i can dig up the schematics i drew.



Cool, thanks! If you happen to get ahold of anything, just email it to me at: themountainbikeguy at msn dot com Thanks again! Todd :thumbsup:

first of all dude that's a shit load of miles for the car. and if it's an automatic. toss it. but if it's not put the b16 in it and it could be pimpin. also down the road try and get the type r tranny. it's amazing.
if you do show before go then well, so be it. make it look stock and make it fast as hell first.

If its an automatic ..toss it eh? So your telling the kid that just got the car to get rid of it.. A-hole.

As for the Miles . Those are realllly high on that year of a car, he must of drove it from boston to losangles daily. And that price is very steep comapred to KBB value. O well tho, you learn something new everyday.

If its an automatic ..toss it eh? So your telling the kid that just got the car to get rid of it.. A-hole.

As for the Miles . Those are realllly high on that year of a car, he must of drove it from boston to losangles daily. And that price is very steep comapred to KBB value. O well tho, you learn something new everyday.

jeez, why the heck is everybody complaining about the price??? It is a 5-spd, been taken really good care of, and here is a qoute from the KBB page:

1999 Honda Civic CX Hatchback 2D

http://www.kbb.com/VehicleJPegs/CHHOCIVHB991.JPG (http://www.kbb.com/kb/ki.dll/kw.kc.up?kbb.MO;056954;MO097&64801;hch&1307&BHHOCIVHB991.JPG;;1999%2520Honda%2520Civic%2520DX% 2520Hatchback&Honda;Civic;CX%20Hatchback%202D&Retail&0)


Engine: 4-Cyl. 1.6 Liter
Trans: 5 Speed Manual
Drive: Front Wheel Drive
Mileage: 150,000


http://www.kbb.com/clear.gif
Equipment Air Conditioning
Tilt Wheel
Cruise Control
AM/FM Stereo
Single Compact Disc
Dual Front Air Bags
Premium Wheels

Retail Value $6,285

Well, technically an auto actually costs more money, but I can understand you paying a little more than book if it was a private party exchange, aren't you going to typically pay more for than getting it from a dealer? I'm not sure about that but it seems right..

Well, technically an auto actually costs more money, but I can understand you paying a little more than book if it was a private party exchange, aren't you going to typically pay more for than getting it from a dealer? I'm not sure about that but it seems right..

typically you pay slightly less then book at a dealership, unless the car was really peach or they were throwing in something else also. for a private-party sell, cars typically go from a little, to several hundred, to several thousand dollars less then book. this is mostly becuse a private sale doesn't have the 'reputation' that an (assumably respectable) dealership has for good cars, not cheating customers, etc. also, most dealerships do a thorough interior/exterior cleaning of the car, replace any obviously worn parts, do matinence, tune up, etc... which makes it worth more to the buyer

i think u can get more than 100k out of ur car if u just take good care of it. My dad has a 94 w/ 320k on it an it runs nice. not that i would reccomend keepin that motor for that long.