For a variety of reasons, I needed to acquire a dumb cheap A-to-B car. My budget was $4500 max. I lucked out and came across a guy selling a fairly mint 1998 Civic EX automatic coupe....for $2500.

Perks of working for a dealership, I booked the car out and pulled carfax.

4 owners. Cali and Arizona. Religiously maintained every 3-5k miles. No major mechanical. Straight body. Clean title.

Car needs some work, radiator fan switch is bad (or car is missing a thermostat, not sure yet), needs tires, passenger window looks like a bear attacked it, and the tint needs replacing. But interior is incredibly clean, car drives straight, AC is ice cold, transmission shifts great, motor sounds excellent...all for 192,000 miles. Walked away at $2150. 5 year plates are $25. Tires are $150 new. Fan switch is $13. And it gets 40mpg.

Wife has wanted us to have a car we could wrench on together for years..couldn’t have picked a better option. I’ll randomly post about this piece on the OT forum as I plan to overhaul this car on a small budget and make it into a practical, good condition daily.