2013 and earlier-Honda Civic Prices Paid and Buying Experience

rover07

Hey All,

Just was wondering if I paid a good price for my 2005 Honda Civic EX automatic.
It is loaded with dealer options such as wheels locks for the alloy wheels, pin striping, sunroof visor and mud guards. Those 4 extras alone from Honda were an extra 1200.00. I paid 17,400 for it here in Fort Myers, Fl. It doesn't have side air bags and that price doesn't include destination fee and Fl 6% tax.

checker88

2005 civic vp, auto trans , no side airbags, splash guards, no extra options. i bought it in lima ohio.13, 735 ..... 14,840 out the door. i also got a 250.00 check back from the dealer(i was told i'd get a 250.00 gas card it was a mix up, i got money anyway). first oil change free and 2 free car washes

kevol

Just purchased a 2005 Civic Coupe VP for $12,100 at Palm Harbor Honda. $13,500 out the door. Requested a quote thru Honda's website, had 5 different dealers in the area contact me. Palm Harbor Honda gave me the $12,100 price over the phone. No one else in the area even came close and none would give less than MSRP over the phone. They didn't have the color I wanted (Fiji Blue), but arranged for the car from another dealership. Very fast, low pressure, friendly buying experience. Will let you know the salesman name if you would like to contact him.

mikefm58

Nice purchase. That's pretty much what I'm looking for, for my son. Please email me his name. My email addy is in my profile.

blueiedgod

If you are getting a DX, please remember that it had A/c as optional equipment and not all DX's will have A/c. That may be important in the Middle East. Why would you want to spend $10,000 on a 3 year old DX when you could have a brand new 2004 left over for a little over $12,000 If you can find a dealer that has a left over DX. If you are near a metropolitan area, then you should have no problem finding a 2004 DX with a 5 spd. Just don't get too narrow, you may be able to find a left over LX for the same or a couple hundred more.

As to why there is a difference in trade-in and retail, this is the nature of the business; buy low, sell high. Plus Honda has very good resale, so I am not surprized that a $13,000 car in 2001 is still holding $10,000 mark 3 years later. A 2001 Focus, Neon, Sentra, and Cavalier will probably sell for about $5000 today with 36,000 miles.

Don't forget that whatever you save on buying the car here, you still have to pay shipping to Middle East, customs, and other stuff. It may be cheaper to buy one there.

acuraman15

I would like to purchase a 2005 Civic VP 2 or 4 door. Should I get a manual transmission or automatic? I prefer manual unless anyone knows of any problems. I know the 4 door only comes in automatic. Thanks for your help.

anonymousposts

transmission is always better than automatic given a choice. Unless traffic dictates you drive an automatic then I would look for a manual tranny LX.

temj12

I purchased a 2005 Civic 2dr Coupe with MT about four weeks ago. Definitely go for the five speed manual. I love to drive it. The transmission is made in Japan and is really smooth. By the way, at the time I could buy the car in Tennessee for 12,000 plus 299 dealer fee. I ended up paying 300 more to buy the car in Nashville which is where I live. The other one was 200 miles away.

acuraman15

Thanks to both of you who responded so far. Great information. I am leaning towards a 2 door silver with manual transmission. I am getting quotes here in MO for $13,500.

isellhondas

If you don't like driving a 5 speed or you don't know how, you should get the automatic.

And remember when you go to sell it later it'll be MUCH harder to sell.

Other than that, nothing wrong with a 5 speed!

acuraman15

That is a good point about the resale value is better with an automatic. I am trying to get by as reasonable as possible because this Civic VP will be a daily driver to rack up mileage on to compliment my S2000.

hondao

32,000 miles, no major exterior problems, engine is good. $8,500 is the final price. How did I do?

slbible

How did I do?

2003 Civic EX 4dr (color: Shoreline Mist)
Auto
wing
12,500 miles
one owner clean title
all records and dealer service from new
$12,350
Private Sale

I was looking at new Civics but felt I couldn't pass up this deal!

mrh

That sounds great! 12,500 for that is not bad at all.

I just talked them down to 15,500, listed for 16,800 on a new 2005 LX 2 dr.

$15,500.... How is that?

*To clarify - I did purchase and will be picking up later this afternoon. I think I did fine.

slbible

Auto or 5 spd? With or Without Side Airbags? $15,500 includes tax, title and license? If so, sounds like a good deal. FYI!! Base LX 2dr, auto has an invoice of $14,817 + dest. cost.

mrh

It is Automatic. Not including tax, title, license. No side airbags.

The invoice was 14,817 + $515. I've been looking hard for about a month. They added on the splash guards. (Extra $109)

This is what I took into consideration
Invoice: $14,817
+ $500 destination
+ $100 for splash guards
Total: 15,417

They turned down my offers of 15,100, 15,300 and 15,400...within a course of a couple hours. They accepted 15,500. I took the 3.9% over 5 years and put a thousand down. (College grad as of Saturday) Their grad program stinks with the 5.49% for students. I was eligible for 3.9%

The TMV "What others are paying" is about 15,700.. .so I think I did better than others. I think I did alright.

acuraman15

I test drove the Civic VP 2 door automatic and manual. Both cars had a very smooth and nice ride. I was really impressed. The shifting on the manual transmission was very extremely smooth and the clutch pedal felt soft. Should I get one with the side SRS( airbags)?

temj12

I purchased a 2005 Civic VP MT a month ago. I would definitely get the side airbags. If you have a big Chevrolet Suburban that comes crashing into your side, you will need all of the protection you can get. By the way, I would get the MT if you don't mind changing gears. I love a MT and it is very smooth in the Civic.

dynamator

I just purchased a 2005 Civic LX Sedan 4 door with automatic, and side airbags
from Gardena Honda.
Their internet price was $15342.00
This got jacked up $150 for mud guards - which I know is a dealer thing,
but they made the extra effort to locate and 'import' the LX with side airbags in the color I wanted.
From the sticker, I could see it was from the inventory of Miller Honda in Culver City.

Total out-the-door price with fees and taxes was just below $17,000.
[Thank you Gov. Schwartzeneger for saving me several hundred dollars - I know we'll all pay later ]
And what's with that $40 "document prep fee?"

They tried to make me fill out a full credit application, even though it was a cash purchase. They used the Patriot Act as an excuse, but when I was prepared to get a bank check, they dropped this requirement.

Also a note about the side airbags - they're built into the sides of the front seats.
This latest redesign is supposed to be critical to the Civic's side impact performance.

patricia43m

I am selling my beloved 1991 Honda Civic LX (4 door)
It only has 83,000 miles and was always garaged. It has two small spots of rust by a tire but paint is very good overall.

I am trying to sell it on my own but see prices all over the place.
I am serious when I say that every person I have spoke to about selling the car seems interested (dentist, neighbors, employees at Autozone and even the salesman who was trying to sell us a new car. he said not to trade it in because he could get us a good deal)

We only just decided to sell 2 days ago so I want to be prepared.

Any tips? I know Edmunds says I should get around $1700 but I see it going for more and the mileage is so low (no problems with the car that I know of and it's been checked out)

acuraman15

As I am going to different dealers looking for a Civic VP, I asked about the maintenance on this car. One dealer told me the oil changes are every 10K miles and another dealer told me every 3750 miles. What's the deal?

mikefm58

" What's the deal?"

Go by what the owner's manual says.

Kirstie_H

Hop over to our topic titled Real-World Trade-In Values and post the details about your vehicle. Terry (member ID rroyce10) is very experienced at giving values for older vehicles.

kirstie_h
Roving Host
Host, Future Vehicles & Smart Shopper discussions

z28com

The 3700 mile oil change is if you use petrolium oil. I use nothing but Amsoil. It beats Mobil 1, Castrol, Havoline, Quakerstate and anything you can throw at it. Dealers hate it because they lose a lot of money. With Amsoil 0W30 you can drive 1 year or 35,000 miles before needing to drain the oil. It's recommended that you use the SDF oil filters. The SDF filters are to be changed every 6 months or 12,500 miles, whichever comes first. I'm using this on my Saturn Vue now, which also has the Honda engine.

If Taxi drivers knew about this oil, they would all save a ton on oil changes. My father owned a service station and he had a taxi driver come in to do oil changes almost every 3 weeks. Geez! What a rip off.

Kirstie_H

Please don't ask for information about salespeople. Per the lettering above the "post a message" box, you may include the dealership name, city and state only.

isellhondas

10,000 miles is the MINIMUM oil change interval. That is under ideal driving conditions. I know I would never let a car go that long. I get it done at 4000 miles.

acuraman15

Thanks for the information on the frequency of the oil changes. Obviously, I haven't bought the car yet, so I can't look in the owners manual. I was just wondering why one Honda dealer told me the oil changes are every 10K miles and another told me every 3750.

z28com

I've put 23,000 miles on my oil. You're totally throwing money in the trash by doing those quick oil changes, plus you're creating the need to keep importing foreign oil WHICH IS A BAD THING. Amsoil is all made here and is 100% synthetic. That is all the oil you need. The once per year oil change. If everybody in the USA switched to this oil, the price of gas would plummet.

You need to do some research on Amsoil. Comparing Amsoil to any other motor oil is like comparing bottled water to a bottle of Absolut Vodka. Just because they look the same, are both liquids and both can be consumed into the body DOES NOT MEAN THEY REACT THE SAME.

Motors that have done once-per-year oil changes will last FAR LONGER than you with the 4,000 mile oil changes with conventional oil.

Conventional oils (the oil you're using) are refined from crude oil. Refining is a process of physically separating light oil components from heavy ones. Crude oil contains millions of different kinds of molecules. Many are similar in weight but not in structure. The refining process cannot distinguish such molecules, so a wide assortment of molecules is present in the finished lubricant made from crude oil stocks.

Crude oils contain parafins causing lubricants to thicken and flow poorly in colder temperatures. Molecules containing sulfur, nitrogen, and other elements invite the formation of sludge and other products of lubricant breakdown, especially in higher temperatures. Sludge and breakdown are what cause the higher wear rates.

Amsoil is refined from PURE chemicals and not crude oil (the bad stuff we keep importing from IRAQ and other countries.) The basestocks for Amsoil do not contain sulfur, nitrogren other other elements that breakdown. Their resistance to breakdown allows them to be used longer than refined conventional oils.

The reason I found all of this in the first place is because I was having oil consumption in a brand new car. Everybody I spoke to told me to get the engine rebuilt under warranty. I told them they were all nuts and that when I got the car back then I'd have a ton of other problems after they ripped the engine out. I saw a person who had this problem with a Corvette. Instead of switching to Amsoil, he had the engine rebuilt and he said it was nothing but horror stories after he got the car back.

Anyway, I was looking for any kind of additives or oils or anything else I could put in other than rebuilding the engine. The Amsoil fixed all of my problems and I've been using it ever since. This stuff is now saving my family hundreds of dollars per year in the 4 cars we use it in, plus the increase in gas mileage pays for the oil so now our oil changes are virtually free because of the fuel offset.

I would say you have to be insane to use conventional oil after all of the stuff I've learned in the last couple of years about oil. Anybody who keeps using old-school petrolium oil is just ignorant about lubrication. If everybody thought like this, we'd still be using 8-track tape players instead of CD's. If they can fly a man to the moon, don't you think they can make oil that will last more than 3,000 miles? Comon.

Man, you're making me sound like a seller of this oil. All I want is the a way to contact the person for this Civic VP. I don't want to call Palm Harbour Honda only for them to tell me that they have no idea what I'm talking about when I want to buy a 2005 Honda Civic VP for $12,100.

babyblue

Hi, any help will be appreciated! I am looking to purchase the Civic Sedan EX Special Edition car in an automatic. I am walking into a dealership as a single mom and don't want to be taken advantage of. What would you consider a good deal on this car? I live in New Jersey. I understand a good deal would be around invoice price. What does this include?
Does it include Destination charge?
Thanks for your help!

mikefm58

" I don't want to call Palm Harbour Honda only for them to tell me that they have no idea what I'm talking about when I want to buy a 2005 Honda Civic VP for $12,100. "

Just call them up or better yet stop in, tell them you're an internet junkie and have seen several cases where they're selling for the low $12K range and make them an offer. The worst they'll say is sorry, but your internet research is wrong.

isellhondas

I believe there is a seperate forum somewhere here devoted to motor oil discussions. The subject of synthetics vs. dino oil have been beat to death.

And, yeah...you do kinda sound like an Amsoil distributor.

Kirstie_H

You are indeed correct, isell. There are at least two:
Engine Oil - A slippery subject Part 2
Synthetic motor oil

kirstie_h
Roving Host
Host, Future Vehicles & Smart Shopper discussions

jconline

i was offered this at a dealership in MD

2005 VP w/ side air bags
13995.25 (out the door price, includes destination, processing, taxes, tags)

good price? i haven't done any hagglin'

thanks

edit: oops, i see this is a LX thread...well anyhow, is this a good price for a VP?

temj12

My out the door price in Nashville was $200 less than that. We have a 7% state tax and a city tax that is less than 100 depending on where in the area. Westgate Honda in Knoxville, Tennessee would have sold me the car OTD for 13,500. That was a 200 mile drive and not worth it. That was March 31, 2005.

austin78704

Can anyone tell me if $24,700 (Out The Door) sounds like a fair price to offer my local Honda Dealership here in Austin, TX.? I will be paying cash up front (without a trade in). I'm planning on doing it the last day of the month. Some people seem to think that's not enough, others say I could even offer as little as $24, 500.
For the 05 Honda Accord EXV6 withOUT Nav.
thanks,
bpadar@hotmail.com

mikefm58

Why don't you try posting in Accord Prices Paid & Buying Experiences

mcap56

Anyone know of dealer incentives for Civics right now. I am thinking about an EX and getting some good quotes. However, I may just hold out for the O6.

Also, do you think the O6 prices will be significantly higher???

Thanks,
Marc

z28com

Palm Harbor Honda is a good 5 to 6 hours drive from me. That's why I can't just stop in. I can't afford a bait and switch on this. I'm already financing one vehicle and this would be a second one. I'm not in the position to have another $20,000+ vehicle. I'm already financing a $23,000 dollar vehicle.

I may have to end up buying a used Civic. I've seen several 2002 and 2003's selling for $5500 to $8500 with under 20,000 miles on them when I was looking at autotrader.com.

I'd rather buy a brand new VP so that way I could have a warranty... that's if I could truly get this car for $12,100. If Palm Harbor can sell it for that price, I don't see why all other Honda dealers can't match them. After seeing the 2006 Civics, now I can see why they want to hurry and get rid of the 2005 inventory. That 200 HP Civic coming out is to compete with the super-charged Saturn Ion and the 235 HP turbo-charged Neon I would imagine. The sub-100 HP Civic is pretty wimpy in comparison to these cars. Is Honda taking the engine from the S2000 and putting it in the Civic? That would seem like the right thing to do.

likeitornot

0 money down and 0.09% financing. Herb Chambers in Seekonk, MA had an advertisment in the paper with that. Anyone ever get a car there and like them, no problems..etc?

The only thing is.. I originally planned on going with a used* Civic coupe to get the options I wanted in my price range. I talked to another dealer and they said it would've costed me around $15,000 and I'd get the 0 money down and 3% interest for financing. They also brought up that I could get the 2005 VP for about $14,000 and they could add in some of the options I wanted. Can they really add in things on a VP? It didn't look that way to me by the Honda website, some of the things I want weren't considered "optional", they only came with the other models. Like cruise control, power windows, automatic. I know a Sunroof and keyless entry could be added in, but I'm sure for another couple of thousand. I can wait on that anyway.

Is my best bet to still go with a used? Right now I can't decide whats more important, getting a good deal like 9,952 for a brand new one or a few options. Even though I know Honda's hold their value well, it would still suck to get a new one and have to fix a few things on it making it cost more anyway.

acuraman15

That must be a scam, because here in MO, the rock bottom price that I have found for a 2005 Civic VP is $12,999. Does anyone know where I can buy one for less?

blueiedgod

The best thing would be the get the car you can live comfortably with for the next 5 years. You don't want to skimp on the options that are important to you. Because after all, you will be driving this car for at least next 5 years. And the little things that you thought you could live with/without will start making you hate the car.

The 2005 VP for $9,952 is probably a coupe, manual. While it is a good price, they probably have only one stock number for that price and "it was sold just 5 minutes ago." However, it does not hurt to go out there and check it out. The worst case you don't buy it. The best case, everyone else thought it was a scam and you will be the only one who got it "5 minutes ago" before the next guy shows up.

temj12

I bought an 05 Civic Coupe VP manual transmission for 12,000 the last day of March. The dealer incentives are higher now than they were then. The dealer told me he could put power windows on it. If I were you, I would not want them remaking your car. Aftermarket additions are more expensive. I would buy something with the accessories on there. I think you are asking for trouble.

chidoro

Real quickie about the oil change thing, the 2001 and later engine, according to the manual, is 10k normal driving, 5k severe driving. the '96 to '00 models (like my '98 ex) is only 3,750 under severe driving. That could possibly be the explanation for your dealer advisement discrepancies.

likeitornot

Around 12,000 for a 2005 VP seems to be the average low I'm seeing people say online lately. I went to a different dealer today to see what specials they were having. They didn't really want to say. I had to tell him I knew about the 0% down and 3.something % financing..lol.

Anyway he got me some estimates and said the cheapest would be to lease a VP for 14-15,000 at $245 a month, or an LX for $269 with only about $1200 down. That's just a basic estimate since I told them I wasn't going to be buying one that day and I didn't want them doing any credit checks. (of course later when I was trying to leave they made a point to keep telling me they could possibly get it lower and meet my price requirements as best they can as long as I'm seirous..)

Another dealer gave me the special on financing straight out which is also on the Honda site. The 0% down deal, but at like $280 a month on VP couple. I haven't asked them about leasing, but they have an advertisemt about the $188 a month with 1900 down.

I'm mostly concerned with the payments and what's the cheapest way to go about getting a car. Leasing seems to be the best way. (Mileage won't be a problem for me).. But it seems like the same price for financing and leasing. I either pay 1200 up front or an extra 100 a month. Or the more I pay upfront, the cheaper my monthly payments are. Doesn't it come to about the same? :confuse:

likeitornot

How many people get the lowest interest rates anyway? I was reading on carbuyingtips.com that its rare even with good credit.. :confuse:

carshopper12

What is the difference between LX and EX?
I got a price of $15,500 without any negotiations from a Boston area dealer for Civic LX automatic with power windows, cruise etc.
Is this a good price? Appears to be the invoice plus the destination.

Thx
carshopper12

carshopper12

I am looking for a LX AT also. I am also in bay area. Can you tell me from which dealer you got this. Thx.

carshopper12

jiimmm

Just put a deposit on black one with price of 12,175 plus 125 for dealer fee.
Add in the 1.9 for 3 years and have the makings of a good deal.
Looks like the dealers are starting to become more aggressive !

amoviefan1

Carshopper,
Did you mean to say that you got that $15,500 price on anew 2005 Civic LX? Sedan or Coupe?
I like helping my friends across the country get good deals. I just helped my friend get a new 2005 Honda Civic LX Sedan for $14,900 plus tax, title, license and documentation fee in the suburbs of Chicago last week (End of May) plus he got 3.9% financing through Honda for 5 years.

The difference between a Civic LX and EX:

LX: 115 horsepower engine, Power Windows, Power Locks, Power Mirrors, Cruise, Air, Single CD, Keyless Entry
EX: ADDS to LX... a 127-HP engine, antilock brakes, alloy wheels.
EX Special Edition ADDS to EX: 6-Disc CD/MP3 Changer (in-dash), special alloy wheels, rear spolier and leather-wrapped steering wheel.

mnr49

The lowest I've seen in my first day of negotiations is $13,467 in PA--Where did you find this in MO?