After 9 good years it was time to say goodbye to our 1998 Honda CR-V. It had 194,000 miles on it and rarely gave us any problems at all. I fully intended to drive it for another 3-4 years and hoped to get 250K miles on it. But the CR-V forced our hand in purchasing another vehicle. You may remember me saying that we had to spend over $400 last month on a new exhaust system. Our mechanic then informed us that it was due for a timing belt, needed a new front axle (potholes i'm sure), and a couple other things that I dont even remember. Then Tiff was driving it earlier this week and the "check engine" light began flashing. Since the girls and I were in the middle of getting an oil change on the Pilot, she swung by and had our mechanic take a look. Not good. All the repair costs would add up to almost $2,500. We decided to put our money elsewhere. Bye, bye CR-V, hello civic!!
After doing an internet search on monday of all the honda civics and a few toyota corrolla's, I made a short list of about 8 vehicles that met our criteria of mileage, year, and price. There was one in particular that really stuck out as the best deal. A 2006 Honda Civic with 52K miles. Tiff and Amari gave it a quick check out during the day on Tuesday and when I got home from work we went back and bought it for more than $2K below blue book value. The kicker in this all, is that we ended up talking them into giving us $3K for our CR-V. What they dont know wont hurt them! It felt good to drive away from a car dealership in a new car and feel like you got a really really good deal. A rare feat indeed.
