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Hello civic owners! I'm in the market for my first car and so far, there's two striking options:

2005 Honda Civic Coupe Special Edition
~169,000 miles
-light silver paint job
-have not personally looked at the car's condition (not even pics)
-sells for $5,300 from the dealer

2002 BMW 330i
~177,000 miles
-steel light bluish paint job
-I've seen it every day for the past 8 years, it's in perfect shape
-my neighbor sells it for $5,800 but I've talked to him and he says the price is negotiable by a few hundred

Given the fact that I'm on a Civic forum I know there will be some inherent bias, but I'm a little bit bias towards the BMW so it evens out . Give me some feedback! Also, what makes the "Special Edition" Civic special? I've looked around online but can't find a definitive answer.

 
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Damn it lol...I signed up for this forum just to make this thread but no replies yet ����

 
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its a tough call, you need to think of BMW maintenance costs, they are NOT cheap. The civic on the other hand, is easy to modify, and easy and inexpensive to fix. Anything you fix on the bimmer will be expensive.

The BMW being in fantastic condition is a big plus. RWD is fun, and that car is nice.
Civic will get better fuel mileage..

Lets not forget that both have pretty high millage. maintenance will be coming soon for both. Think about the money, you will save with the civic, with loer insurance, fuel costs, and maintenance.


Your call friend

 
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My opinion:

Do you know how to perform maintenance on the BMW? No? Get the Civic...
Don't want to pay for premium gas (which IS required for the 330), get the Civic...

If you are going to be doing all your own maintenance, get the BMW.
If you have deep pockets.... BMW.

The BMW is a great car, but you had better have the bucks to start repairing it. A 2002? So it is now 13 years old! In great shape or not, it will require maintenance, soon, and will be quite a bill when you go to the shop.

The Civic on the other hand will be much less expensive.

 
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Yeah, when it comes to finances the Civic definitely wins in a blowout . My Mother expects me to start paying for maintenance and insurance once I'm 17 so i'll probably appreciate the Honda's affordability later on. The only thing that is sort of confusing me is a website called repairpal.com. When I look at the "most common repairs" for BMW 330is and Honda Civics, The Honda seems to have about equal or even more expensive repair costs. Even next to the Chevrolet Malibu and Volkswagen Passat, the 330i appears to be the cheaper of the bunch. Is the website just BS or am I interpreting it wrong?

 
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Uh well, I definitely expect to begin performing my own maintenance once I get a car and start learning the ins and outs of the automotive world, but at the moment I'm fairly uninitiated when it comes to cars and it's basically guaranteed that I'll make a mess of things if I started poking around under the hood without doing lots of reading beforehand. I'm definitely not part of the deep pockets crowd >.> just an unemployed teenager.

 
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Go with the Honda the cars are quieter.

 
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For those of you with a 7th gen Civic, how does it drive and what modifications (if any) would you recommend early on?

 
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Unless the Civic has maintenance records indicating when the timing belt was replaced, include the cost of replacing the timing belt in the price of the car. Also price insurance on both since that is an on going cost and if one is significantly more expensive the difference will add up.

 
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Those are some good points. The BMW will most likely have much higher rates, but I'd have to verify that. I've been looking at more cars and I found a 2001 Lexus IS 300 with 169k miles on it. IMO the IS 300 is a marriage of the two car's good qualities (Honda affordability+reliability and BMW quality+performance). Once my relatives approve, I will probably go with the Lexus

 
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BTW, I've been reading about the 7th gen civic and it seems to be widely agreed upon that it is a disgrace to the Honda brand...apparently the pedals have extremely small press room and it responds as if you floored it when you give it a light go. Also, it seems like when you actually want it to output more power (even within the expectations of what a Honda is), it just doesn't deliver. Is this true?

 
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Mine drives great. I have a 2001 4 door. I recently put 4 new tires , an alignment , tune-up , and polished the headlights. As for power good clean gas and the lack of power problem goes away(it did with mine since I use 92 octane from BP).

 
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Of all the complaints I have heard for the 7 gen Civic, those two are new and would seem to come from someone that doesn't have much experience driving.

 
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Yes, and fluids as well.

Belt is a time bomb if not done.

 
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FME: its a great car!

no pedal problems here

pressing the gas is very sensitive but not like floored! and it does move!!

my biggest complaint with my 2003 ex is that the Insurance Co says the airbag system causes injuries and they charge more for insurance that year civic.

otherwise, how can you buy a car sight unseen? and how much is the insurance on the sporty BMW vs the economical civic?

 
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Yeah sorry about that! I really am as un-experienced as they come. If I consistently see message boards that describe Ford branded cars as supremely reliable, I'll believe it . But anyways, I was surprised by the insurance gap on the two cars. My figures are just based off of a free quote tool from Esurance, but it set the BMW 330i at $290 and the Honda Civic at 280$. Meanwhile, the Lexus IS 300 (2001) which I expected to not cost as much to ensure was a whopping $324! While none of these is terribly cheap, I was surprised to see such a small gap between BMW and Honda.

 
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I'll have to wait and see what the Honda looks like, but it's a dealer car which seems to be a major negative for the family members helping me choose a vehicle. The fact that the BMW is from an independent seller is a major hook to my relatives. In reality, would the maintenance on the BMW be THAT much more expensive than on the Honda or is it embellishment? If it makes a difference in prices, there's a local auto shop that specializes in German vehicles where my neighbor's had his car serviced for the past 7 years.

 
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BMW PARTS are super expensive compared to honda.

IMO too many miles on both cars to be paying so much. Both cars might be ready for major work to be done! do you have $2500 extra to throw into either car?