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Looking for some advice on a decent gen and model for my teen son. I have an ‘21 sport that I love.

Want to find something that I can pretty easily fix up and make reliable. Not looking for anything to tune or add a turbo to or an MT.

Thanks.

 
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If you live in an area with rust you'll want the newest/lowest mileage within your budget. Manuals are stronger/more reliable than the autos/cvts

 
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If it has to be auto, 7th gen is probably out.

A well-maintained 6th gen is a nice car, as is a later 8th gen.

How would you feel about maybe going accord instead? 2003-2007 with an auto is a much more tolerable car than an equivalent auto civic in my opinion.

 
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For safety I’d get the newest one you can afford. Also think an Accord might be a better buy.

 
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Thanks for the advice. Live in NC, so not much rust down here.
No issues with an Accord over a Civic just thought it would be less expensive.
Not trying to spend a decent amount of money on a car for a teen driver who is just going to do teen driver things.

 
Rep Power: 126

Accord is probably the move, but only if you can get 2003 or newer.

The only reason I’m suggesting that is because every civic prior to 2006 has a timing belt, and most people neglect that and it’s not a cheap thing to have replaced. The 2003+ accords all have timing chains which are zero maintenance items - just change the oil.

You could go with something like a 2006-2011 civic, but there were some fairly catastrophic issues in the early models that were sorted out late 2009. At the price you’d get one of those, the accord is probably a better option.

 
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Important to note that's only true for the four cylinder Accords. The V6 uses a timing belt.

 
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Not afraid of doing a timing belt myself (unless they are crazy difficult). I have done them on other cars. However, a quick Facebook marketplace search yields a ton of very reasonable priced 2003+ Accords. Any common problems with this generation that I should be aware of?

 
Rep Power: 126

Sorry, yes. Was going to mention the K24 was completely slipped my mind. Unless it's a manual, don't buy a V6.

 
Rep Power: 126

Rust is really the only thing. They're very dependable cars. My girlfriend's brother has a manual 4-cylinder coupe with almost 200k miles and still drives great. My friend's dad has a sedan and until it hit a deer, was doing great at over 400k miles.

 
Rep Power: 224

I owned a '07 Accord V6 auto for a while. I had no issues with it at all. Sold it to my brother who used it as a daily for a few years. Currently has like 270k miles and still drives good. I've also had an '05, '06, and another '07 that I fixed then flipped. All were L4, one had a manual transmission. No real issues with any.

If you do get a L4 Accord, just know the timing chain should really be replaced around 200k miles. This is needed due to the chain stretching over time. They will definitely make it longer than that but it starts becoming a gamble. Longest I've seen was 285k miles before the chain stretched more than the tensioner could hold.