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Hi, guys!

This is going to be my first car, and I want it to be manual.

I was wondering if this 2003 Civic Hybrid is worth the money.

As you can see in Carfax, it has been regularly maintained at the dealership. It also has low mileage and was in California. The current owner (owner B) says that the battery has been changed somewhere in 2016 before his purchase, but after calling the dealership I could not confirm this. Once owner B purchased the car from owner A, the records at the dealership only show the service history of owner B.

In any case, owner B is a very nice guy, wants to sign the bill of sale at AAA, and offered to do preinspection if I wanted (lots of sellers for some reason don't want this). The car looks good, sounds good, so I trust him when he says that battery was changed in 2016. If it was, and it should last me another 4 years, is this car worth $4500? Should I try and negotiate it to $4000?

If the battery dies, how expensive is a new one? I researched that they cost from 1500-2000, he argued that you can get them for half that price. Would you agree?

The tires on it are pretty worn out (5-6), only one was 9 for some reason. AC/Heat works well.

Thank you!

 
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I personally would never own a hybrid because of the costs of replacing batteries, and often times (at least with those civics), the fuel economy isn’t even that much better. I think the highway fuel economy is actually better for the 1.7 than the hybrid.

Seller is probably thinking price from a used battery standpoint.

$4500 seems steep to me. Hell, $4000 seems steep. I know prices are a bit nuts right now, but I’d like to think you could get a well-maintained 8th gen for that much, or even a 7th gen hatch.

 
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Yeah, that's my feeling as well. To be honest, I haven't seen that many well-maintained cars around where I live (Salt Lake City), I saw a hatch of 7th gen go for $3500, and the listing lasted only a day).

Would you pay 3800 or 3500?

I heard even if battery dies you can still drive it, just with very little power)

 
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I just wouldn't buy one, honestly, but that's just me.

I'd just be patient and wait for another hatch. They should be had for $4000-ish.

 
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Ok, thank you!

 
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I feel like I read once that the hybrid battery charges the 12V battery. If the hybrid battery completely fails the 12V battery will die and you'll be left stranded.

I tend to agree with Chez here. The hybrid just isn't worth it, at least not when it's 18 years old. If you figure 15 mpg better with the hybrid over a tank of fuel (~400 miles) you'd save 2-3 gallons of gas. Maybe $10 of fuel every 400 miles. Even if you drove that much every week you'd only save $500 a year in fuel costs. You would have to go at least 3 years 60k miles just to recoup the cost of a replacement hybrid battery.

Granted, the non-hybrid models of the same generation have issues with head gaskets. Probably cheaper to fix than a replacement battery though, and much cheaper if you DIY. If fixed properly it should outlive a hybrid battery too. I would absolutely buy a hybrid if I new the battery was fairly new and I planned on doing a lot of driving.