Selling a car to buy one 13 years older?

I have finally talked my wife into letting me sell the Astra. It's starting to develop a lot of little problems that would be easier to fix if there were breaker yards full of them as there are in Europe. The car payment that goes along with it helped make the decision a little easier for her.

Now, the car I really want to buy, and it's going to require the right planetary alignment, is a 1995 Acura Integra LS with just over 100,000 miles on it. From what I understand, the original owner is a member here, but that info might be mistaken. Currently owned by a GRM member and friend of mine. This car has fewer issues than the Saturn, and only about 30,000 miles more on it. It's an LS, and it's not seen THE aisle at Pep Boys.

Am I crazy to think that moving into a car that much older is a good move? We have equity in the Saturn, so we will end up with some cash out of the deal. It should be enough cash that we can buy the aforementioned Integra, fix it, and still bank a grand or so. It has some issues that should be covered under the 100,000 mile powertrain warranty, but if I'm having to use that at 77,000 miles to replace a transmission, what's going to happen to it in another short amount of time? Fear of finding parts that don't require a 2 week wait is a real issue with this car. Even the dealerships are ordering parts for the car from Germany because the warehouses here don't keep many parts for this model.

2 week wait for parts to come from Germany? So much for platform sharing. I'll hate to see how bad it gets for Suzuki soon.

Get the integra and run.

Don't think of it as a 13 year older car, but off loading some iffy euro gm for the peak of Honda goodness and reliability.

You seem to have given thought to how difficult it may be to own a Astra but have you considered how hard it may be to sell an Astra?
Is a 5 year old Astra really worth more than a 13 year older Intergra?

JohnRW1621 wrote: You seem to have given thought to how difficult it may be to own a Astra but have you considered how hard it may be to sell an Astra? Is a 5 year old Astra really worth more than a 13 year older Intergra?

Considering it's a car with pretty much every option on it, the issue we're going to have in selling it is the manual transmission. I'll Carmax the thing if it means getting out from under it. "Fair" trade-in value is still $3000 more than we owe on the car.

In reply to neon4891:

It's a shared platform, a Delta car like the Cobalt, but until Cruze parts become cheaper, engine and drivetrain parts are going to be considerably more expensive.

It doesn't help that they literally took about 26,000 Opel Astras off of the assembly line in Antwerp, threw Saturn badges on them, and sent them here. That's almost exactly what happened, outside of a few changes that make our cars incompatible with all of the others, like a different CANBUS protocol or some-such that makes any "module" something I have to buy from a US Astra.

As long as you can afford to take the hit on the Astra when you sell it to CarMax, I don't see anything wrong with the idea. The Integra was a great car, and if it's what you want then go for it.

Well, CarMax is like the last option, but I'm just not liking where parts availability might land me in the future. Parts for something like an Integra are not only all over Craigslist, eBay, and Amazon, but they're actually available in junkyards!

I was curious so I just went to Autotrader and did a nationwide search for manual trans Astras. Only 59 are currently listed for the entire country.
For your kind of miles, high asking price is $9,999 and lower end at $8,000. My guess is this means trade-in (CarMax) prices of $7-$6k. (This is higher than I thought it would be.)
I sure hope you own most all of that Astra.
I too would cut bait and get away from it unless you plan to keep it forever.

Well one thing is for sure, the Integra is probably the best supported model in America as far as parts availability. I did a quick search for Integra parts on my local CL, and there are currently 866 ads for parts of which 293 are for engine related parts.

I don't particularly like Honda products, but they are well understood and those years seem to be best of the Honda quality.

Also, having owned a recent orphan car (Ford Freestyle), I would say get rid of it unless you are ready to get really creative with its upkeep.

OE parts for the integra are starting to disappear (the dreaded DIS), so beware that some of the hard parts that you cannot get aftermarket are no longer available. IT is also a Japanese Honda, which means parts are more expensive.

Carry around a spare dist and main relay though and you should be good to go for most emergencies.

Oddly enough, I already have the main relay for it. Distributors are in the $150 range for a good new one, and in the sub-$100 price range for the cheapest ones on eBay.

What is this dreaded DIS you speak of? Teh Googles didn't help, and it's not something I know of.

DIS is what we see a lot when we order parts for older cars. It means discontinued. It's what happens when Honda stops making the part and all the inventory disappears.

Ahh. I have an 89 Accord. I'm used to it.

I seriously can't think of anything that can't be purchased aftermarket for these cars or found readily on the secondhand market.

I went from a 98 to a 91 DD. No problem. The parts can be had for cheap on ebay.

Yah, as many Teggies as are still running around, I can't believe parts would get hard to find for quite a while.

Derick Freese wrote: Ahh. I have an 89 Accord. I'm used to it.

I forgot you had the clean 3rd gen. What are you doing with that? Just curious, not trying to buy it off you anymore. I wouldn't want to sentence one to death-by-rust.

Check the build thread. I'm currently trying to get rid of this pinging without just throwing parts at it. I've tested just about everything, just working down the list in the manual for "misfire".

I wouldn't sweat it. It's "older" but it's not "old". i.e. you're not going to be adjusting points and adjusting carburetor jets to get it to run in cold weather.

It's also one of the most well documented and aftermarket supported vehicles out there. Further ~100K is nothing on a 90's era Japanese car.

Take care of it, and it'll take care of you. From a cost perspective, it should be cheap to run, consume relatively cheap parts, and you should be able to find parts anywhere, while getting great mpg's.

I'd take that trade against a car payment situation on a newer car that has issues anyways. Then again, I've driven "non-responsible" DD's for a decade that were always a minimum 10 years old and quirky... though a lot more fun to drive (mk1 GTI / Scirocco 16V / etc.).

The other upside to an older car like that is the depleted depreciation. It's at the bottom of the curve. Your Astra will lose another $5K in value eventually. A clean well maintained Integra will likely hold most of whatever value it has today.

Do it.

I went from an '05 Ion Redline with 100k on it to a '91 SHO with 160k on it. I sometimes miss the redline, but the sho is honestly more fun to drive.

I knew going into it that certain sho parts are pure unobtanium wrapped in unicorn fur. Ford pretty much obsoleted about everything after '99.

My last 3 mostly daily drivers were from 1987, 1990 & 90 again and now I'm going to look at a 93 325is with an R title this evening to make it 4 in a row.

Go for it.

If the Acura is in good shape, you really can't go wrong. Treat it to the most basic maintenance, and you'll see 300K miles while getting good mpg, with the added bonus of a decent ride and good handling. Hard to see the downside, besides the lack of "modern" amenities.

The wife would like leather and heated seats, but those aren't a requirement. A kickass stereo isn't a problem. I can't think of anything else either of us have mentioned wanting in a car that an Integra doesn't come with. I can always install leather and heated seats if it sticks around for as long as I think it will.

Derick Freese wrote: We have equity in the Saturn, so we will end up with some cash out of the deal. It should be enough cash that we can buy the aforementioned Integra, fix it, and still bank a grand or so.

Sounds like a good plan to me. Right now you have a car payment and a car that needs work. Worst case, you end up with no car payment and a car that needs work.

Well, the work that NEEDS to be done to the car is covered under warranty. But what happens next time? Am I looking at a $2000 transmission rebuild on a car that's worth $2000 at the time, or have the same thing happen in a car I can get a good transmission AND clutch for under $400? THAT is what seems like the no-brainer to me.