2003 Honda Civic Used Car Buyers Guide Ellicott City MD

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Reader Question Hello Austin,

I am looking to buying a 2003 Honda Civic and the Carfax turns up that the car hasn't had any reported maintenance at a Honda dealership since the time of purchase.

Would you mind giving me a ballpark figure as to how much a 30k and 50k service would run me if I were to go and have them done? (I am possibly going to use this as a bargaining tool.) I tried looking on the Honda website, but it won't give me anything but a place to log in.

Thanks!
Nina

P.s. I read what the 50k service entails on the site, is it the same for the 30k?

Thank you for all your help and you are amazing for offering all of this advice to people online!
Nina

Hello Nina,

The maintenance COULD have been performed elsewhere besides the dealership, so Carfax would not have a record of that work being performed but it could have been. The maintenance schedule prices will vary widely, even among Honda dealers in your area, call 3 dealers and you will probably get 3 different estimates.

Why? For the most part, these scheduled maintenance items are fully of "inspections" rather than "replace this, replace that" items, so you are going to pay the dealership to inspect and look at components of your vehicle THEN when they find something that needs to be replaced, you will be charged extra.

Some people are hard on brake pads, and at 30K you might need a brake job, where as some people who do mostly highway driving may not need a brake job until 50K. So, the prices of these maintenance items can vary widely depending on the driving habits of the driver.

To read the full article, visit Myhonestmechanic.com