need a commuter car and found this at a local dealer. Makes sense for practicality it’s a Coupe and has maintenance records on car fax for first 100k miles. After that it’s kinda sparse but still had one owner
If it has a CVT transmission, run away from it.
Manual transmission
Could be OK, though being at a dealer is a big red flag. You didn't mention price. Dealer probably bought it at auction and the first owner could have unloaded it for any number of reasons. This will give you an idea of things to watch out for:
https://www.carcomplaints.com/Honda/Civic/2012/
Be sure to have a good mechanic check the car out before purchase - afterwards (which many people do) is too late!
Yeah they were hesitant to let me check it out w my mechanic. They gave me a distance limit of one hour for the whole inspection. Including time for them to review.
That's a pretty big red flag. However if you can make an appointment with a local shop an hour should be sufficient.
It did drive okay though.
A short test drive is not enough to determine the car's actual condition.
they are asking $10k
As is typical with dealers they are asking too much. The kbb.com site (which tends towards inflated prices to begin with) pegs a fair dealer price for that car at about $8000.
The red flag for me here is the reluctance they had in letting you have a mechanic look it over. One hour for transit time, inspection, and their review of the inspection is suspect. Even a good mechanic is going to need at least an hour (and generally more) to give a used vehicle a proper full inspection.
Moreover, there's no legitimate reason I can see them for having that time limit. If they have your info/copy of your license/etc. then it shouldn't matter if you're gone an hour or three or four hours.
If you are interested in pursuing this vehicle, an alternative might be to have an on-site inspection done. They aren't as thorough as an on-the-lift inspection, but it would be preferable than trying to do some mad dash across town to meet a 1hr time limit. If the salesman or the dealership object to the on-site inspection, I would walk away immediately.
Manual transmission
Yeah they were hesitant to let me check it out w my mechanic. They gave me a distance limit of one hour for the whole inspection. Including time for them to review.
It did drive okay though.
they are asking $10k