One owner, lady teacher, 175K. 2005 Accord EX-L loaded, new tires. Has timing chain, not belt. Never had any issues with the car, only changed plugs and did oil changes. She was asking $7900.....I was able to bring the price down to $6200. What you guys think?

 

Some of the things I'd ask:

1. Carfax report?

2. How did she manage to put in 175k miles within 6 years? (30k miles a year, twice the average. That's a lot for a teacher. Are you sure it's an one-owner? Carfax!)

3. Is it an inline-4 engine? They come with chain, not belt. That's not really a selling point.

4. Has she replaced components that are supposed to fail at around 120k, like catalytic converter, oxygen sensor, all fluids other than oil (Auto transmission being most important)?

5. When was the last time it passed emission inspection?

6. Is there any warning light on?

KBB price for a 175k miles 05 EX-L I4 in EXCELLENT condition is $7,995. If it is indeed excellent, $6k is not bad.

 

You have a lot of very good points.

However, on many well maintained Hondas, the catalytic converter may never need replacement, in addition many of the Denso oxygen sensor can even go a lot longer too. Sometimes, it also the luck of the draw. I am on my third Honda (all bought new), never needed a catalytic converter (knock on wood), never had an oxygen sensor problem (I changed one O2 sensor just to see if gas mileage would improve). The first two Hondas went 150,000 miles and 300,000 miles, respectively before I sold or gave them away.

 

Trustworthy (?, your call) one owner maintained daily drivers are good in my book.

so tranny needs fluid service, radiator fluid needs changing, brakes and power steering too.
I'd check: if the first 2 of these have been done at some point, or
if the regular service was at dealer, mechanically would seem OK bet.
I haven't bought the newer model cars like this so no price comment from me ('93, '97).
SearchTempest.com will give you asking prices for probably less well maintained cars = starting point.

Any dealer, or same shop, would have records; since high miles I'd get name of the service shop and
give them a call or stop by to verify ... (need owners name and car license #)

 

That may seem like a lot at first, but if you think about it, it's not that absurd. For example, my job is roughly 50 miles from my house. I drive 100 miles a day, 500 miles a week, roughly 26,000 miles per year. And that doesn't include driving anywhere else but work.

 

Gotcha... 50 miles? That's rough... But remember that this is a "teacher" we're talking about. Would you teach 50 miles away from your home? I'm sure some people do, but I would think this is rather rare.

 

We don't know what and where she teaches...

 

That's why I would ask for more information if I were to trust this seller. Not to be nosy, but to be able to evaluate the seller's honesty.

 

It was also meant as a half-hearted joke... some people make up titles, etc. related to what they really do... years ago a professor joked that gas station attendants that pumped gas could use a fancy title like "Petroleum Displacement Engineer"...

 

Haha, I like that title! A teacher could also have a fancy title such as HIAS, or "Homo sapiens intelligence advancement specialist"...