Hey guys, thanks for the replies!

The VIN # (Carfaxed it before I bought it) and Honda both say that the car is a 2008 CR, so I think I'm okay there. I also drove a friend's 2003 S a couple of years ago, and my car is waaaay stiffer, so that further convinces me that it's a CR. Yeah, I realized there were a lot of weird things going on with it (the private dealer bought it from an auction, and they don't know what happened to it prior to that), so that's a lot of the reason I got the price on it that I did, I'm sure.

Regarding damage, one OTHER thing I didn't mention is that the bar/connector that holds the right exhaust in place was snapped, and Honda was totally confused about that. They said that almost never breaks. I had them check the car out, though, and they said everything looked fine otherwise.

In a couple thousand miles, I'm going to take the car to my mechanic, who is both extremely honest and knowledgeable (I guess he used to race cars professionally in Japan), and have him look everything over as well, but the car's been running fine so far.

Yes, I totally love it, no matter how it came to me. Maybe eventually I can replace the front bumper (and headlights) with the original...wonder how much that'll cost lol.

And thanks, Skip, for the tire suggestion. I'll give those some serious consideration.

 

Glad to hear you have had the car looked at by a mechanic. If the rear tires have a decent amount of tread left I would have the one with the wrong rotation re mounted correctly. Congrats!

EDIT: Just saw that front tire is almost bald. I would just invest some $ into some new tires asap.

 

Congrats on the purchase, but I'd like to know the history if I were you. Between the seats, AP1 headlights and front bumper, AP2 (non CR) shift knob and AP2 V1 wheels, I'm skeptical.

Is it 100% certain it's a CR if Carfax and Honda both track the Vin #? Maybe the VIN # was switched?

 

Honda checked out other parts of the car while it was in the shop, and he did confirm the inner workings were CR. Yeah, I really don't know what the original owner did with this car, switching stuff out like they did. Stuck with it now in either case, and I'm thinking I wouldn't trade it in anyway. I'm VERY happy with the car, and I'll deal with the weird stuff.

 

maybe the previous owner was soon to have the car Repo'd so he striped it of all the stuff he could and put cheaper parts on?

 

That's what I was thinking or the car was involved in a bad accident and parts were replaced with whatever he could find (this would be easy to tell by looking for frame damage, etc).