I test drove a CPO '03 car today and it was pretty nice but had some issues:

Definately winter driven (small rust on underhood vin tag, sand (?!!) in engine bay, rust on LCA)

Swirls in paint (looked like it had been through a bad carwash)
- How much to get this taken out by a pro?

Crap kumho Ecsta tires. First of all this scares me when a used car has new tires. Also after driving the car they are horrible and would need to be replaced after i take the winter tires off in the spring.

Otherwise i'm definately on the AP1 side of the debate having driven both this month.. you really are splitting hairs comparing these two cars though

At which point would this car become a good enough deal where its worth it to deal with this stuff assuming a good 03 wiht 29000 miles from a private party (no warrenty) is 22k.

 

oops
something tells me this needs too be moved to S2000 talk

 

Moving to s2k talk

 

See http://www.kbb.com

 

The rust would be a deal breaker for me. There is plenty more you aren't seeing.

 

Sounds to me like this might have been a flood car. Maybe even one of the many from Ivan or Katrina.

 

Carfax says it was titled in michigan.

 

Where is the car? (Add you location to your profile) What is LCA? Is this at a dealer? Sounds like too many issues to be worth the bother, keep looking.

 

the car was in Ypsilanti MI which is about 50 miles from where i grew up, so i went home for the weekend

LCA = Lower control arm

CPO cars are always at Honda dealers

Yeah I think i'm going to look around more .. they were trying to drive a hard bargain on a car that just wasnt that nice to begin with, and its not like these are super rare cars..

 

I don't think this car is worth the money. I bought my 02 with 11k miles on it for 19,500 in perfect condition from a private party.