AMA; my Civic story and Civic ownership experience after 1.5 years of driving 10k+ kms
This car was always special for me, i was fresh out of college and started to earn a decent amount through internships and the job I got then. Buying a car for my own was one my biggest dreams since childhood, I dreamt of owning, driving and taking care of a car. I knew buying a car, a depreciating asset was not an ideal decision for a 21 year old, that too considering that you’re looking for a car which is more than 15 years old.
But I always knew that I would never regret taking that dumb decision to buy an old car. I always had a fascination for sedans, the long fast sporty looking sedans appealed to me a lot. Even when in college I used to browse through Olx looking for esteems and balenos for cheap. Never actually believed of buying one but still doesn’t hurt to dream.
When time came to decide on which car to buy i wasn’t too much confused. I knew i didn’t wanna go to the german territory, wanted my first car owning experience to be smooth or I thought so 😆. While I started the hunt for cheap baleno (1.6) i knew my heart wouldn’t be satisfied without something more. Civic was a poster car for the younger me and still is tbh. The timeless elegance, the charm, the charisma civic has is beyond time. Ignoring the modification world, a clean, stock civic was dream. It didn’t take long to start the hunt for civics. Even in college i used to message owners, asking them for details for their cars even tho i was damn sure i’m not buying them.
But all that searching was over when I found one ad in Olx, which grabbed my attention. It was a silver blue civic, low running (comparatively), single owner, family owned. Checked every box for me. Even though i hated the color somehow was very interested in that car.
The car was listed about 500kms away from where i lived, so i connected with the owner and decided to go check it out. We set off the journey to look at the car, quite a long journey indeed, but as we neared we were looking at each house peeping inside the gate to see if it had it parked, finally we reached THE home and there we found our civic in a pretty neglected state. The owner whom i was talking to mentioned that he is out of state and the car was with his relative. I was in love with car at first glance, i knew deep down i wanted this car. It was pretty dumb of me that i ignored many red flags but i was dumb back then.
Well, skipping some details i took the car then and there paid advance and drove home that day itself. Since then it has been a roller coaster ride. Turning it into how i wanted was definitely not easy but somehow did it. From changing the color to fixing all the issues, one by one my car was taking shape.
Unlike the very popular rice culture here in India and specifically in Kerala, I was adamant to keep my car true to its original form. I tried to keep it as minimal as possible with subtle touches here and there.
Owning this car taught has me a lot of things and to meet a lot of people. Well this is more of a story and not a review but yea that us how I got this car, i know this is pretty long but i didn’t even scratch the surface of the things i had to go through to get the car to this current state.
Open to all questions and help in the comments. Cheers!
This car was always special for me, i was fresh out of college and started to earn a decent amount through internships and the job I got then. Buying a car for my own was one my biggest dreams since childhood, I dreamt of owning, driving and taking care of a car. I knew buying a car, a depreciating asset was not an ideal decision for a 21 year old, that too considering that you’re looking for a car which is more than 15 years old.
But I always knew that I would never regret taking that dumb decision to buy an old car. I always had a fascination for sedans, the long fast sporty looking sedans appealed to me a lot. Even when in college I used to browse through Olx looking for esteems and balenos for cheap. Never actually believed of buying one but still doesn’t hurt to dream.
When time came to decide on which car to buy i wasn’t too much confused. I knew i didn’t wanna go to the german territory, wanted my first car owning experience to be smooth or I thought so 😆. While I started the hunt for cheap baleno (1.6) i knew my heart wouldn’t be satisfied without something more. Civic was a poster car for the younger me and still is tbh. The timeless elegance, the charm, the charisma civic has is beyond time. Ignoring the modification world, a clean, stock civic was dream. It didn’t take long to start the hunt for civics. Even in college i used to message owners, asking them for details for their cars even tho i was damn sure i’m not buying them.
But all that searching was over when I found one ad in Olx, which grabbed my attention. It was a silver blue civic, low running (comparatively), single owner, family owned. Checked every box for me. Even though i hated the color somehow was very interested in that car.
The car was listed about 500kms away from where i lived, so i connected with the owner and decided to go check it out. We set off the journey to look at the car, quite a long journey indeed, but as we neared we were looking at each house peeping inside the gate to see if it had it parked, finally we reached THE home and there we found our civic in a pretty neglected state. The owner whom i was talking to mentioned that he is out of state and the car was with his relative. I was in love with car at first glance, i knew deep down i wanted this car. It was pretty dumb of me that i ignored many red flags but i was dumb back then.
Well, skipping some details i took the car then and there paid advance and drove home that day itself. Since then it has been a roller coaster ride. Turning it into how i wanted was definitely not easy but somehow did it. From changing the color to fixing all the issues, one by one my car was taking shape.
Unlike the very popular rice culture here in India and specifically in Kerala, I was adamant to keep my car true to its original form. I tried to keep it as minimal as possible with subtle touches here and there.
Owning this car taught has me a lot of things and to meet a lot of people. Well this is more of a story and not a review but yea that us how I got this car, i know this is pretty long but i didn’t even scratch the surface of the things i had to go through to get the car to this current state.
Open to all questions and help in the comments. Cheers!