Need Advice : Honda civic CV3 or Misthubishi Eclipse

dear all,
does Honda civic CV3 year 2000/2001 is good enough to be a first car in taiwan? i mean about price 100K NT in ocar.com if i’m not wrong and sparepart support in taiwan?
and i don’t need fastcar but reliable to drive normaly…

or maybe Misthubishi Eclipse 1996/1997? for 90-100k

thanks for the information before

If the Honda were a good car, in good condition, which is highly doubtful to be honest, then I would definitely go with that. Most Hondas of that type have suffered a very hard life however, and so you should seriously know what to look for on that car. Don’t simply be persuaded by its shiny paint, clean interior and engine bay.
Parts for the Honda are generally readily available, and a Honda in good condition should prove to be reliable.
At this age there are a few very basic things to watch out for on the Civic:

  1. Suspension arms
  2. Heavy smoking from the engine.
  3. Engine mounts.
  4. Rear, lower suspension arm mountings.
  5. Air conditioning compressor.
  6. Interior vents for splitting.
  7. Rubber door seals.
  8. Oversized wheels. (Don’t use these if you wish to save your suspension system)
  9. Check for illegal gearbox mod from Auto to Manual.
  10. Rear speaker mountings for vibrations.
  11. Steering linkages.
  12. Idle control valve operation on cold starting.

Yup, when both cars were new, the honda is a much better car. And I like the driving position more too. The Eclipse you feel like you are sitting in a hole (to me at least).

But used cars are individuals. And it could well be that that particular eclipse is a better buy then that particular honda .

Take both to Sulavaca and hv him go over both with a fine tooth comb.
Could be both of them are dogs?

The Eclipse is a DSM (Diamond Star Motors) era Eclipse. Basically, the car guy joke from back in the day for these things was “DSM: Turning normal people into mechanics one owner at a time.”

Visually, that Civic has been "JDM"ed out. That basically means it’s most likely been beat to shit or at least driven “enthusiastically” for some extended time in the past. That said, some of the best conditions cars are going to come from enthusiasts, you just need to look at it.

The Civic is about 100x more simple and reliable than the DSM, particularly if that is a Turbo DSM, in which case it is somewhat surprising it still runs.

thanks for the advice, in this case i considering to choose honda, i forget about turbo in eclipse, i feel it’s hard to maintenance…

thanks guys… :beer: :notworthy:

Another issue with the turbo Eclipse is that the crankshaft can float, and this often reduces the potential lifespan of the car’s engine considerably.

Some CV 3 Videos :

Civic. Those eclipses suck balls.

yeah i think soo, waste engine power in the crowded streets :sunglasses:

Eclipse’s camshaft was corrected after 1997, but still not very reliable (or easy to repair) overall. Besides, “a few centimeter” wider & even larger turning radius than Civic’s is quite a pain to maneuver around here.
Domestic-built Civic got inferior quality than imported ones – even the body warps around the front door hinge area. All coupes (moonroof models also come with cruise control) are imported from Canada, ditto the Domani sedan, but they tend to be older than 1998.