[NW.R]

Should I be concerned when purchasing a CR-Z with high miles?

I've been lurking these forums for a very long time but have never actually owned the car. This weekend, I'm looking to finally purchase my first CR-Z! Here's some of the relevant info:

2013 EX (PWP)
188k Miles
Manual Transmission
Asking Price: $7,900
Purchasing from wholesale dealer

The car looks to be in excellent condition with only one owner. The Carfax is squeaky clean and from the pictures, it looks to be in excellent condition. Lots of service records from Honda dealers in the history as well.

I'm going to look at the car this weekend and go over the basic things to look out for. I've also read a lot of threads about buying a used CR-Z

So, should I be concerned when purchasing a CR-Z with these many miles?

 

[NW.R]

Solid advice from you both, thanks!

Is the car priced right with the mileage it has? Cosmetically, it looks excellent and well taken care of. If I decide to buy, I don't plan to pay more thank $7k for the car.

I'm decent with a wrench and have worked on my cars in the past. What type of things should I be worried about at this mileage? IMA battery? Normal wear and tear parts at this age?

 

[NW.R]

Seems extremely high. But that is the current market.

It books at $7.5k when working out the finances with the bank.

 

[NW.R]

Book or book plus 150% as they have done recently?

I'm not sure. My finance lady said it booked at $7.5k so my loan to value ratio is a little over 100% since they’re asking 8k. If I'm paying more than $7k for this, I'm not buying it. Even thought it's hard to find one in this condition in manual.

 

[NW.R]

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[NW.R]

Battery has been disconnected recently or gone completely dead. Radio is asking for a code.

Tires look like they might be getting old. And it needs fog lights.

Look it over real good for over spray and matching vin stickers.

Being a lithium car there is no rejuvenation for the IMA battery. Would be wise to take it to Honda for a pre purchase inspection and they can pull the data about the usable IMA battery capacity.

ohhh, very good point about the battery being completely dead. They called me today to tell me they replaced the fog lights. Car fax only shows one minor accident in the right rear.

I'm going to use all things you just brought up as talking points during negotiation, if it gets that far.

 

[NW.R]

Being a lithium car there is no rejuvenation for the IMA battery. Would be wise to take it to Honda for a pre purchase inspection and they can pull the data about the usable IMA battery capacity.

Can you elaborate a little more on this?

 

[NW.R]

I dont want to get too deep into this aspect of things but in 2 and a halfish years there has been a 35-40% increase in M2 money supply aka our dollar has been extremely devalued, it takes 40% more dollars to buy pretty much everything EXCEPT silver and gold for some odd reason . Knock the price down a little if you can, you'll feel better about the purchase. I overpaid for mine back in Feb. The dealers are happy to let people walk still but like Ryanthegreat mentioned, that bubble is due to pop.

I'm going to do my best when it comes to negotiation. I don't plan to pay what they're asking. The one thing I have going for me is that interest rates for autos are ridiculous right now and we don't have a lot of people buying cars. So the demand should be lower.

 

[NW.R]

Generally the nickel batteries in the 11-12 are tougher batteries that can also be brought back from poor capacity after abuse. The lithium cars can not have their batteries brought back.

The computer keeps track of how much usable capacity the hybrid battery has as a percentage. A Honda scan tool can read that percentage and give you a reasonable idea of the state of health on the hybrid battery.

ahh gotcha gotcha. I just called a local Honda dealer and talked with someone in the service dept. They specifically said they cannot tell me the health of the hybrid battery during the pre-purchase inspection. The only way to know is when I get an IMA warning light and CEL comes on. Sounded fishy, so I called another Honda dealer.....and they also said they weren't able to tell the health of the battery! She even walked back to talke to a tech.

 

[NW.R]

They are just not familiar enough with the CR-Z or any hybrids they have.

There is specifically a data point in the IMA system that an HDS or clone or PeterPerkins tool can read.

With dealers not able to help me with this, it sounds like I’m on my own. Also, I’m not familiar with those tools and probably won’t have them available before I look at the car in a few days.
With that said, I’ve read that only a handful of owners have actually had to replace the IMA battery.

 

[NW.R]

Update: Finally a CR-Z owner! After 12+ years of lurking, I picked up this 2013 6spd.

It’s got a lot of miles, but drives excellent, shifts smooooth, has no warning lights or weird rattles. Door handles seem to work without any trouble. And, there’s been absolutely zero modifications done to this car.