Set out to buy a hatchback; brought home a preowned Honda Civic

Wide was unsure about the size at first, but I managed to convince her, after all, this was my best excuse yet to finally get a Civic.

BHPian Vishnu Shaji recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Sometimes, the best cars are the ones you never set out to buy

Early in 2024, just a few weeks into married life, we found ourselves looking for a small, fuss-free automatic for my wife. The budget was in the ₹1–2 lakh range, and her benchmark for an AT was the 2019 Swift 1.2 AMT she had been driving earlier. Once we moved to my place, the Swift wasn’t always accessible to her, and that’s when the need for her own automatic cropped up. While she’s perfectly capable of driving a manual, the two-pedal convenience of the Swift had spoiled her. A brief stint with my Alto only reinforced that feeling — in her words, it was “too much work” compared to an AT. We checked out a few Celerios and A-Stars, but I just couldn’t bring myself to buy one. No offence to owners, but I wanted something a bit more special. Half-joking,I asked if she’d be okay with something the size of a Civic. I’d always wanted one, but never had a solid reason to pull the trigger. She was unsure about the size at first, but I managed to convince her — after all, this was my best excuse yet to finally get a Civic.

What I didn’t expect was how difficult it would be to find a clean Civic AT. Most of the cars I saw were either abused, poorly maintained, or priced unrealistically high. Some looked fine in pictures but told a completely different story in person. After weeks of scrolling through classifieds, making calls, and inspecting, I was beginning to think a good example simply didn’t exist in my budget. And then, just when I was about to give up, I came across the one I now call mine — a 2012 Civic AT that, on paper, ticked all the right boxes. I wouldn’t call it immaculately kept, but it was a maintained car. The owner was looking to sell as his daily running was about to increase, and, unsurprisingly, fuel efficiency was the deciding factor. The car was located in Perumbavoor, around 300 km from my place. Once I had enough details from the seller, my first stop was Honda to check the service history. The records came back clean — genuine odometer reading and almost a full service history with Honda. That gave me the confidence to proceed, and I immediately asked the seller to hold the car until I could inspect it in person. A friend of mine, Dilip, joined me from Trivandrum for the trip, and a few others drove in from Coimbatore and Kochi just to tag along. In hindsight, I think they knew I was going to buy the car the moment I saw it — otherwise, why else would they bother making the drive?

When we finally reached Perumbavoor, the Civic was parked right outside the seller’s home. First impressions were positive — the paint still had a healthy shine and the panel gaps were consistent. However, a closer look revealed one concern. The car had been involved in a minor rear-end accident in the past. I suspect the boot lid had been replaced, but the spare wheel well hadn’t been reworked perfectly. Lifting the boot mats exposed a few rust patches on the stepney area and the surrounding floor. Nothing structural, but something I made a mental note of for future attention. Apart from that, everything else looked fine. All the glass panels carried the same year markings, the body lines were straight, and there were no signs of shoddy accident repair elsewhere. After the visual inspection, we went for a brief test drive. All of us took turns behind the wheel to make sure we didn’t miss anything. By the time we returned, I already knew the answer in my head — this Civic was coming home.

Boys on duty!

One of the best angles of the FD1

In good company with Jithesh’s Civic from Coimbatore!

We sat down with the seller and quickly got down to numbers. A bit of friendly negotiation later, we shook hands on the deal. Without overthinking it, I made the payment, wrapped up the paperwork, and decided to take the car then and there. What started as a 300 km trip to “just check out” a Civic ended with me driving it back home the very same day — grinning all the way.

Lined up for lunch! My car, Jithesh’s Civic & Sangeeth’s Fiesta 1.6s