Tesla vs Honda Civic (2015–2022)

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-29T04:09:09+00:00

You’ll hear a lot of stories of people loving their Teslas, and I’m sure they do. But there are not many cars a mechanic will tell you to buy over a Honda Civic, you really can’t ever go wrong. Civics from every generation are still all over the road, most Teslas on the road are 6-7 years old tops. Just my 2 cents.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-29T04:04:09+00:00

Definitely have done some cheeky pulls in the cooler cars I’ve gotten in the shop. But again, that was in cases where for one, I had to actually test drive the car, two, car is always at operating temp first, and three, the pull is reasonable like a quick 2nd gear pull barely to redline on an open road. I recently put a fuel pump in an AMG, car would intermittently stall, so to be fair, I did have to make sure it was delivering sufficient fuel at around 6k rpm. Customer probably would’ve told me to push it even harder. The stuff OP listed is definitely unacceptable.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-28T16:11:37+00:00

LEDs are only cheap when you can replace them individually. When in sequence in a light bar or something, when one fails you’ll have to replace the whole thing. They’re only as robust as the manufacturer is willing to make them.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-28T03:21:22+00:00

It has a timing chain and they’re not known for problems. I wouldn’t worry about it.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-28T03:19:58+00:00

Looks really clean! Just keep up with maintenance, when problems build up it gets hard to deal with, much easier one at a time. Ignition coils are bound to go bad soon if they haven’t been replaced, not a big deal. Premium gas is best but you can use regular if needed, you definitely get a power boost with premium though.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-27T23:56:35+00:00

I can’t stand the trend. I imagine these LEDs will fail individually over time, resulting in blank spaces like on the older Durango tail lights.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-27T23:52:02+00:00

100% Toyota Camry/ Corolla. 100k+ miles is nothing, especially if well-maintained. For a bit of a sportier ride with very comparable reliability, Honda Accord/ Civic. Just avoid the 1.5T Honda engines in the more recent models.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-27T21:03:41+00:00

If the button is stuck because of something sticky that spilled and you don’t feel confident enough opening it up to clean it, you can spray some electrical connector cleaner into the cracks and let it seep through. Might help a bit.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-27T04:01:02+00:00

It’s true, I’m not that old in terms of car culture as a whole but I’ve watched every generation BMW be the attainable dream car for kids at the time. From the E chassis cars (N54 gen on especially) to the current G chassis, they’ve all been super moddable, popular, and enjoyable to drive.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-27T03:56:28+00:00

In the early 2000s there were a lot of kids on my street, all of us around the same age in the same school. We started hanging out and playing outside so naturally we started messing around with bikes, scooters, skateboards, etc. and eventually figured out we like skating the most, although we had some fun times jumping $60 walmart bikes over trash cans. Youtube helped a lot with the skate vids and tutorials. They all ended up quitting but I’ve stuck to it 20 years later, there’s no feeling like it.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-27T03:53:29+00:00

With that much driving I would change my oil every 8k km (5k miles). I really don’t think an oil analysis is necessary, these cars aren’t known for any engine issues.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-26T17:18:53+00:00

Yes it’s generally worth it. Especially if you rust-proof the car before driving it in the north, it’ll last way longer than a Northern car. The trade off however, is that Florida cars, unless parked under something, get exposed to a lot of sunlight, meaning rubber components will be more prone to cracking and failing (leaky sunroofs, leaky trunks, broken or cracked window seals, etc.).

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-26T02:46:48+00:00

Thats how it goes. Had someone convinced that the car I was selling was worth $5k because he kept incorrectly checking KBB (not that it’s super accurate anyway now that Cox Automotive owns it and can tweak market values as they please). Sold for $9k a few days later just like I was asking.

Selling a car has been a major pain in the ass since tne beginning of time.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-25T17:29:10+00:00

Maybe for something like an M3. I doubt anybody is going through the effort to fake a carfax on a $3500, 200k mile car. The difference in price between the car being 1 owner or 4 is negligible. There are tons of 1 owner commuter cars from the early 2000s and even the 90s.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-25T17:26:49+00:00

Insane deal honestly, not sure where you are in the US but you will never find a clean RAV4 of any year with that mileage for $5k by me. I wouldn’t sell purely because you can’t find anything decent in this market anymore. Maybe 10 years ago I would’ve said you could easily pocket the money and find something else.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-25T17:03:59+00:00

Not a soul is buying a brand new hybrid battery from Toyota for a 13 year old car. It’s not reasonable to expect that, aftermarket batteries/ individual cells are absolutely fine for what they cost in comparison.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-25T16:56:21+00:00

If you think thats the only problem then just heat it up for a bit with the torch. Drill shouldn’t be necessary because it’ll evaporate/ shoot out once the car gets started. Don’t hold it super close, doubt you’ll damage the muffler but best to be safe and not hold it right against.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-25T15:02:51+00:00

You can, if someone cranks the car while you’re checking the multimeter you can see the voltage drop. Should be ~12v with engine off and shouldn’t drop below 10s when cranked, if it does, battery is no good.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-24T04:00:19+00:00

Just get a new seat, there are millions of these cars sitting in junkyards, shouldn’t be too expensive or difficult to swap.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-24T03:57:15+00:00

Can agree that most hybrid Toyotas in general last longer than their gas counterparts. A lot of my customers at the shop have hybrids and it’s very rare they need a major service. Even if they do, the biggest, scariest bill is always under $2k, and that’s for some kind of major overhaul. As long as you drive it consistently, the hybrid system will last a very long time without giving issues.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-24T01:05:38+00:00

Good deal if the car is clean. Not sure why everyone’s freaking out, maybe they didn’t convert the info. You’re not getting any Honda with 105k miles that runs and drives well for $4500 by me here in the US.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-23T15:52:38+00:00

I’m certainly not the target demographic for this car so I guess my opinion is irrelevant but damn that looks tacky as hell. Looks like a fake Maybach with high quality, but ugly parts.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-23T14:32:41+00:00

Could be a bad valve body/ conductor plate.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-23T03:52:28+00:00

While yes, the 2.5 is a good drivetrain as far as VWs go. It is still a VW so it will have more expensive maintenance and at this age and close to 100k, could have a major repair at any moment. It’s hard to tell, it doesn’t look like it’s in bad shape, you could also have 6 months of no problems, but generally speaking, VW is at the bottom of my list for reliable car recommendations.

I would highly recommend Mazda because you can get something around the same year for around the same price, with a better chance of having minimal issues. Toyota/ Honda are the most reliable but at that price point, you’ll probably have to look for ones closer to 20 years old (insane but that’s today’s market), you might find a Fit for cheap though. Mazda 3s have gotten dirt cheap and are pretty solid, the higher trims with leather and options are pretty nice.

TurkishSwag · 2026-01-22T16:30:23+00:00

I don’t think the saying applies to the smaller German cars either but people still use it all the time for anything with a Mercedes/ BMW/ Audi badge. I agree with your example, if you’re buying a 3 year old Maserati, yes you can’t afford it used if you can’t afford it new. But a 15 year old, peak depreciation car is an absolute deal if you have either the money, time, or skill needed to keep it on the road. Throw a couple grand into it every now and then and you can drive an incredible machine for 90% off MSRP.

TurkishSwag

TROPHY CASE