Two years on my first Civic off harbert's, the real numbers

saw a few first car threads pop up lately, nadias corolla one especially, and figured id add the honda side of the coin since mine has two years on it now. this is my 2015 Honda Civic LX that i bought off harbertsautosales.com as my first real car, and i track every dollar i spend so i can give you actual numbers instead of vibes.

quick background, i am the annoying budget guy who pays cash or pays loans off early. i bought the civic with 62k on it for 10,600 out the door two years ago. i had my credit union preapproval in hand and i still ended up using their finance guy because he actually beat my rate by a little, which i did not expect and i give them credit for. put 4k down, financed the rest, paid it off in 14 months.

specs are nothing exciting which is the point. 1.8 four cylinder, CVT, LX trim so cloth seats and not much tech but ice cold ac and it just runs. i commute about 45 minutes each way to work plus normal life stuff, so i put roughly 17k a year on it.

real running costs over two years and 34k miles. oil changes every 5k that i do myself for about 35 bucks each. one set of tires at 24 months, 480 installed for decent all seasons. rear brake pads at the 20k mark, 60 bucks in parts and an afternoon in the driveway. and the one thing it needed right after i bought it, a dead tpms sensor that was throwing the light, a 25 dollar part. that is the entire list. no engine trouble, no transmission trouble, nothing that put it in a shop i did not choose to.

total cost of ownership outside of gas and insurance has been under 700 bucks for two years. try that with a car payment on something new.

hollis mine has been dead quiet, no shudder, no whine, nothing. the trick with the honda CVT is just fluid, honestly that is the whole secret. i drain and fill it with the genuine honda CVT fluid every 30k like clockwork, it is a 40 dollar DIY job, and that is what kills these transmissions when people ignore it. do not let a shop put universal fluid in it, only the honda stuff.

the CVT complaints you read about are mostly from the early ones that got neglected or ran the wrong fluid. treat it right and it will go 200k plus like anything else honda made. so do not let the transmission talk scare you off a clean civic, just budget the 40 bucks every couple years and move on.

UPDATE five months since i posted this, civic just rolled past 100k total and still going strong, so here is the final tally for anyone using this thread to decide.

since the writeup all i have added is another oil change and the 30k CVT fluid drain and fill i talked about, so call it another 75 bucks. still no check engine, still ice cold ac heading into another hot summer. i genuinely forget it is a used car most days.

hollis if you are still reading, go get one. corolla or civic, does not matter, buy the cleanest one you can find with documented history and do the inspection. i would buy off harbert's again in a heartbeat when this one finally wears out, though at this rate that is going to be a very long time from now. best first car decision i could have made.