Advise Needed-Honda Civic Cosmetic Modification. Hi,
As it is obvious like all other members on this forum I too am a hardcore auto enthusiast and always wanted a car that was genuinely fast, but was also reasonably reliable and not too expensive. Actually i think it is rather foolish of me to use words like fast, reliable and inexpensive all in one sentence. After several years of dreaming of owning such a ride I happened to read the threads created by Bhuvan and Anoop (Blahman). Frankly I was blown away, this was too good to be true. Finally more than 200 HP could be achieved with a budget under 15 lakhs and one could end up with a reasonably reliable car. Even if something went wrong with a Civic it would be lot easier and cost effective to fix rather then maintaining a used sports car of European or German Origin. So I contacted Bhuvan and learnt about his experience to date with his Turbo Civic. He was very happy with the car and was kind enough to hook me up with Joel of Race Concepts. Spoke to Joel and Bhuvan a couple of times and told them what I was looking for, they both recommended I go in for a used Civic. Initially I was a bit apprehensive as I intended to keep the car for a good 4 to 5 years after modding it and therefore did not want a car that was already 4 to 5 years or even older.
Honda has even stopped production of this model post 2013. This really made me think a lot for a good 20 to 25 days. However after much brainstorming, we were all very clear that we indeed needed a Civic to achieve what we had in mind and therefore began the search for a low mileage, late model Manual Honda Civic.
Since I was looking to buy used and this particular car had very low mileage (13,000 Kms) when I picked her up before two months, I decided to go ahead with the purchase. Also what worked in favour of my decision to buy this car was the following factors:
1. Very low mileage only 13k in 3 years. Also the car was first owner.
2. The car was based in Pune. It is located far from the sea and has drier air, therefore corrosion is avoided for longer.
3. The owner was a nice family man with a big fleet of cars and told me that he had bought the car for his wife, but she was not comfortable using the big sedan on the traffic congested roads of Pune and therefore he bought her a hatchback recently. Also since he owned several other cars he had no use for the Civic and therefore wanted to sell.
4. The car came with the complete service records. All services were carried out at the authorized service center and the car had only done 2200 kms in the first six months as the entry showed in the service book. Also in 12 months it had done about 3600 kms, again noted from the entry by the workshop in the service book. So it was comprehensively proven that the car was a genuine low mileage car and also we checked the cars body and under body. The car looked absolutely clean, none of the panels were repainted or had touch-ups done and the under body was also completely clean.
5. The insurance was only renewed in May 2015 and I was getting 11 months of comprehensive insurance completely free.
All of the above factors made me believe it was worth paying 8 lakhs for this clean V model which came with alloys and leather seating as standard. Also since this was a 2012 model, it was the final face lifted version of the car and came with new tail lights and fog lamps as standard. The only regret I had that this car had no sunroof. All the cars that my family owns somehow do not have a sunroof and I have a 4 year old son, who I would have loved to have treated with a car with a sunroof. Btw...the son too is an auto enthusiast and I am really happy he has inherited this from me.
Anyways since all the factors were in favour of the car I decided to bid aggressively and not miss out on this car, even it meant that I was gonna pay 20k to 25k extra. The car was listed on Carwale at 9.25 lakhs and the offer made by me was 8 lakhs. The owner initially was a little disinterested but I asked him to check the value of his car with some dealers and advised him to then again consider my offer, after he had checked the market value. He called me the same evening and said that he was willing to consider my offer and when would we could meet and finalise. The very next day I made him an RTGS for 50% i.e. 4 lakhs and left for Pune, with a condition that I would pay the balance asap if I liked the car or else he would refund the 4 lakhs if the deal did not go through. Reached Pune late at night, the Volvo I tokk from Dadr at 4 pm left Sion only at 5.45 pm and to top it all broke down mid way after crossing the Khandala ghat. HAd to get down at 8.45 pm on the express highway and luckily managed to flag down a Shivneri Volvo in puring rain. finally reached Pune at 10.15 pm. Took a 10 min rick ride to the owners house at Viman Nagar, saw the car in his building lobby and basement parking. The area was very will lit and therefore got a good look at the car. Decided then and there that was it, case closed, we shook hands and I paid him the balance by cash that was I was carrying with me, with a condition that the same will be returned once the RTGS for the balance was settled the next day. Took the delivery of the car from him at 11.30 pm in the night. This was exactly within 36 hours of my first contact with him. The only reason why I hurried so much was the last two cars that I had selected got sold before I could get my hands on them, as i kept bidding for 2-3 days and meanwhile somebody else picked up those 2011 cars at 8.5 lakhs. Surely I would not have paid that kind of money anyways but I really did not want to miss out on this deal. All paperwork formalities were done by us the very same night before I left. The owner had been kind enough to be ready with all the transfer papers and original documents of the car. That is the reason why I transferred him a 4 lakh advance, as I wanted to close this either yes or no in a single visit. Finally after taking delivery of the car at about 11.30 pm, I stopped by for a quick plate of Pav Bhaji at Kalyani's opposite Westin Hotel. This place was very close to his house. Then quickly started my return journey for Mumbai with my new proud possession. Tanked her up at the petrol pump on the junction of the O hotel in Koregaon Park. Then took the express way to mumbai. Drove non stop in the pouring rain and reached home by about 2.15 am.
Here below are some of the pictures of the car that I clicked after bringing her to Mumbai.
Subsequently after a month of using the car in Mumbai and doing one trip to Nashik and back with the family. I drove down the car to Joel's workshop at Bangalore. The car was dropped to him on 23.08.2015. I hope to have the car back by End of October with all the work done i.e. turbo charging with forged internals, coil over suspension and brakes with better pads. We are also trying to fit bigger discs upfront.
Now, I come to the real reason for starting this thread. Along with all the mechanical mods I do also intend to improve the car looks by doing some cosmetic mods. The end product desired is pretty much a clone of Anoop's car as I really really impressed with the look of his ride. It looks very tasteful and classy not garish. I hate excessive use of chrome and a glossy paint scheme. The matte black look with black alloys make the car look totally Gangsta. Now as I understand he has painted the car matte black, which brings me to my first question:
1. Should I paint the car matte black or do a wrap. As I understand it is no longer legal to change the colour of the car, without taking approval from the RTO. Also wrapping is a faster job and the wrap can be removed when I do finally intend to part with this car after another 4 to 5 years and the car can be sold in the original shade as mentioned on the registration card. So I ask should I paint the car or wrap it, and from whom?
2. Also I need to buy good multi spoke black alloys. Please suggest if a set of glossy black multi spoke alloys will look best on a matte black car, perhaps a little red strip running along the edge of the rims or should be looking at something else. However I do not intend to spend a bomb on the alloys, surely could not afford a set of OZ or BBS. Have a budget of max 50K for the alloys. Also please suggest if I should go for 17 inch or 16 inch rims and also do suggest a thick enough tyre size keeping in mind that the car will be generating decent amount of power with the turbo charging done.
3. Apart from this I am also thinking of fitting similar DRL's as Anoop and also changing the tail lights at a later stage if needed. One thing I definitely do not intend to do is fitting HID lights as I love night driving on the highways and those who are using aftermarket HID lights will agree it is not a good idea to have them on the highway as the throw and spread just cannot be compared to one that you get from a Philips H4 90-100 bulbs with the stock reflectors.
Anything apart from this I have not thought of so far, but would definitely welcome all suggestions. I really really hope to receive feedback from all you resourceful auto enthusiasts as I am really trying hard to make this a absolute kick ass ride and need all the help I can get as I wish to state clearly that I have a very poor sense of style in terms of thinking up cosmetic upgrades for a car and do not want this ride to be a victim of my rather limited ability in terms of vision related to how the end product will look. So once again I humbly request suggestions and comments.
Thanks!!!
Last edited by Merc_lover666 : 21st September 2015 at 17:08.
Reason: Images were not attached the first time around.
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