Is this a good deal. First car? 98 Honda Civic?

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/cto/4475499700.html

So the engine was replaced and it has 65K miles on it.
Is it worth it? And this would be my first car.

Well, the person doesn't even know how to properly mount directional tires, so I would bet that the person probably didn't do a lot of other things right.

You have to ask yourself some questions…
Why was the engine replaced?
Why are there no pictures of the modifcations, just the engine out of the car?
Why did they post a picture of the car in primer if it was painted?

I wouldn't pay that much for it… Maybe $2500 at most. Find out what the NADA value is on it, then subtract $300-500 for the modifications which might not be emissions legal (header), plus to replace all the tires and get a matching set (it has Sumitomos on the front, mounted backwards, and Kumhos on the rear).

Which leads to another question… Why didn't they replace all 4 tires at the same time? My guess is, they were street racing the car, so it's probably been abused. That's why the engine swap, that's why the mismatched tires.

For no more than 1000.00