I just bought my first car!

[Jim Rome99]

I'm a younger guy, I just bought my first car - a 1986 Honda Civic manual transmission. I paid $1300 for it and paid another $1300 for the mechanic to replace the brakes/rotors, change out some belts, install a new centre pipe, etc.

I have a few questions, any responses are much appreciated.

The tires don't have a whole tonne of thread on them, is it worth it to buy winter tires? How much to tires on this type of vehicle usually cost?

I bought and installed my own deck from Walmart - it cost $100. I'm not the type of guy who you hear two blocks away blasting rap music but I would like to have some new speakers installed - every time I turn the music up it is just crackly. Do I need to have new wiring installed too or can I just replace the speakers? What about stuff like an amplifier or subwoofer? What are these things and are they necessary? How much do speakers generally cost?

Thanks.

[Jim Rome99]

One more question: the car doesn't have cruise control, and I am on the highway quite frequently. How much would this cost to get installed? Ballpark. Cheers.

[Skyline_Addict]

congrats on your first car! it's a nice feeling, isn't it.

not only would i suggest winter tires, but i would suggest new summer tires as well. winter tires give you both safety and performance in snow conditions. shop around for prices. depending on quality, if installation is included, etg. you are looking at $70 per tire to $200 per tire.

i'm not a music/sound junky myself either and if you really don't care too much about it, why would you want to install an amp or sub? just get a nice set of speakers.

you seem to be asking alot of questions about prices....my suggestions - shop around!

[sxtothe240]

1. you could have spent 3000 on a slightly newer civic that has no problems

2. Yes buy winters (not sure how much)

3. I'm guessing you have cracked speakers so prob replace them.

4. Use the gas pedal, not worth it to install.

[Euro_Trash]

+1 for winters

It's your first car. Don't go out and blow a bunch of money on expensive speakers or cruise control. I guarantee you will regret it. Buy some cheap ass speakers that will do the job

[Jim Rome99]

Thanks for taking the time to respond everyone.

I'll get the winter tires then. When is a good time to buy them - late September? If I buy them too early, will they just burn out much quicker than if it is actually cold on the ground? I live in Calgary.


In regards to the speakers - should I just buy them and install them myself? Is it that easy to just rip the old ones out?

[Euro_Trash]

Speakers are super easy to change (at least on all of the cars I have had). It's also a good place to start learning how to remove panels and interior pieces from your car.

Would you plan on buying new summers along with winter tires?

[Jim Rome99]

I don't know - the tires that I have on there now are not completely gone. Perhaps at the end of the winter I would look into buying summer tires.

[Skyline_Addict]

Originally posted by Jim Rome99
Thanks for taking the time to respond everyone.

I'll get the winter tires then. When is a good time to buy them - late September? If I buy them too early, will they just burn out much quicker than if it is actually cold on the ground? I live in Calgary.


In regards to the speakers - should I just buy them and install them myself? Is it that easy to just rip the old ones out?


you should never put winter tires on early. sure, buy them early. but put them on a few days before the first expected snow fall. i would assume that most tire places will start advertising winter tire packages within the next month or two.

and like posted above, install them yourself. you'll save a hundred bucks on labour costs and get to learn how to do it yourself.

[Euro_Trash]

Originally posted by Jim Rome99
I don't know - the tires that I have on there now are not completely gone. Perhaps at the end of the winter I would look into buying summer tires.

That's perfect then. Buy winters when they go on sale, but keep driving on your old and busted tires until then. Couple weeks before it snows throw the winters on, and then at the end of the winter start looking into summers :thumbsup:
Ignore this whole post if the tires you have are so low on tread that they are unsafe though.

[Neil4Speed]

For Sure Get Winters - You seem like you are on a budget, sometimes you can get good ones for your size on kijiji.com or on Beyond.ca. If you can provide yourself with anything that will increase your safety - do it! It shouldn't be too expensive, about 100-200 Installed for a good set (assuming you have pretty small rims)


I am not to familiar with the cruise control, but check into this and see if its an option for you.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-Audiovox-CCS100-Vacuum-Cruise-Control-Reservoir_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33595QQihZ022QQitemZ350092010205QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

If you do allot of highway mileage, it might be worth for yourself to install it.

Speakers are easy to rip out and install new ones. Your new deck should have ample power to drive some low end aftermarket speakers. Just pick some up from again Kijiji or beyond. Find out what size you have from churchfield.com.

Lastly, congrats on your first car! It will change your life.

[g-m]

Well I'm sure he would wait till next summer to get new summer tires considering he's young and just dumped a ton of money into a new car. Plus now is a really shitty time to buy new summers and I know because I shopped around for new front tires on Monday and the selection was...... pretty much non-existant. Absolutely NO options for directional tires so I said fuckit I'll just drive on bald tires for another month and throw winters on.

Winters are really really worth it, they make quite a large difference. I used to just get all-seasons because I didn't want to pay so much for tires but if you get a set of summer and winter, each one will wear half as fast. Except the summers will wear faster iirc haha.

Speakers are hella hella easy to replace. You'll have to take the door panel off (get a haynes book or factory service manual), snip the wires on the stock connector, put a clip/connector on the wires and connect them to the speakers. Then screw the speakers into the door. It could take as little as ~15 minutes per door.

I wouldn't bother with cruise control though

[Jim Rome99]

Originally posted by Neil4Speed
For Sure Get Winters - You seem like you are on a budget, sometimes you can get good ones for your size on kijiji.com or on Beyond.ca. If you can provide yourself with anything that will increase your safety - do it! It shouldn't be too expensive, about 100-200 Installed for a good set (assuming you have pretty small rims)


I am not to familiar with the cruise control, but check into this and see if its an option for you.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-Audiovox-CCS100-Vacuum-Cruise-Control-Reservoir_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33595QQihZ022QQitemZ350092010205QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

If you do allot of highway mileage, it might be worth for yourself to install it.

Speakers are easy to rip out and install new ones. Your new deck should have ample power to drive some low end aftermarket speakers. Just pick some up from again Kijiji or beyond. Find out what size you have from churchfield.com.

Lastly, congrats on your first car! It will change your life.


Hey, thanks man! I'll check out that churchfield.com website.

[Senseiz]

Congrats on car purchase.

As repeated many times, get winter tires. Look at kijiji, craigslist, even the marketplace here for used winter tires. Get them with steel rims and you can change them yourself.

Look at your tire and see how far the tread is from the wear bar indicator.
http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/tp/tp2823/rotation.htm

Change the speakers yourself.

As for cruise control, you dont need it in the winter, but in the summer, use a brick.
http://www.innfusion.com/blogimages/Brick.jpg

[Machi]

it's actually http://www.crutchfield.com :)

[TorqueDog]

If there's one thing I learned the hard way, it's never mod your first and only car. If you want to put in some cheap (but better than what you've got) speakers, give'r. But don't go nuts.

[Wehbeast]

Cheap speakers can be had @ XS Cargo for 20 a set or so

[Skyline_Addict]

yes. try not to spend more on your car than what it's worth. that's a good rule to follow, imo.

[Kloubek]

Congrats as well.

I too 100% agree to get winters. They truly make a big difference! Using wearing all-seasons would make your first winter dicey at best.

Cruise is too expensive to install. Good thought, but don't bother.

And +1 on XS Cargo. The stuff they sell there is generally not great, but it's SUPER cheap!

[supe]

Just the new set of speakers will go a long way...

And my best advice, if you want good new tires for a good price message tirebob on this forum.