I'd put a bit of money into it. $200 bucks for a fairly late model Civic? Remids me of my wife's 94 Eclipse. We sold it to an exchange student for $2000, thinking we'd suckered him. The thing was burning so much oil and the idle was ridiculous, owing to a broken timing belt. Well, that guy drove that little POS to Canada, Mexico, the Grand Canyon, California, and said all he did was add a little oil every now and then. I think, when he left the country, he sold it for an equal amount and made his money back. Moral being, you can't underestimate a car's potential useful life, serious mechanical issues or not.