So I bought an 01 civic 70k miles on it about 45 days ago. Car was in good shape from what I could tell, clean title, no accidents, 1 owner, ran well. A couple weeks ago the heat shield started rattling so I brought it into the dealer even though the 1-month warranty had passed. The car was also squeaking/rattling which I thought was caused by a faulty hinge on the glove box and a loose piece of plastic in the rear cup holder.

When I took it into the Honda dealer I bought it from just 45 days ago they told me both heat shields were rattling so I had them pull them off for $56, no big deal.

Then they also told me that BOTH front struts are leaky and need to be replaced. They also told me that the lower control bushings need to be replaced. The service guy told me that he thought the struts would still be under the extended warranty but wasn't sure about the bushings. Unfortunately the warranty place is closed on Saturday so he's going to call me back on Monday and let me know for sure whether these things would be covered. He said that the squeaks and rattles I was hearing were due to the struts being leaky and also due to the bushings being loose/out of alignment. He quoted me $635 to replace both struts and $430 to replace the bushings.

I told him I just bought the car a month ago and hadn't even driven the vehicle 1000 miles yet and asked him why the dealer wouldn't have checked the car out before selling it with these problems. He looked up the car to see if it was a certified pre-owned, which of course it wasn't. Then he told me from what the computer says, the dealer only performed a basic safety check on the vehicle so the struts and bushings wouldn't have been checked before they sold the vehicle.

I really don't know what to do. This is really irritating that they think there needs to be over $1000 worth of repairs on a car I just bought. Does anyone have suggestions?