Car buying tales - Honda Fit and Civic

I get rather distracted when typing these continuation type posts. This is part two of three car buying stories.
The first was about my venture to buy a Ford Fiesta here. Next on our saga was trying to find a Honda Fit. I was sent to find a Fit, Fiesta or any cheap small car. The problem right now for these wee little Fit cars is Japan. As per the salesperson at the Honda dealership...hundreds of these minicars were swept into the ocean during the earthquake and tsunami and the plant has been shut down. They have become rare, so dealing on them is not likely. Instead, we looked at a Honda Civic, which there are tons of on the road, and sitting at the dealer. The price point we were looking to hit was around $13K, so we were looking at used 2008's.
Nice cars. The first we looked at was a stick, 29K miles, with a dead battery. The second was an auto with 36K mileage. We made an offer on the first car (after the battery was charged.) I asked to see any paperwork they had on it, and would the salesman explain the numbers on the shop report. What does a "5" mean for tread life left? What does a "3" mean for brakes, etc.
The sales fellow got very testy with me, like all these numbers were fine, the car was great, it is the best car in the world, number one seller, there were no problems, I was basically lucky to be in the running to drive one. When buying a new car for thousands of dollars it would really suck to have to pay right away for new brakes or tires. Hence my questions.
They couldn't get down to my price ( we were $300 off) so I drove home without it.
Pic: 2008 Honda Civic image courtesy Saku Takakusaki