Hi again
So, I have been absent for a good while. Without going into details, my Toyota Echo has been sent to auto recycler heaven. (AKA I sh!tcanned it after quite patiently waiting for even a minor excuse). I ended up with a '97 Civic DX coupe 5-speed. I thought I'd be settling after trying for more quirky and/or fun cars such as a Saab 9-3, a low-mile-but-beat stick Chevy HHR, and a Mazda6 wagon, V6/stick, but after about 500 miles, I'm genuinely starting to see why Hondas used to be so worshipped.
I haven't been able to recalibrate my UltraGauge for this car yet, but if it's close then this Honda is better than my Echo, especially at middle-speed cruising. It has some great potential since it has manual steering and a manual trans. Hope it stands up! |
Hey what's up, I remember you. The Toyota did you proud, get a pic or two up of the new ride. Honda's are solid, reliable and easy to work on thanks to build quality and carefully thought out placement of parts.
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Ha! I see you're still active here! Thanks!
Asketh, and ye shall receiveth: https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/honda-t...130fadf3f8.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/honda-t...f140799f0c.jpg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/honda-t...4c138b7fba.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/honda-t...a5586aef12.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/honda-t...a23caabfce.jpg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/honda-t...da10e1668b.jpg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/honda-t...9d4a784e68.jpg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/honda-t...0aea90bb7b.jpg |
Ah it's one of those, rare beast, Civic with a boot (trunk) as I call them here. Looks in good shape, i'd sort those rims out though, would look fresh with a nice set of 5 spokes perhaps?
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Ha, the three-box Civics are mostly all you get here. I'd have preferred either the four door or the hatch just from a usability standpoint, but again, I was shopping cheap and knew the trade off was not being too choosy.
I'm still thinking about the wheel situation. I actually think it's exceedingly charming to find a car which still has its original wheel covers after 20 years, to the point where I might clean these up and paint them closer to their original look; they're kinda close to aerodynamic pizza pan covers, too. Or, I remove the wheel covers and run the steelies underneath with the little Honda steel hub covers and fresh chrome lugs, as I have always liked the street-tuff steel wheel look. There was a 6th gen Civic like mine up the street a couple of years ago like mine with the seekie/center cap thing and it looked decent. I think they only way I'd be able to justify shelling out dough for a set of wheels on a cheap car is if I lived in the snow belt where I'd be running a set of snow tires. It would just make it easier to switch back and forth from season to season and the expense would then be totally worth it. |
I forgot to say though that were I to get a set of wheels, I agree a nice simple set of 5 or maybe 6 spoke wheels would be the ticket. I really don't want to rice this thing out at all beyond maybe some bracing and good suspension bushings. It's a simple chassis but they managed to dial in a fair bit of fun, so it would be a shame to waste that.
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Welcome aboard, Jcp385!
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I used to like Hondas a lot, but nowadays everything that they make no longer appeals to me. I was a big Honda fan and even had a 1998 Accord with 220,000 miles still going strong. After around 2004, Honda has not made a car that I wanted to buy. Maybe Chris Bangle the BMW designer went to work for Honda / Acura after he left BMW.
https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...c2c8296a55.jpg My brother's girlfriend had an Echo and I kind of liked it in a weird way. It was very light considering it was a newer car and had very skinny tires with great fuel economy. It was kind of fun to drive. I also like the fifth generation Tercels that came before the Echo, they tend to last forever and are very light (2,000lbs). |
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I felt the same way about the Echo. It's hideous, and I wanted to thoroughly hate that thing, but I too ended up liking it, though I'd be a bit of a punk to really hate a free car which fell into my lap. It had great packaging, tons of room for something which has such a small footprint, and it's almost as light as the Tercel - curb weight for mine with auto was 2080lbs. The 1.5 was pretty plucky too with VVTi, I read a test somewhere which claimed it was capable of sub-8 second runs with stick, not bad for a bargain basement thing almost 20 years ago. Packaging and engine excepted though, the Civic is a better car in every way. |
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