NEWBIE...Just bought a 1996 CIVIC DX Hatchback
 

Hi,

I have been lurking here for a while and I had been looking for a nice Civic VX hatch, but I never found one in my price range/condition.

I ended up buying a 1996 civic hatch with 122k...its black and minty condition. Its a basic car manual windows, no power steering, no cruise control, no tach.

It does have a minty interor and cold a/c smooth shifting 5 speed manual. Just wondering what I can do to increase the mileage. Im getting 31 mpg in the city havent done much interstate driving.

The car does have 17" rims on it that I think look good but I know they are not great for the mileage. I am looking for some vx wheels...if anyone has some for a decent price I would be interested.

I tend to coast in nuetral whenever possible. I do use the a/c during the day becuse its around 100 degrees here in florida.

Any tips would be appreciated.

hx rims with low rolling resistance tires would be the best modification to the car, and of course, the best modification of anything is driving technique. this is really true for city driving.

I suspect that your front disk brakes are to large for 13" VX rims, so 14" HX rims or even better honda insight rims would be the answer, with of course narrow tires, the tire width being the first number, the narrowest you can easly get for 14" rims being 165mm wide.

My 96 DX sedan has the stock 13" steel rims.
Mine does have power steering. Maybe that's a hatch/sedan difference?
I used to get 33mpg, but my 6-month average is 44 and my last tank was 52.1mpg. It's a good car. I love the shifter!

panamacolin -

Welcome to GS! If you have a 1996, then you are scangauge compatible, which will give you a digital tach. My 1989 Honda CRX had the smoothest shifter, manual windows, *and* no power steering. Fantastic!

CarloSW2