??1989 Civic??
 

I'm about to aquire an orphan '89 Civic 4dr sedan. I think it says DX on the trunk lid. It's a 4cyl but I don't know the displacement. 5spd manual.
My neighbor is trying to give it to me. It has a blown head gasket which I can handle but don't know if it's worth it. So.....
Others with feedback about this model good or bad???
Thanks in advance.

most likely it is a 1.5 litre and has a TBI injection. I may be wrong but thats what I've seen on the older DX's.

With regards to FE they are the middle of the road model. They aren't optimized for FE, but they aren't the high-performance version that sucks for FE. Hondas tend to be pretty reliable, so if you're getting it for free & can do the repairs cheap it would probably make a good beater/commuter car.

My daily driver is a '91 Civic 4dr 5spd - same generation as the '89. I have 270,000 miles on it and, in addition to some maintenance, have only changed the timing belt (once, it's due again) and the distributor. The 1.5L with 5spd is plenty fast for my needs, and I can get close to 50 mpg in warm weather highway driving. My running average is 42 mpg. The engines are plentiful (the body usually goes first) and you can find lots of parts at the junkyard (or entire parts cars on Craigslist).

So go for it.

Bill

I put over 160,000 miles on an 88 DX Hatchback. The car was rock solid reliable and mileage was excellent. Always in the mid to high 40's on the highway and sometimes as high as 52 on long trips. When I sold the car the compression test had all cylinders well within spec. I think the lowest was 137 psi, the highest about 142. If I ran across another one that was rust free I would snap it up. Of course, rust free in Michigan is really hard to find.

I would get it. its a free car.

I had a 90 civic hatch, and 90 sedan before, loved it. you can find the D15b2 engines for cheap on honda-tech or craigslist, probably around 150. these cars are pretty easy to maintain, all you have to do is change the fluids every so often.