Finally sold my ep3 civic
about time.. I didn’t like my 2002 civic sir from the start, nice motor but crappy everything else, steering, handling, the seating position sucked and the seat had no adjustments except the mandatory forward/back and recline, poor rearward visibility, steering wheel was too high and always always cut through the gauges…. and last but certainly not least the a/c was always on whenever you had any type of defrost on… really really annoying.
so now onto what I think i like most about cars…. buying themI The current candidates are the 92-93 civic si hb and the s13 or s14 (89-98) 240sx.
the 92-93 civic si hatchback is most likely the best civic we ever got in north america, it was part of the best chassis and the best suspension line honda ever offered because it had 4 wheel double wishbone suspension (they don’t have that anymore), it was light (they don’t do that anymore), and it had good visibility ( nope… no longer in a civic), and it also had 4-wheel discs, the 1.6 sohc vtec engine, a power sunroof, . basically I love all the 88-2000 civic hatchbacks, but the 88-91 was a little too noisy and under powered, and the 96-2000 had a cheap interior and no power. of the 92-95 civics they only offered the si hb for 2 years. the si coupe was heavier, longer, and lacked the rear discs. the 4 wheels discs and vtec motor were never again available in the HB.
so for these reasons it’s on my list.
the 240sx is the other present candidate because they are just damn cool, 4 wheel disc’s, RWD, nice multi-link rear end, a torquey 2.4L motor, they are cheap, quick, nice highway cars, and endlessly modifiable… but they look best with the stock body, a nice drop on coilovers, and some killer wheels.
Changing cars again? I would definately go with the Nissan 240. RWD, very reliable and a real sporty profile. They are hard to find these days. I had a Nissan for six years and never had a single problem. Never even had to change the brakes.
July 4, 2009 at 5:16 am
yeah the 240sx is temping, but so is the civic. nice thing about out here is that there are tons of 240sx’s around and most with little to no rust… and the same goes for the civic si’s
the 240 certainly costs more to build. you need 3 pairs of adjustable rear suspension arms to replace the originals so that you can keep your alignment in a useable area.
I’m also trying to keep city usability in mind, turning circle size, front and rear overhang(important on a very low car), milage, and just overall length (for parking). In all these the civic wins……
dunno… either way I probably won’t have either car for more then a year, so i could just try both
one this year one the next
July 5, 2009 at 9:56 am
A lot of the young crowd down here are purchasing older 4 door Audis and or older 5 series Bimmers. But they are probably as expensive as hell to maintain.
July 6, 2009 at 5:02 am