1986 Honda Civic 1.6L 4 cylinder
Summary:
A wonderful car for college students on a budget
Faults:
The clutch needed to be replaced twice while I owned my Civic, and I only owned it for a year and a half. However, both times I had the clutch replaced it seemed loose when I got it from the shop, like it was already going out again. This might have been unique to my Civic.
The cam shaft warped and ground a hole in the engine block, pouring all my motor oil onto the ground. Of course, this was a slightly more gradual process, but the end result was that my engine was destroyed. The dealer tried to imply that I caused the problem by letting the engine overheat at some point. I insisted that the car never overheated, but they wouldn't believe me. The kicker was when somebody who owned a 1986 Honda Civic saw my car sitting in front of my house and stopped to ask me if I wanted to sell the engine in it. They informed me that they had the very same warped cam shaft problem that had destroyed my Civic! After that encounter I always wondered if a poor alloy had been used in Honda cam shafts, and if it was a common defect with this particular year and model of Honda.
General Comments:
Up until the time I began to have problems with the cam shaft, this was a wonderful little car.
I had the 4-door sedan model and loved being able to haul my friends around without having to let them in and out by getting out of the car and tilting the seat forward.
The front wheel drive was amazing in the snow. I never lost control in the ice and slush when larger 4-wheel drive trucks were overturned in the ditches.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 2nd September, 2004
11th Nov 2007, 14:09
I bought a brand new 1986 Honda Civic (not fuel injected) and had a lot of problems at the 3 and half year point which was just over the 50K extended coverage. I needed a new automatic transmission at 52K miles (stuck in first gear) and a new engine at 74K miles. My A/C would only work at 4,000 rpm and higher then go out when I had to stop at a red light. The car had trouble making it up hills. I sold it as soon as my 5 year car loan was over, car cost me over 5K a year to own over the 5 years I had it and I only got 3,500 dollars for it when I sold it. It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life to buy a honda. I put in a lot of money for it thinking it would be super reliable and I would own it for decades, but I was sadly mistaken. I put on the bumper a Honda Sucks homemade bumper sticker which people seemed to enjoy. Only the most expensive things broke on the car, the small things worked fine.