1992 Honda Civic VX 1.5

Summary:

The most car this amount of money could buy

Faults:

Replaced the usual things that wear, except that it was done way beyond when other cars have it done. It was on the second clutch, which would be normal with this kind of miles on it.

General Comments:

295,000 miles and still running fine, just lost a little power. I sold it like an idiot thinking it may not continue to do my daily 120 mile commute.

False advertising by Honda. The car was marked 56 mpg highway, and it never got more than 44 mpg. Contacted the regional rep who ordered a mechanical evaluation and said nothing was wrong with it. Honda refused to do anything about it. Later found out that it was false advertising and none of them got advertised mpg. The HX did not get 56 either.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 12th June, 2008

27th Jul 2011, 01:42

My 93 VX has 175,000 miles on it, and consistently gets 56.5 Mpg.

1992 Honda Civic DX 1.5L

Summary:

Superior reliability for a very modest price

Faults:

Engine seals leaked oil when purchased.

Starter broke around 170,000 miles.

She had a non-OEM alternator with a lifetime warranty when we bought her and that alternator went out at around 205,000 miles.

CV boots are cracked and have been that way for 1-1/2 years now. And most of the suspension bushings are old, dried, and cracked, especially the main one in her rear trailing arm which we might end up replacing soon. (But we almost expect this to happen to rubber that has sat outside for 15 years.)

The dimmer switch is suspected to cause the dashboard light to go out on very rare occasions. If the lights don't come right back on after playing with the dimmer a little, they are always are back on before the next trip.

General Comments:

We drive about 20,000 miles/yr over short and long distances and she runs so wonderfully that we forget she is over 15 years old. We expect her to get us where we are going like she is a new car and she fulfills our expectations!

Her engine is rather noisy, even when freshly tuned-up. But after 60,000mi of reliable performance we have taken this to be normal for her.

We keep her extremely well maintained doing oil changes religiously between 3-5k miles depending on type of driving, and doing pressing maintenance such as timing belts and valve adjustment on schedule with Honda's recommendations. EVERYTHING including brakes, tires, broken parts, and tune-ups has cost us about 2,000$ so far. But it has paid off by her giving us nearly flawless reliability since we bought her.

Performance wise, she gets up and goes when you need her too, even on steep hills with a little bit of down shifting. She can stop extremely fast even though her brakes are non-ABS. She has a good amount of body roll when cornering at high speeds, and her handling at high speeds (90+mph) is rather loose. But for legal, everyday driving, she does exactly as we need her to. Oh, did I mention the 40+ mpg fuel efficiency?

Our biggest grievances have to do with comfort. There is lots of road noise, her seats aren't very comfortable and she is too small for our growing family and newly acquired paper route.

So, including a 2,000$ purchase price, this is the best 4,000$ we have spent on a car yet!

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 24th November, 2007

17th Jul 2010, 04:22

This is an update!

Our 2001 Accord's transmission has failed, leaving our much older, and much smaller '92 Civic to single handedly foot the load of our busy family.

She towed our Accord home when it broke, she tows a trailer during the week for some lawn care we do, and now she totes around our family of 5 where we need to go! She gets used so much that her engine almost never cools off!

She has 272,000 miles on her, and she still runs amazingly! She has some peccadilloes, like she needs an oil seal, and in turn is leaking oil, although nothing is visible on the ground. She also has a fuel pump that gets stuck on itself sometimes, and the dimmer switch still acts funny. But the things that are truly important on her stay intact.

We have fixed many things on her that have broken through the years of use, but the cost of those things adds up to less than $50 a month for repairs, which is much cheaper than paying a car payment! And many of the things that break, like cracked tail lights and broken dimmer switches, are far from important compared to the horrors of other vehicles.

We take very good care of her; we change her fluids and tune her up religiously, and in turn she has taken care of us. Even when our other car half her age couldn't keep up with the demands our family requires, she keeps running strong. Go Ruthie!