Faults:

I owned the car for almost 3 years and only replaced the tires and the brakes. The most reliable car I have ever owned.

General Comments:

I have been a Honda man since the day I got my license. My first car was an 89 CRX SI, then a 97 Prelude. Both were high points in Gondas history. My 99 SIR was a perfect blend of the 2. The reliability and low running cost of the CRX, and the performance of the Prelude. 2600lbs, 160 hp. Not bad.

I drove this car across the country and had it up over 135 mph more than a few times. Although not as sophisticated as the Prelude, it wasn't too far off the mark.

I once got 700km to a single tank driving through the mountains at around 120 km/h driving from Vancouver to Calgary. I couldn't believe it.

Handling was superb. This this was a star on city streets as well as the highway.

Unfortunately a girl ran a red light and totaled the thing. The only place for me to go now is an S2000. Still a little too much cake for me to spend... thanks Honda but you haven't built a nice car since 2001...

Faults:

Car had been heavily rear-ended when I bought it, and had it straightened out. Luckily, the rear left damage stopped at the wheel well, so the suspension has been perfect. Got it straightened out.

According to the service records I picked up with the car:

99k miles: replaced catalytic convertor

110k miles: replaced clutch, synchros, resurfaced flywheel.

3rd gear will grind going in 1 time out of 50. Not a big deal.

Reverse takes a few tries to properly get into. Reverse gears have never been serviced, however.

General Comments:

Acceptable power if you keep the rpms above 3000; fairly pathetic pedal response below that. Going from 0-10mph is painful due to lack of low end torque. It takes some skill to move forward after being completely stopped on an incline due to this. Wouldn't reccomend this car to a first time manual transmission driver, but I learned to drive stick on it, so it's possible.

Would not reccomend an automatic civic of this generation. This generation of car has very little low end torque and makes it a pain to drive in the city / stop and go. An automatic transmission just makes things worse.

In comparison, the previous 92-95 civic EX has more torque at lower rpm and is a little smoother to drive because of this. Those cars have much less emissions equipment however (obd1), whereas this car is obd2 so if you have problems with emissions or other things, it is much easier to diagnose via computer.

Downshifting into 3rd on the highway is a thrill as it is almost guaranteed to kick you into VTEC @ 60mph. Passing power in 3rd is very strong, 4th is fairly useless.

Handling around corners is fairly good for an economy car. I have Integra GSR wheels, and feel like they are the perfect upgrade over the stock 14's.

I would not say this is the most comfortable car. The seats are kind of hard and small. The dashboard layout and the rest of the interior is very good, however.

The car is more visually and ergonomically refined than my Cavalier on the inside, yet seems to be far flimsier. I did buy this car as a salvage, but it seems like even after refitting many of the plastic panels, there are plenty of mystery rattles in the car. I am hoping that some dynamat will ease this. The Cavalier had a very dumpy interior, and the dashboard cracked, but the seats were very comfortable and there were very few, very minor rattles.

The engine still runs & starts very well. I would not be suprised if I got 250k miles out of this car. I never have to worry about it breaking down. Even if it does, a used engine is $500 at most.

Very cheap to run and maintain, but rattling, halfway good seats, and very low torque makes this car kind of funky.