1991 Honda CRX 1.6i 16 DOHC
Summary:
The car, not the hybrid
Faults:
Distributor melted (common problem).
Headlight fuse short.
Needed a new exhaust.
Needed new tires.
Just regular maintenance for a 20 year old car!
General Comments:
Best car I've ever owned, I wish all cars were built like the Honda CRX. It's the closest you can get to a race car without stripping out an interior or tuning the engine. Not to mention it's comfortable, and very ergonomic with excellent use of space.
Very reliable car; always starts, even when the distributor melted, it drove me home 100km!
This is a real car that teaches you how to drive without any of the electronic nannies that correct your mistakes for you that are found in today's cars like, for example, drive-by-wire electronic throttle, hydraulic clutches, lane departure assist, brake assist, traction control, ABS, and power steering. It's just you, the car and the road.
If I could I'd drive this car for the rest of my life, I'd be so happy.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 23rd February, 2010
26th Dec 2011, 04:51
Update: Changed 2 summer tires and the radiator, since it was corroded for a 20 year old car.
This past week, drove it 1500 km, and no problems whatsoever, besides an amazing drive.
26th Dec 2011, 10:38
Hmmmm, my 1980 Celica had a hydraulic clutch. You sure about that one? Also, power steering has been around for 50 years or more.
I do agree that ABS, traction control, stability control and every other expensive addition to improve a car's safety, are more excuses for people not to learn to drive properly, than anything else.
The CRX was a great car overall though. Seems you are having great luck with yours. Funny that the CR-Z comes out 20 years later with a "revolutionary" hybrid powertrain, and it still gets about the same gas mileage. 20 years in the auto business doesn't equate to much advancement does it? Seems the only progress has been on the emissions side of engines. In my opinion, they could have made the CRX HF engine run much cleaner by now, and still get the 55 mpg it was achieving over 20 years ago without 100's of pounds of battery involved. I guess oil company payoffs have been the way of things though, which stifles any real progress in efficiency.
29th Aug 2013, 21:35
Yeah, I'm sure the CRX had a cable clutch, since the cable snapped on me before I sold it. I've moved on and bought a Prelude; still fun to drive, but missing that character the CRX had. A really similar car I just drove is the FR-S/Toyota GT-86/BR-Z.
19th Oct 2020, 12:09
The CRX was a great zippy little Honda with 2 seats, and a big glass hatch and quite a roomy trunk. However it could not have been considered a race car in the base setup. But looks like the reviewer was coming from a Volvo 240, so then it's understandable. Comfortable seats, great visibility, superb gearbox selector feeling, direct unassisted steering. The steering wasn't that heavy when parking.
Two downsides: the weird dashboard shape with that flat area for small items storage. And the big steering wheel. In fact, the car was pretty boring to drive with the original large steering wheel. However, when installing a sports small diameter steering, the car came alive and become fun to drive.
Being a Honda, it had the usual weak points: body rust, brake lines rust, fuel tank rust, exhaust rust, all suspension and steering wear components would wear by 80k miles, distributor problems, head gaskets, gaskets leaks including the rem. Also the bolts were very prone to get stuck from rust, always a battle to remove old bolts.
13th Jun 2010, 16:55
Update: Nothing has gone wrong as of writing :)