wilch

An old civic would be a good buy. Reliable, and fun. In my opinion a much better engine than the Mitsubishi Mirage. In my experience the mitsu engine just doesn't have any pull past 4000rpm. Below this it's good enough for daily driving, ie. it pulls nicely around town and feels generally good. But more boring than a car of that age should be. Rev it out to overtake and it just doesn't go. The twin cam Honda's though do nicely. No vtec surge or anything, but they continue to pull past 4000rpm.

I have a 1990 integra. It's doing well, it only has 119000+ km's on the clock. Engine wise = perfect, except for the starter or something (I'll explain later on in this post).

I've only had 1 problem with it (a water leak). That Honda didn't know how to fix. But I found a US website with a fix and part numbers. Gave that to Honda and they fixed it right away. Prior to this they were using f'ing silicone on bits they "thought" the leak was coming from...

Recently the integra has been giving me more grief though. Problems with the starter motor I think. Basically the car won't crank sometimes (mornings only). As in it will just make a spring type noise then nothing. Turning the key back around a few times (up to 10) will eventually get the car to crank and turn over like nothing was ever wrong. This is very annoying. I know Honda won't know what is wrong and will start replacing parts they think is causing the problem until the problem goes away.

It is either the starter, the cap, the main fuel pump relay, or something else.

Also if you're after a car that has spare parts readily availble, don't look at Honda's from around 1990. Sure those cars are only 13 years old. But a new bonnet for my car took almost 1 month to get. That in itself is a big pain in the arse.


Here's a link to a page with a pic of an EK civic http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Garage/...6282/civic.html


wil..

tze

Hmm you arent going to get a vti-r teg for that price - even the 94 models are, at lowest, $14k or so with reletively high mileage -

How about suzuki swift gti??

naishou

wilch it sounds like your car has a dodgy starter solenoid. Pretty cheap to fix with a reconditioned part.

wilch

[QUOTE]Originally posted by naishou
wilch it sounds like your car has a dodgy starter solenoid.

AusS2000

But and absolute pain in the but to replace. I did one on the GF's Civic a couple of months back and the lower bolt is a beotch to get at.

Austblue

I spoke to the guy with the '97 civic and it didn't sound too bad but he had a few people going to look at it over the weekend before I could get out there and never called back so I gather that he sold it.

tze gtis seem to have all been whored out from what Ive seen Honestly every swift that I see down here has custom paint and 18" chrome wheels whether its a Gti or not!

Thanks for the post Wil those are the sort of problems that Im trying to avoid. As for the mitsubishi not having much power, Im not really too worried about that Im only after transport not something to race my mates

Ill be keeping an eye out for those civics I think that it'd be a good buy.

AusS2000

A buddy of mine is selling his 1.6L Barina as he's getting a company car. I'll get some details.