Spaceship Honda Civic bought

[Jim Bell]

I would take one of those to the barn dance and let it touch my bum during a slow number. 

[garethj]

The lack of aux input is terrible, however it’s rectified with a £30 adapter and less than an hour’s work.  As the rest of the car is something that would normally be rejected for a concept, never mind production, I’ve decided to be benevolent.

[Lacquer Peel]

This is the top of my list of sensible cars to buy if I ever have any money. The 2.2 CTDI would do me perfectly well. If anyone sees one (has to be a five-door, preferably in that nice pale bronze colour) in the £800 arena that doesn't look totally shagged, please let me know (looking at modern cars for sale on the internet gives me a headache).
I'd be really interested to know how you get on with this long-term Gareth, assuming it doesn't die a death next week. Although, the knowledge that it doesnt have an AUX input has sort of turned me off a bit - most '90s cars have them and Mp3 players weren't even invented then, how can a modern car not??? Actually, that makes me so disgustingly angry I don't think I could live with one.

I don't think many 90s cars have aux in but they can be retrofitted with any single DIN stereo you want unlike many newer cars with unique to the model stereos built into the dash.

[dollywobbler]

I really like these, despite the obvious wiper deficiency. They corrected it on the next model, but then created a huge triangle of doom with the front wipers and fitted rear indicators so small you need a microscope to actually witness them flashing. BLOODY AWFUL. So yeah, I like yours m8.

[garethj]

In an effort to get rid of the stale cigarettes smell, I got serious with this.  First stage was to get the inside deep cleaned so I stumped up £25 at the local car wash for the gold-platinum-diamanté valet.  There were 4 blokes all over it and in 15 minutes they did a better job than I would do in a morning.

Then I got some carpet shampoo and did the seats and carpets, finishing off with some Dettol disposable wipes on all the hard surfaces and the headliner.  The car wash place gave me an air freshener that would surely set off a Geiger counter but the smell of fags was still there.  Time to up my game and get all ozone on yo ass

This thing that looks like Doc Brown would put it on the DeLorean is an ozone generator.  It does something to the stinky chemicals by either attaching or removing an atom.  Anyway, you’re supposed to run it for half an hour with the windows shut, leave it for 40 minutes and then air out the car.

Due to my inadequacy with the timer knob I let it run for just under an hour.  Like a fine piece of meat I let it rest as directed and then opened the door to give it a sniff.

You know how sometimes a smell can instantly take you back somewhere?  As soon as I opened the door I was transported to every hotel in China that I’ve ever stayed in!  It must be that they don’t just use air fresheners in these hotels but ozone generators.

This one is fairly powerful and you can’t be in the room while it’s running but there are also smaller ones.  Anyway, the car now smells like I’ve got terrible jet lag and am about to negotiate a Chinese breakfast buffet.  However the stale fags smell has gone.

According to The Internet it needs a few days for the ozone to fade and after that it might need a second shot of 30 minutes.  So far it’s fucking impressive though!

[TooManyPeopleMovers]

13 minutes ago, garethj said:

In an effort to get rid of the stale cigarettes smell, I got serious with this.  First stage was to get the inside deep cleaned so I stumped up £25 at the local car wash for the gold-platinum-diamanté valet.  There were 4 blokes all over it and in 15 minutes they did a better job than I would do in a morning.

Then I got some carpet shampoo and did the seats and carpets, finishing off with some Dettol disposable wipes on all the hard surfaces and the headliner.  The car wash place gave me an air freshener that would surely set off a Geiger counter but the smell of fags was still there.  Time to up my game and get all ozone on yo ass

This thing that looks like Doc Brown would put it on the DeLorean is an ozone generator.  It does something to the stinky chemicals by either attaching or removing an atom.  Anyway, you’re supposed to run it for half an hour with the windows shut, leave it for 40 minutes and then air out the car.

Due to my inadequacy with the timer knob I let it run for just under an hour.  Like a fine piece of meat I let it rest as directed and then opened the door to give it a sniff.

You know how sometimes a smell can instantly take you back somewhere?  As soon as I opened the door I was transported to every hotel in China that I’ve ever stayed in!  It must be that they don’t just use air fresheners in these hotels but ozone generators.

This one is fairly powerful and you can’t be in the room while it’s running but there are also smaller ones.  Anyway, the car now smells like I’ve got terrible jet lag and am about to negotiate a Chinese breakfast buffet.  However the stale fags smell has gone.

According to The Internet it needs a few days for the ozone to fade and after that it might need a second shot of 30 minutes.  So far it’s fucking impressive though!

I've owned a couple of cars that have smelled of dogs or cigarettes, in  spite of serious cleaning.

I'd be interested to see if the cigarette smell is still gone in a few days when the ozone smell disappears!

Good luck.  

[barrett]

19 hours ago, Lacquer Peel said:

I don't think many 90s cars have aux in but they can be retrofitted with any single DIN stereo you want unlike many newer cars with unique to the model stereos built into the dash.

Yeah I was being a bit 'internet pub bore' there, seeing as I haven't driven that many '90s cars. Xantias do, though, and that's all that really matters.

[Fabergé Greggs]

Did they do a dizzler auto capable of not shutting itself? 

[twosmoke300]

Currently sat in my van waiting for the end of the world style rain to fuck off so I can view a black type s one of these

[Schaefft]

Always been a favorite of mine. Even the Type-Rs are cheap now, 3 grand get you a somewhat decent one. If that isnt a bargain I dont know what is.

[garethj]

16 hours ago, Fabergé Greggs said:

Did they do a dizzler auto capable of not shutting itself? 

I don’t think the autos are much good but that’s only what I’ve heard, perhaps from people who’ve mostly never tried one

[steveo3002]

did you buy that oznone machine or rent it ?  sounds good

[garethj]

Bought it, about £60 from Amazon

 

It’s definitely made a huge difference as I found out last night when I opened the glovebox and the stink came charging out.

I’ll run the machine again tonight, open all the cubby holes and also set the heater to recirculate to get all the ducts treated.

[garethj]

Update!

The ozone generator worked well, I gave it another couple of zaps and the smell has almost completely gone.  There’s still a faint whiff when you first open the door in the morning but my smell for fags is hypersensitive so I’m being quite critical.

After 3 months I treated it to a service which got rid of the rattles; some drop links and securing the exhaust means it’s nice and quiet inside.

The only other thing to note is the alarm went off at 2am the other week.  I pressed the blipper wondering (deluding myself) that a bird had dropped a particularly weighty poo on it.  A few nights later it did the same thing and 10 minutes later did it again.

The weather was chilly and I’m hoping it’s just the battery being a bit low, however I don’t want to spend £80 on a new battery to find the problem is something else.

With these, you can’t lock it on the key and disable the alarm; there’s no way of disabling it unless you disconnect the bonnet switch so the car thinks the bonnet is still open, then it won’t alarm itself.  I disconnected the bonnet switch ?

As a car it’s very good, it starts and drives ok, the brakes are excellent, steering is nice and I love the way it looks too.  If anything it’s the driving experience that lets it down a bit.  It’s competent and all that but it doesn’t feel special.  Maybe because it’s not that special, actually?  It’s just a nicely styled modern car.

[The Moog]

You bastard... I have been avoiding buying an ozone machine because I think they are lies and made with unicorn tears
The fact they work mean I may need to buy one!

[garethj]

The capacity is what governs the price, you can get bigger ones for doing rooms of a house and smaller ones to leave on all the time in cupboards.

It’s worth cleaning inside first to minimise the amount of odour it has to zap

[Stinkwheel]

Just caught up with this thread. I think that you’ve played a blinder with the civic. Good looking car, not too new, not too old and exactly the right price bracket, perfect daily.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[garethj]

Yep, as long as it doesn't shit itself in an expensive way, that's pretty much ideal.

Now got 156,000 on the clock and it hides those miles like an old Volvo.  According to US websites there are plenty of these that sail past 200,000

[Jamie]

Just sold my spaceship type R on here with 154k on it drove perfect. I never actually wanted to sell it but I'm moving house and need all the money I can get. I'll 100% have another 

[Dan302]

They are definitely on my list, is the visibility out of the back as bad as people say or is it just like most modern cars with thick pillars and small rear windows?

[garethj]

Visibility is probably worse on the 3 door like mine, but I don't think it's worse than any other car of the same era.  Sitting in a Peugeot 205 gives me a massive agoraphobia spell now  

[Jamie]

10 minutes ago, Dan302 said:

They are definitely on my list, is the visibility out of the back as bad as people say or is it just like most modern cars with thick pillars and small rear windows?

Yes it's horrendous. Literally might aswell have no rear window as anything you neeed or want to see sits in the spoiler recess/blindspot. 

[twosmoke300]

Yeh it’s not good . Not a new drivers car that’s for certain 

[garethj]

Time passes which means the Honda keeps on working perfectly.  50 miles a day on the commute and it’s all going fine.  42mpg seems to be where it’s at which is alright for a 1.8 petrol car.

I was a bit bored of the clonks so had the rear shocks changed and some drop links too.  There’s a funny rattle coming from behind the glovebox still but I’m ignoring that for the moment.

The MoT is up next week so I put it in and it failed on a side repeater.  It’s built into the door mirror so instead of it being a 50p bulb it’s a £50 light, lens, connector, housing....

There was an advisory on brake pads so I got those done too and it will need front tyres soon.  To sum up, it’s an £800 car with 160,000 on the clock and it needs just consumables.

I still really like the way it looks, it drives fine and it doesn’t go wrong.  Obviously I’d like to change it for something else but it’s a very convenient thing?