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Spaceship Honda Civic bought


garethj

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On Friday night I was peacefully asleep, my 17 year old son was driving back from a party.  At 3:30am after clipping the kerb and driving into a huge ditch he phoned and woke me up.

The emotions of “thank goodness he’s alright” and “what an utter twat” ran side by side for a while, one nudging the other out the way then back again.  The result is that the 2003 Toyota Celica that we shared (I drove during the week and put petrol in, he drove during the weekend) is written off.  I’d barely had it 2 months.

I don’t know about you, but I generally keep a mental list of cars I’d like to own which updates when I see something on here or a car in the street.  The trouble is that after getting an MX5 in February which lasted until August and then a Celica which survived 2 months I was burning through cars faster than my mental list was topping them up.

One car that’s been bumping around in my head for a while is the 2006-2010 Honda Civic.  I like the look of them and it should be reliable, but obviously it’s too new for me, right?  They’ll be well expensive?  Errr... no.

Because new=good and old=crap you can pick these up for under a grand.  I needed wheels by Monday (today) so had Saturday and Sunday to find one and buy it.  The first one was 10 miles away and an eBay auction start for £600 that ended on Saturday evening.

We went to have a look at it, the pictures looked quite good!

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We went to see it and it looked ok from the outside but inside was like a tramp had slept in it.  For weeks.

All the plastics were scuffed and filthy, even the chrome Honda badge on the steering wheel FFS.  The rear door held a good litre of water in it, there was a curious riveted plate in the footwell and every single front suspension joint was loose.

There was another one about 15 miles from home so we went to see it on Sunday morning.  This was a Type S which is a 3 door although the engine is still the 1.8 vtec (Yo) petrol of the 5 door models.  The outside was ok other than cheapy tyres, the colour suits it and because the inside stinks of cigarettes I haggled him down from £995 to £80015055C4E-4262-457E-8F52-4F3726DE50FB.thumb.jpeg.4826bc381b2529ca43285842b3767441.jpeg

I got it washed and this is how it looks.  I’ll keep you posted 

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1 hour ago, carlo said:

I really like the interior and those comfy looking seats on these but every write up says they have a bone hard ride and lousy rear visibility which would kill it a bit for me.

Compared to the Celica the ride and rear visibility is fine.  I read a review that said the rear spoiler halfway up the rear screen is bad, but actually it does a fair job of blocking some blinding headlights from the car behind 

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50 minutes ago, garethj said:

Compared to the Celica the ride and rear visibility is fine.  I read a review that said the rear spoiler halfway up the rear screen is bad, but actually it does a fair job of blocking some blinding headlights from the car behind 

Taking the rear headrests out helps a lot with it 

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Nice one, they are fine cars. Hard to believe they are so cheap now, if my neighbour came home in that I would think surely he paid 2.5 or 3k for it. 

I remember when they came out first, they were like nothing else on the road at the time. Even today it looks like something released only in the last 3-5 years. 

Does it have the triangular exhaust tips?

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Yes, this has got triangular exhausts, door handles that look like rockets and a dashboard that looks like I made it from cardboard when I was 6 and just randomly drew buttons on it.

It’s got sharp steering which is nice and according to the trip computer it does about 42mpg which is the same as the Toyota.  6 gears are probably a help here.

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I've been looking for something a bit more up to date recently and only very recently discovered these were starting to creep into my preferred (3 figures) price point. I looked at one years ago when I was rich and buying nearly new  cars from main dealers but dismissed it because I didn't like the weird dashboard much, but for a grand I could probably put up with it since the rest of the  car's so funky  looking.
They've aged a lot better than I thought they would, usually ultra-modern stuff looks dated before more conservative designs.

 

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28 minutes ago, garethj said:

I’ve ordered an owner’s handbook so I can figure out how the seats fold, how the radio works, where the fuse box is etc

On the 5 door the seats fold completly flat with the little button thing in the corners, i really like the way the seat base goes down as the back folds.

It might also have "magic seats" where the seat base lifts vertically, but i think it's only useful on the 5 door

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the rear seats are identical to 5 door except they don't have the locking mechanism that holds the "magic seats" vertical and there is a "catch" to hold the leg to the floor

BUT

lift the catch and seat will lift

the rear seat belts have a ratchet system for child seats- pull belt all the way out to activate and strap seat up et voila as they say in that-there-london

 

the front suspension when it starts knocking like a skeleton having a wank in a biscuit tin will be droplinks which are a 1 spanner job

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Well bought! I remember looking at these new at Phoenix Honda in Grangemouth and thought they looked amazeballs. Time doesn't seem to have aged the styling at all which is quite nice if they're now at shite money, so will also be watching closely.

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9 hours ago, Spiny Norman said:

And now having gone and looked at them on Ebay again I remember the main reason I didn't buy one.  I simply cannot cope with a floor hinged 'organ pedal' accelerator in a manual, I'd forgotten these had them.
 

Yes, the accelerator has the hinge at the bottom, like the foot hinges at the ankle?

To be honest it’s not something I’ve noticed when driving, it’s just the upper part of your sole that actually presses the pedal.

This car is on 17 inch wheels rather than the optional 18s so the ride seems ok.  I’m not sure about grip and handling on the remoulds made in a Thailand sweat shop but it turns in nice and direct.

Things that amaze people who only drive old cars:

It’s got adjustable cup holders in the front, 2 cup holders in the rear plus another two in the front door pockets. Who the fuck is that thirsty?

Demisting the screen is fucking excellent, aircon seems to work but this car isn’t suitable for Dollywobbler as there’s no rear wiper.  First time I’ve seen that on a hatchback since the ‘70s.  Perhaps with that spoiler halfway up the glass there wasn’t room and the rear screen is very curved too.

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The clutch pedal bites almost on the floor but that can be adjusted, trip computer says 43.5mpg now and I’ve ordered an aux input so I can Bluetooth podcasts from my phone

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10 hours ago, stuboy said:

can never find love with the front grill assembly

there were 3 versions so finding one you like isn't too hard

1. clear "cyclops"

2. clear like above with two small nostrill grills

3. full "mesh" grill like type-R with various surround colours (known as the sports grille)- mine is the dark chrome variety

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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.

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