You did not say which model car you have but last year there was a recall for some year of that model. There was a poster on the net a while back where someone had taken a Toyota full line 2010 poster and added arrows and text describing what year and which recall applied. Every vehicle pictured had a recall.
And in late breaking news Toyota has just recalled another 2.17 million cars for unintended acceleration. This brings their running total to over 13,000,000 recalls since September 2009 according to the LA Times.
Ouch. Glad I don’t work for them.
In the 1990’s the Honda products were affordable, they looked good, were reliable, and as pointed out already they were sportier cars than the competition. Also, the VTEC engines were powerful screaming motors with a lot of hot rod potential. The B18 engines out of the Integras could be all motor, turbo charged, nitrous injected or supercharged without the same amount of work that a Toyota/ Yamaha engine would require, if the Toyota motor would even survive at all. The EK Civics were light weight and handled well with the double wishbone suspension. They were surprisingly good driver’s cars, better than the Mazda 323, Toyota Corolla, or other Japanese compacts of the day. The only other contender in the mid-90’s was the Nissan Sentra SE-R, which also had 4 wheel independent suspension, disk brakes front and rear, a 140hp 2.0 liter engine (SR20 series engine, also excellent), and a nice looking body style.
What do we have today? Really tall, goofy looking 4 door cars like the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, Nissan Sentra and Versa. The engines in these current cars are not as powerful as the engines from back in the 90’s. The hot rod potential is not there either, with changes in the design of the engines not conducive to making more horsepower. As for Honda, what happened to the innovation and the style? That was what sold their cars! The current ugly Accord is the size of a yacht, the Civic has that strange instument cluster, the Acura TSX and TL are bizarre looking. Where is the S2000, the NSX, the Prelude, the RSX Type S? The CR-Z is not a new CR-X, unfortunately. So sad.
I used to work with a guy who had a 1993 Civic hatch that had a B18 engine out of an Integra GS-R installed. This was a fully built motor with rods, pistons, port and polish, header, no cat, intake, Hondata, the works. It was guestimated to be approximately 215 to 220 at the crank shaft, with a 9,000 rpm redline. This Civic was gutted: no carpet, no back seat, scraped sound insulation, no head liner, aftermarket lightweight seats, etc.
Aftermarket suspension, forged wheels, sticky tires, better brakes helped it move. We went for a ride; I almost pissed myself. It was loud and much faster than expected. You cannot build a current production tall roof economy car to move like that old Civic could.
Exactly right. The majority of that import customization during that time was seen as a way to get a car that could compete with the likes of an NSX or Supra if you couldn’t afford a one. A cheap used Civic made a great starting point, and the fact that the car was so common meant that aftermarket parts were readily – and cheaply – available.
Over time that snowballed: demand for aftermarket performance parts for Hondas fueled supply, and the number of the cars that were being modified drove the image that they’re the cool cars to modify.
But there have always been others. Subaru, for example, has also been a popular choice.
I own a 94 Honda Civic Del Sol and occassionally get offers out of the blue to buy my car. I’ve had a couple of mechanics at shops where I had the car seviced give me their cards ‘in case I ever want to sell’ and even had a guy approach me in a parking lot asking me what I’d be willing to sell for.
Totally agreed. At least from an aesthetic standpoint. I know very little about the mechanics of these cars, but I certainly know about style, and these jellybeans ain’t got it.