Early in 2019 I made a Medium post listing all the cars that I would like to own at some point. One car in that list is of a 6th generation Honda Civic. Despite having already owned one before, because of that particular car being a ticking time bomb, I didn’t believe that the experience I had with that car from the beginning was exactly what the car was originally. Because of that, I thought that it would be nice to actually have one that was in good condition so I could have a more authentic experience.
Well… I kind of got there. I’m not sure how close a 5th generation Civic is to a 6th generation, and I’m not using this as a replacement for owning the 6th gen, I still want to document my experience with it since it’s the first car I’ve owned since the 6th gen Civic.
It had been about 4 1/2 years since the last time I had ever owned a car, and like with anyone who goes through a bad breakup, getting back into the car ownership game after being burned the first time came with a bit of anxiety, to say the least.
That said, I had kind of gotten much more in to cars in late 2018 and early 2019. I got into watching YouTube videos by such channels as Saabkyle, Doug DeMuro, Jay Leno’s Garage, RegularCarReviews, Hoovie’s Garage and MotorWeek. After having binge watched so many of their videos I became much more knowledgeable about cars than I was years prior when I was looking for one to make my daily school commute.
It became clear to me in late-2019 that I needed to get a car in order to open myself to more opportunities. So I started looking for used cars and the place I went for them? That’s interesting because after finding nothing in my price range that wasn’t an almost-guaranteed hooptie, I went to Facebook Marketplace. I don’t know how many people use Facebook Marketplace to buy cars but it was there where I found the most promising leads.
The first car I looked at was a 2002 Lincoln Town Car with surprising low-miles considering its age, and appropriately in my price range. After checking it out, I saw that it hadn’t been inspected and it was obviously bought recently from an auction, and I was not interested in getting something that was so uncertain. Even though the Lincoln Town Car was on my list of cars I’d like to own, I did not feel comfortable pulling the trigger on it.
That night, I went back online and found a 1995 Honda Civic for sale for less than what the Town Car was being sold for. I contacted the owner and asked if I could check it out and the next day I learned the history of the car. It had been owned within the same family since it was new and had all of the recommended service to it done when suggested meaning that the car was really well-cared for. I decided that buying it was a good decision and I did. After paying all the fees and taxes associated with buying a car, I was still under budget. The guy who sold it to me did mention that it needed an alignment and a boot for the power steering rack which did cost a bit at the garage, but it was an expense worth paying for.
Story of the car’s acquisition aside, in the months I’ve had it, I’ve put over 2000 miles on it. I’ve driven it in good weather, rain, in heavy snow, at night and during the day, so I think I have a pretty good idea on its general handling characteristics.
To be specific, my Civic is a DX meaning the engine is not a VTEC and the interior is fairly spartan. As the Civic was still an economy car back then, it definitely has economy car characteristics as far as the interior is concerned. It does have the AM/FM radio with cassette player, as well as air conditioning. It’s also an automatic transmission.
Something I’ve found about driving the Civic as far as the interior is concerned is that I’ve learned to try to stay away from interstates as, since it’s a mid-90s economy car, it gets pretty noisy inside. Also, one quirk of the car (mine specifically) is that only the rear speakers work so if I’m on the highway, I have to crank the radio volume higher than normal to hear anything on the radio. But something I do like about the interior is that, despite it being an economy car, it’s actually quite comfortable. After a day of work, I look forward to getting into the car and just relaxing for a minute. I found the front and back seats to actually be quite comfortable.
As far as the suspension goes, it isn’t too firm and it isn’t too soft. Again, I found it to be quite comfortable, even more comfortable than some of the modern cars I’ve driven before. The car’s handling feels quite nice, probably the best I’ve felt with what limited experience driving I have. It felt just connected enough to give me a level of confidence in it that I never had in any cars I’ve driven prior to this. There was some body roll but it wasn’t a whole lot and, in my opinion, elevated the experience.
The car’s engine ran like it was new. Despite being over 100,000 miles when I first got it, (122,222 to be exact), I was impressed that the car got out of its own way quite nicely. It was surprising since it is a 1995 economy car; I was expecting it to be as slow as my 1997 Honda Civic or slower, but then I realized that my 97' Civic was a mechanical basket case and probably not representative of what an actual Civic of its time was like. My current 95' Civic is brilliant getting up to speed. Oh sure, it’s still pulling 1990s economy car 0–60 acceleration, but with the engine being so eager to rev, and get up into the higher revolutions, it makes the car rather fun to drive. The transmission is predictable and easy to manipulate with the accelerator and it’s simply a joy to drive.
My favorite moment with it was when I was going down to a friend’s house which was about an hour and a half driving distance away from me. I was taking one of the US highway routes because I’m not a fan of how noisy the interior gets when I’m up to speed on them. One of the beautiful things about the US highways is that it is inevitable that you will come to a section of it that is in the middle of nowhere- a big open road with no sign of traffic winding its way through the hills. Oh, sure, the sign says the speed limit is 55 but… there’s nobody around. Granted, I’ve never gone significantly over the speed limit on roads like these before, but in this case, it was unconscious. The car inspired so much confidence, that, before I knew it, I was taking the road’s bends and hills at close to 80 mph. It was the most fun I had ever had driving before, if not the first time I had fun driving. I wasn’t burning rubber, or squealing the tires or anything like that, I was simply going at, what felt natural. If I wanted to push the car, I’m sure I could have pushed 90 but I wasn’t trying to get performance or anything, I was just unconsciously having fun. That will be my favorite moment with the car.
Yes, there are some things about the car I wasn’t the biggest fan of. For instance, the transmission. Once the transmission reaches the highest gear it never really wants to shift out of it. So if you come to a rolling stop at a light which just turned green and you’re in the highest gear, acceleration will feel very sluggish because the transmission is reluctant to downshift. This is probably for fuel economy purposes but, when you have a guy in a giant truck behind you with the level of patience of a grade-school kid a week before Christmas things can get a bit iffy. Luckily, all the gears are available to you on the shift lever and you can “manually” shift between them if you so please, so the problem can be circumvented.
Nobody ever forgets their first car, and honestly I kind of have a sense of pride that my first car was a hooptie just because I can say I owned one, but my second car is probably my favorite car I’ve ever driven so far. Maybe we’re kindred spirits, born in the same year and all that. I’m only kidding of course but I really feel lucky that I got such a great machine. Driving it through blizzard conditions, terrible unplowed roads, ice, rain- it took all of those in stride. The best part is that the car paid for itself after just 3 months of ownership. It will be a car I will always remember and if I ever get the opportunity, I would love to import it to Japan, should I end up living here for the long-term.
