It’s usually been stated to be extra enjoyable to drive a gradual automotive quick than a quick automotive gradual, and right this moment’s Good Value or No Cube Civic Si is the form of automotive that pondering was primarily based upon. Let’s see if this now-classic is priced to be shortly snapped up.
The damaged home windows principle posits that proof of minor crimes begets an setting that invitations higher and extra critical malfeasance. The 2004 Volvo S60R we checked out yesterday suffered from a damaged tail lamp lens as its most blatant visible flaw. And, packing practically 300 horsepower (or nevertheless many ponies it has left after 20 years) and a six-speed stick, it portended all kinds of deviltry on the highway. A $6,000 price ticket wasn’t a criminal offense, nevertheless, at the very least based on the 85 p.c of you who awarded the Volvo with a Good Value win.
Relating to sizzling hatches, the 2 longest-running nameplates are Volkswagen’s GTI and Honda’s Si. After all, issues are just a little funky right here in America, the place VW solely sells the Golf in its sizzling hatch GTI kind, and Honda received’t promote the present Si within the Civic’s hatchback physique in any respect. If you need a baller Civic and the flexibility to go antiquing on weekends, you’ll must step as much as the even hotter and wildly costlier Sort R.
Or, after all, you would at all times go the old-school route with this 1987 Honda Civic Si three-door hatch.
The third-generation Civic entered the U.S. market in 1984, spawning not solely the Si hatchback but in addition the CRX two-seater, the funky Shuttle tall wagon, and the requisite for the period four-door sedan.
This 1987 version rocks the manufacturing unit arrest-me-red paint, however some non-standard plastic wheel covers rather than the automotive’s authentic Aero discs or telephone dial alloys. They nonetheless have a stylized “H” at their facilities, so at the very least they preserve it within the household.
In accordance with the advert, this Si has a formidable 216,000 miles on the clock and reveals its age and people miles within the fading of the paint (all the way down to the prime coat) on the roof and door tops, in addition to a damaged tail lamp lens (what, once more?) within the again. Apart from these visible blemishes, the automotive seems to be in pretty good nick.
The inside, too, has suffered by the hands of time, however like the outside, it’s a blended bag. General, it appears tidy and clear. The problems embrace a Turner & Hooch-style gap within the driver’s seat vinyl, some odd puckering and a gap within the plastic on the sprint, and a lacking cowl for the passenger door speaker. One other, extra minor challenge: an aftermarket stereo head unit is resident within the sprint, which form of throws off the entire ’80s vibe.
Per the advert, the automotive “runs and drives nice!” It’s famous that it got here from the manufacturing unit with out A/C, so no worries about having to cope with R12 right here. Energy is 91 horses, which come from the Si’s 1488 cc 12-valve fuel-injected 4. That won’t look like loads, however understand that the little three-door Civic solely suggestions the scales at only a hair over a ton. The five-speed handbook on these has a reasonably lengthy throw and considerably imprecise motion, however they aren’t horrible to drive. Dealing with from the torsion bar entrance and coil spring rear suspension can be vigorous and enjoyable.
Different problems with rivalry on this explicit Si embrace a cracked moon roof insert that the vendor asserts doesn’t leak, and the non-operational registration, which it seems to have been beneath for the previous 4 years. The moonroof glass might be going to be a trouble to exchange and the registration would possibly show an equally daunting problem if the automotive can’t cross the smog check ought to that be required for title switch. On the plus aspect, that title is claimed to be clear and clear.
This Civic is sufficiently old to be thought of a basic. Being an Si means it’s price contemplating as a keeper. Even in its present, considerably worn state, it will seemingly be successful at most any Japanese Automobile present and might be enjoyable as a weekend warrior as-is, or as a light-weight restoration venture. The hurdle to any of that’s the consideration of the automotive’s $4,500 asking worth.
What’s your opinion on that and the automotive as an entire? Does that appear like a good deal for a basic Si? Or do the demerits outweigh this sizzling hatch’s cool issue?
You determine!
Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go right here if the advert disappears.
H/T to Phillip Moore for the hookup!
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