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1988 Honda Civic Hatchback, Bone Stock With Every Single Service Record Ever! on 2040-cars

Year:1988 Mileage:118098
Location:

Brooklyn, New York, United States

Brooklyn, New York, United States
Advertising:

For sale is my awesome 1988 Honda Civic.  I love this car, but need a truck for work.  Every good car has a story, so settle in, here goes:

I am the second owner, and bought the car from a female college professor.  This was her first car in 1988, got her through college and everything after.  For the last 10 years or so she had mainly kept the car garaged and only driven it every few weeks from New York (where her boyfriend lived) to the college she worked at (Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA) which explains why the mileage is so low.  118K!  Civics will easily go 200k miles or more, and a quick search of eBay will show you that most older Civics for sale has 150k miles or more.  Most Civics get inevitably cut up or modified by well-meaning, foolish teenagers- this car is bone stock, pristine, the exact same components as it rolled off the factory floor with.  I think this car is about half way through its life (in my very humble, non-mechanic opinion.)  It is now 26 years old and can qualify for classic car insurance in most states (cheap!)

Part of the reason it is in such good shape is that it was owned by one person (and then me, for the last 6 months.)  The other part is that the original owner was absolutely meticulous about servicing the car, making sure anything that went wrong was fixed, that service intervals were respected, etc.  I have done the same.  When I bought the car (and included in this sale) the owner gave me 2 folders stuffed with records for every single service/repair the car had ever received.  That's right, every repair, documented- you can see the whole life of the car laid out in front of you.  I bought a service manual, also included in the sale.

Since I've owner the car, I've only had to do a few little maintenance things to it: changed the oil, replaced the rear hatch shocks, and put in a new alternator.  That's it!  It passed inspection with flying colors.  Inspection is current, title is clear and in my name.  Has an aftermarket stereo and speakers sound pretty good.  

Now, this is a 26 year old car, so I wouldn't expect it to behave like a new car.  It's great at what it does best- sips gas (30+ MPG in the city!), can fit into any parking spot in the city, and can actually haul quite a lot (I can fit my bicycle in the back with the seats down without taking off any tires from the bike, I just stuff it in!)  So, here's the list of inevitable bumps, bruises, and other oddities:

  • A bit of rust (very little for a 26 year old East Coast car) , mostly in the rear wheel wells and passenger door sill.  I sanded these down and sprayed them with rust eliminating primer.  The primer is grey and doesn't stand out too much, but if you wants perfection you could get the factory paint matched.
  • Clearcoat on the hood is peeling.  No rust, just a bit scabby and discolored.  I routinely see used hoods on eBay for around $100, but haven't found a blue one yet.
  • Left turn signal is flashing quickly, will need bulb replaced eventually
  • Driver's seat is a bit cracked up, that's why the seat cover lives on it.  One crack in the passenger seat too.  Both are totally comfy and the padding is fine, totally cosmetic.
  • Some rattles and creaks- full steering wheel lockout to the right causes an intermittent noise (previous owner had it checked, mechanic couldn't pinpoint it and said it was irrelevant.)  AC rattles a bit (loose screw in there somewhere) but works just fine.  One AC vent cracked.
  • The big one is that eventually the car will need some clutch work- you can feel some of the power leaking if you gas it too hard (clutch is wearing down and not fully engaging.)  If you aren't flooring it like a madman you don't notice it too much (and if you are trying to race a stock 4cyl Civic you are strange.)  Drives totally fine, and I wouldn't hesitate to drive cross country tomorrow, but somewhere on the horizon this will have to be attended to.
I'm happy to show the car, answer questions about it, etc.  I really like this little blue guy, it's kinda fugly in an awesome way and does every thing its told.  Starts ever single time, even in the single degree temps this week (video is from 1/8/2014, outside temp around 15F.)  That's all I can think of, anything not listed here is an oversight, this car has nothing to hide.  I'm not a mechanic, although I can turn a wrench a bit, so all descriptions of the car are from my experience as the owner and daily driver of the car- I'm not omniscient.  Please remember this is an older car, nothing is guaranteed, and bid accordingly.  Good luck!

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Auto blog

Honda discontinuing Euro Accord, no replacement in sight

Wed, 22 Oct 2014

Honda has built two Accords for many years. There's the one we're familiar with here in the United States, and then there's the Accord sold in markets like Europe and Australia, known here in the US as the Acura TSX. But just like Acura did with the TSX, the Euro-market Accord has been discontinued.
The news comes from The Motor Report in Australia, which is reporting that the Accord Euro will be discontinued in 2015. Sold Down Under alongside the US-market model, the discontinuation of the Aussie car indicates an end to Honda's midsize sedan efforts in Europe, where there is no obvious replacement for the four-door and wagon models.
According to TMR, Honda Australia Director Stephen Collins indicated that focus will be placed instead on the US market "wide-body" model, as it's known. That said, this decision doesn't sound like it's sitting too well in Oz.

Honda expands Takata airbag recall to 5.4M units in the US

Tue, Dec 9 2014

While Honda already announced plans to take its front driver's side Takata airbag inflator recall nationwide, the automaker has now officially reported on the number of affected vehicles and the specific models in need of repair. The expanded campaign covers an estimated 5.4 million units across the US, including those already being fixed under the previous regional actions. That number is an expansion of the five million units initially reported by NHTSA. The affected models under the nationwide recall are the 2001-2007 Accord with a four-cylinder engine, 2001-2002 Accord V6, 2001-2005 Civic, 2002-2006 CR-V, 2003-2011 Element, 2002-2004 Odyssey, 2003-2007 Pilot, 2006 Ridegline, 2003-2006 Acura MDX, 2002-2003 TL and 2002 CL. For customers who expressed concern about their vehicle's safety, Honda had already been replacing the inflators nationwide. It's possible for the inflators in these vehicles to rupture when inflating the airbag, spraying metal fragments at occupants. This problem has been blamed for at least five deaths worldwide and at least 139 reported injuries. In its statement, Honda said that it worked with Takata to test the recalled inflators in the original high-humidity recall regions, and there were no abnormal deployments in these evaluations. Honda will begin notifying owners by "over time," according to its statement. Priority will be put on the geographic areas with the highest risk of ruptures. Those in the original recall region were contacted in September. Earlier in December, Honda partnered with Autoliv to supply the automaker with replacement inflators for this campaign. Autoliv predicted it would take six months for deliveries to start. Takata also increased its production of substitute components. Scroll down to read the company's announcement of this nationwide expansion. Statement by American Honda Regarding National Safety Improvement Campaign: Driver's Front Airbag Inflator Supplied by Takata Dec 8, 2014 - TORRANCE, Calif. Honda will voluntarily expand a regional Safety Improvement Campaign initiated in June 2014 (NHTSA No. 14V-351) into a national Safety Improvement Campaign affecting certain 2001 through 2011 Honda and Acura vehicles in the United States to replace the driver frontal airbag inflator, free of charge. Honda is expanding this Safety Improvement Campaign to address concerns raised by its customers whose vehicles were not included in the regional campaign.

Jeep Gladiator Mojave and Acura MDX A-Spec | Autoblog Podcast #627

Fri, May 15 2020

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski and Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder. This week, they're driving a Jeep Gladiator Mojave, Acura MDX A-Spec, our long-term Subaru Forester and a Honda CR-V Hybrid. A little stir-crazy from quarantine, they also derail the conversation for a little bit to talk about beer before launching into this episode's "Spend My Money" segment. Autoblog Podcast #627 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars we're driving 2020 Jeep Gladiator Mojave 2020 Acura MDX A-Spec (Here's one of those "Off The Clock" episodes we reference in our derailment about beer) Our long-term 2019 Subaru Forester gives us a moist surprise 2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video: