Last week we saw several nice Hondas come out of the woodwork, including newfound appreciation for a Mugen CRX Si with customizing styles way ahead of its time.
Are these just the tip of the iceberg, or last of a dying breed?
It’s a truth as old as the ages: Any Honda with even the slightest hint of performance pedigree has been snatched up and customized, thanks to their affordability, Old Man Soichiro-infused driving dynamics and complete lack of resemblance to modern Hondas. Some have been modded tastefully, some not so much.
We don’t have a problem with putting personal touches on Hondas as long as stock ones continue to exist, and in great enough numbers that the occasional errant beech tree attack won’t dwindle their numbers by too much. Did we just see a few unicorns, or are there more, squirreled away in garages waiting to cross the auction lines at Barrett-Jackson 2020?
What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of the last QotW, “What’s your greatest JNC tragedy?”
We asked you to make us weep this week, and boy did you. Our tear ducts are bone dry after hearing your tales of loss, whether from bad judgement, idiotic relatives, or carelessness from other drivers. However, Ben (not me) came at us with the most heart-wrenching yarn.
My tale is a sad one.
I had a 1980 series one 626 from about 1997 through to its untimely demise in late 2000. I spent all my hard earned apprenticeship wages on it fixing the body, getting it resprayed the factory silver and rebuilding the 2L MA motor. I loved that car.
Until the day my, at the time, girlfriend decided she would take it to work. She was happily driving along when a Corolla wagon traveling the other direction decided to cross the white line in the middle of the road, leaving my gf nowhere to go except into a head on collision at 80km/h. This totaled the car, as well as my gf.
It was 3 days until the doctors could tell us wether she would survive, and a further 5 years of reconstructive surgery before she was back to “normal.” I have since made this awesome specimen of human determination my wife. However the 626 has been lost forever.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
I’m not sure which it is myself. I had the privilege of owning and driving a 74,000 mile, 100% original and in 95% condition (at least) 1991 CRX HF for a year. I was the second owner. I had bought it to drop a hot motor in, etc. but could not bring myself to do so. Taking that car to Cars and Coffe in Dallas was the experience that changed my mind. I had an NSX ask to park next to it (a 1991 in similar condition, red to my white) and had at least as many people looking all over the CRX as the NSX.
I ended up selling it off to a med school student sight unseen (he flew in to Texas from Chicago based on pictures) for over $6,000 about three years ago. I regret selling it to this day.
Yes, this is just the tip of the iceberg, all we have now is Hondas from the mid 80s and the beginning of the EF generation. These are many a Honda in MN alone, sitting in stock, or nearly stock condition. I would think of the 90s to be like the muscle car era of Japanese imports. once these hit that 20 year mark, especially with the EG generation, their prices will skyrocket. The EG in of itself, has already experienced it once people began to notice that these are no longer disposable street racers like they once were. Personally I would be on the look out for a EK coupe EX, EM1 Si, or midori green hatchback because those still havent gone up THAT much in value.
Being from MN, how are they with rust?
Rust free moderately used not Si EF/EG will pull the same price as a mint Si in CA.
There’s probably a whole bunch that we just haven’t heard about yet. Integra/Civics were popular with everybody, not just the tuner crowd. There’s bound to be somebody who bought one as a mid-life crisis present, as a second car, or was up-sold into a top-of-the-line model.
In any case, I’m holding onto the notion that my (mostly) original ’95 Integra GS-R sedan with <120K miles will someday be worth six figures! But I'll never let it go.
I’ve had three crx’s. 1988 crx Si; 1985 crx Si; and finally a 1991 crx HF. After my HF got stolen from in front of my home, I was pretty much done with owning Hondas all together.
A little of both I think. No matter what, these neo-classics are going to steadily dwindle in numbers, despite selling so well.
And yet, you’ll probably see more public appearances from the well loved and enthusiastically customized models. Seems to be the trend lately for all makes of nostalgics.
But that’s just my prediction.
The whole Civic scene is synonymous with stolen cars, stolen parts. Everybody knows it, including Honda guys themselves. Most Honda guys look past that and accept it as a worthwhile risk. Obviously quite a few Honda guys are themselves the thieves, and embrace this aspect of the Civic scene, like somebody gleefully playing as a thief in Skyrim.
There’s a (small) iceberg now. Stock ef/eg/ek are less common at this point than modified ones, but there are still a lot of them. Its just that there are so damn many modified ones.
Eventually it’ll be a dead breed, as the last stock Civic is either stolen or bought from its previous owner, modified, and then stolen or sold, and so on, until eventually, like all Honda Civics, it ultimately winds up stolen and stripped for parts and the shell destroyed. Plot twist: that last stock Civic was being held “securely” by Honda in its Suzuka facility when it was stolen.