In the most recent episode of Wheeler Dealers, hosts Mike Brewer and Edd China leave the UK and head to the sunny climes of Los Angeles. There, they pick up a well worn first-gen yellow (aren’t they all?) Honda Civic, restore it, and sell it back to the American Honda Collection.
The car is purchased rusty and running poorly for $2,000, put in $4,200 worth of work, and in the end they sell it for $14,000. However, it does seem there’s a bit of movie magic thrown in. For one, the interior starts out with a so-so aftermarket upholstery job. By the end, it has perfect houndstooth seats that it’s supposed to come with. Unless those were covered under the “general maintenance” part of the bill, they’re unaccounted for.
Also, it’s unclear when the restoration of the Civic took place, but Honda definitely already had an extremely clean yellow CVCC when we visited the collection almost two years ago. And we saw what we think was the same car when we visited again last month. As Brewer rolls it in to the museum, their newly acquired S600 is clearly in view, putting the date of the “sale” sometime after our November 2014 visit.
In any case, if you can put the perhaps embellished sales story aside, it’s a great episode with perhaps one of the best explanations of how Honda’s groundbreaking CVCC engine works. It’s also uplifting to see the often overlooked first-gen Civic getting some much deserved screen time.
” According to Honda, 2004 was the last year of NSX production………………..”
My 2005 NSX is indeed a very rare model then.
Maybe all the 2005s were built during calendar 2004? It’s happened before.
I remember the Honda Civic of the 70s. As a child, I found it hideous looking. Today, as an adult, I find it to be the best looking car Honda produced. The only thing I never liked was that it was never offered with four doors as well as two. Sure, by the 80s Honda offered a four door sedan, but you could never get a hatchback with four doors. I’ve never understood why.
Funny how some cars only get better with age like that.
A 4 door was offered, just not in the states.
Of all the flipping car flipping shows, Wheeler Dealers has the least amount of manufactured drama and actually interesting technical explanations of what they’re doing to the car or how it works. It’s not a basket case car rolling in the shop and a crate engine swapped, $10k paint hot rod rolling out at the end of the hour after screaming at each other over parts that don’t fit and unrealistic deadlines. So I give them a pass on some of the more reality T.V moments. This was a great episode showing an interesting car being restored and preserved.
Absolutely agree. most of the other car-work-related Shows are absolutely terrible. Wheeler Dealers is the most eductive of them all 😉
I couldn’t agree more, I think that it’s the best of the genre, by far.
There was this guy who ended up with a girl I liked had a yellow Civic like this. Punk…
How cool. They filmed at a park just down the street from me. I need to visit their Huntington Beach shop.
Man I used to love this show on Velocity when i had cable. So glad you posted this and a great car for them to flip
WHEELER DEALERS is by far my favorite of the Auto shows on TV, I really loved the older episodes with Euro-only cars we never see here. I’ve picked up some great tips from Edd, and Mike is certainly a used car salesman!
I bought a ’77 Civic CVCC 5sp new. It was bulletproof, and I’m not sure in 100,00+ miles I ever had to replace the back tires ! Edd has the patience of an oyster, but believe me, you’d raise the hood, pull off the air cleaner and staring back at you was a one-barrel carb the size of NASCAR Holley with about a zillion vacuum hoses and wires, and HOPE it never needed work ! I once purposely took a 300-mile trip on back roads and enforced a 50mph speed limit, and recorded 51mpg, leaded, of course. Amazing little car, and one of the few I wish I had back. I traded it for the then-newly-introduced Accord 4dr (maroon, just like the car in the ad), and I knew times were going to get way hard for the Big Three: Toyota-like reliability with that Honda zing, a terrific car.
nice civic, sadly i can’t find 2 doors civic in indonesia.. it’s very rare
Does anyone know where they had the motor rebuilt??? I’m looking for a spot to rebuild my cvcc motor.
1 mile short of their 90 mile target: Presumably 45 mpg was what the car could do when new?
Mike & Ed should have tried a few more mileage enhancing tweaks?
🙂
The Honda CVVC was rated at 50 mpg (21 km/L) when new. Mike and Ed only got 44.5 mpg (~19 km/L).
This would have been a great opportunity to try a few mileage enhancing tweaks?
Here are a few ideas:
http://xcelplus.com.au/links.htm
🙂
BTW: All Mike did was fit an extra mileage gauge and an air fuel mixture gauge. For the air fuel mixture gauge to work they had to fit an oxygen sensor. None of those items actually improve mileage… but they may be helpful in keeping the car in the most efficient range?
Why don’t Mike and Ed would do a proper episode on fuel efficiency?
The Honda CVVC was fun regardless… but I wish they had provided a bit more info on what they did?
🙂