1973 Honda Civic review from North America

Nothing went wrong with the car in the 15,000 high-mileage miles that I owned it, other than rust.

This was the strangest little car that I ever owned, and I thought I'd write it up in the event there's still one alive out there somewhere.

It had a manual choke on the dash, and virtually nobody on earth could start the car, but me. There was a certain combination of gas pedal and choke position that you had to use, or you'd run the battery down trying to cold start it. The dealership I traded it in at actually had to call me three days after trade in, because it was still sitting exactly where I'd parked it - none of their mechanics could fire it up! I gave them the secret gas/choke combination and they had it running in two minutes.

The car had great acceleration and handling for the tiny little thing that it was. It also had a top usable speed limit of 55 mph - starting at 58 mph it would just BLOW white smoke out the back of the car, fogging the car behind you. So on trips, you just drove 55 in 4th gear and that was that.

I just bought a 2003 Civic, my first Honda since this one over 20 years ago. My, have things changed in the land of Honda since 1973!

The '73 was small, loud, uncomfortable, and slow (but quick). But it was fun to own and drive, and I missed it when it was gone. It had personality.