1973 Honda Civic from North America - Comments

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.

I owned the first Honda Civic, April 1973, sold in the eastern US... loved it.

1973 was the first year for the Civic, I don't know what month they actually made their appearance in the states. Mine was that model year, well used, and chocolate brown in color. I remember it well.

Mind telling me exactly how this choke-gas works? And where can I find a discription of all of the trimms of the civic (SI, GL, etc etc- I can't seem to find it on wikipedia, all I find are pictures).

Having had a number of cars in the past, especially HONDAs, I have never sold a car. I still have em all. If it's broke, don't complain, just fix it. DRIVE ON!!!

My first car was a '73 Honda Civic. It had belonged to my grandfather, then my mother, and then me. When I finally got it, it had over 350,000 miles on it. It had never had a major repair. It did have a cracked engine block and it smoked like crazy when you first started it, but it ran. And considering it had that kind of damage, it ran very well. I put another 75,000 miles or so on it without a single problem.