1999 Honda Civic EX review from North America

Tail pipe rusted out at about 50k, not unusual for the rust belt area I suppose.

The left front power window wouldn't go up while visiting family 700 miles away the day I was headed back home. I later found a frayed cable in the regulator and bought a used unit in the salvage yard for $75.

Sometimes when in drive and stopped it seems to idle too slow causing a vibration and something to rattle up front.

OK let me get my gripes out of the way, which may seem nit-picky.

Would be nice to have the window controls illuminated so I can see which button is which at night.

Would be nice if the intermittent wipers had some sort of variable control. You get Off, Intermittent, Low and High,- dumb.

The cup holders are so-so. You get a big one and a smaller one, if you take off too quick you better hold on to your drink or it might be running down your leg!!

Forget about those map lights on the overhead. If you need your partner to read something like a map for instance you the driver will get blinded.

When I'm taking a hard right and consequently leaning on the door the dome light comes on, I need to fix this.

Would it kill Honda to make an ashtray and cigarette lighter standard? Even if I didn't smoke it would be a nice place to put gum wrappers, bits of trash, etc.

And finally just like too many 'imports' they are still using that wimpy 'beep-beep' horn.

OK besides those few things, I really love this car. I have fun putting it to the floor and watching the tachometer go up to 6500 RPM before it shifts into second gear. Once I got rid of those stock tires and put some decent tires on it it handled much better. It sips gas, is very comfortable on long trips (for a small car) and is a lot of fun to drive without beating you to death over bumps.

I like how the radio buttons are real big and easy to find from the corner of the eye, and the heater controls are simple and easy to reach.

I would like to upgrade to a Honda van, due to a growing family. Yes you do pay more for a Honda anything, but right now my Civic is 5 years old and still worth about $9000 on a trade, tell those KIA owners this, they are feeling the pain.