1991 Honda CRX DX review from North America

The car does have the typical Honda rust on the rear quarters and behind the rear bumper on the lower corners. There is an aftermarket fiberglass patch panel available for this that lets you repair the rust without welding, but I've not got around to doing this yet.

Burns a little oil on start-up due to old valve seals.

Oil pan gasket seeps some and could use replacement.

Driver's side seat bolster is moderately worn from entry/exit.

Rear trailing arm bushings in need of replacement.

1-2 shift fork is worn, causing 2->3 upshifts to grind at high RPMs.

A/C compressor is shot.

I bought this car from its second owner for $2000. He'd used it to commute to and from work during the summers and left it parked through the school year, thus the low mileage for a 17-year-old car. It does still have many of the issues of an older car; gaskets and bushings dry out with age, and so it does burn a bit of oil and squeak on the bumps in the road.

Far and away the largest issue with the car is the transmission. These were the weak points in Civics of this vintage; the shift fork for first and second will often wear or bend with age and abuse. When this happens, second gear will not fully disengage on a shift to third gear and the transmission will sometimes grind. The effect is only pronounced at fairly high RPMs, so it's something I'm willing to live with.

Other than that, the car has been great from a reliability standpoint. It's never failed to start, runs smoothly for a four-banger, and hasn't required repairs for anything that wasn't my fault.

It's unreasonably sporty for a car that's only got 92 horsepower and regularly gets 40MPG. It's lightweight, nimble, and fairly peppy. There's a reason these cars are popular with autocrossers.

The only place where it falls short is in the interior. It may be awfully fun to drive, but in terms of interior quality it still looks the part of an early-90's economy car. It's well laid-out and the seats are good, but it's all plastic and fabric. That's not a big deal to me, but some might not like it. It's also only got two seats, which can be a hindrance sometimes, but it's also got a ton of cargo space thanks to the hatchback layout and lack of rear seats. I moved most of my stuff except for my bed and furniture in mine, and had room for more if I needed it.