1987 Honda CRX Si from North America - Comments

Transmission pops out of all gears (5-speed).

Cheap, cheap, cheap. My wife was rear-ended by a '90 Ford Taurus sedan at 20 mph & knocked her into the ditch. Had her seat belt on & broke her leg. It was totalled. No room for protection & too light. Death-trap - smallest car I know of.

Ever heard of an MR2?

Why is it a death trap? Did it like combust on impact? How did her leg break? I need some details because I was thinking about getting one and would like to know if this car is going to kill me or not, thanks.

I owned one of these and loved it until I got rear ended by someone going 40+ MPH and the right rear quarter panel got bent, I could not open my drivers side door to get out, had to put the bumper in my car from the very back through the seats up to the dash just to drive home. I did not know that my spare tire was not bolted in and when I got hit the tire flew out and hit the back of the heard rest on my seat. If I did not have the seat belt on I would have flew head first into the steering wheel. I did however love this car! It was fast, fun and good on gas! The only down part was it was a stick and there was no Air Conditioner in the car and when driving in rush hour traffic in the dead of summer you get pretty hot!

I have over 300,000 miles on my Si, It runs like new still. I have a small oil leak from the oil pan that causes me to add a quart every 2000 miles. I hit a DEER (YES A DEER!!!) at 70MPH and the only damage was DEER FUR under the trim on the right front fender and door!!! This is the best car ever built BAR NONE!!!. Goes forever on a tank of gas and can still smoke most cars today in the 1/4 mile and/or the highway!

The "death trap" idea comes solely, I would think, from the relative size and light weight of the car compared to most other things on the road (even regular Civics are bigger!) because the CRX certainly handles and brakes well. There is only so much protection you can build into a car of a given size with the other things it is trying to achieve (fuel economy, etc.) - case in point is the Mercedes "Smart Car", that gets 75 mpg and FOR ITS SIZE, rates well in the safely ratings, having a built-n roll/impact cage all around the frame and pillars, and if it were on the road only with vehicles its size, would be no problem. However, there is a limit to what protection it can provide, as I can attest from the pictures in the newspaper the other day of a Smart Car that was hit by a pickup truck on the passenger side (truck ran a red light at 40 mph). The Smart Car driver (only occupant) was dead on the spot, and the car was swept up with a broom - there was no piece bigger than a breadbox left of it. But if a pickup is hit by a semi, the result to the pickup might be the same, so it could be all relative to physics, timing, and your luck!! In a CRX, it's like riding a motorcycle - you have to be aware every second of who and what is around you, and drive defensively as hell. But the cars are a blast nonetheless, and very reliable, so if safety as provided by larger size is a concern, some people will have more piece of mind in a bigger vehicle. And our CRX is more of an around town and short country trip third car for economy and therefore less air pollution!! - the longer trips are made in an Accord or a CRV (for camping).

It's a street legal go-kart, but still fun I would buy another one for twice the price.