1992 Honda CRX Si review from North America

Broke a tie-rod on one wheel (my fault)

Exhaust rusted through. That's all!

What an amazing little car. It was my first car and I put the thing through hell in high school and in college. Though it only has two seats I remember many times people squeezing onto the 'parcel shelf' or even putting people in the trunk for short 2am hops to Dennys. The two seats were occasionally limiting, but it was amazing how much stuff I could squeeze into the hatch area.

Bulletproof reliability. At the time I owned the CRX I was racing an SCCA Spec Racer in the Northeast. During that time I'd drive the 'rex' like a madman through the PA hills. Even once caught air (by accident) near the Summit Point race track in VA. Drove the wheels of the thing, or at least tried to, and it never failed to start and nothing ever went wrong.

Late one night at a shopping mall I was practicing hand-brake turns in the snow, doing doughnuts, and generally goofing around. We started a very nice long reverse slide and hit one of those low concrete spacers that marks the end of parking spaces. The tie rod broke and I limped the car to a Honda dealer the next day.

Aside from that, the only thing to fail was the exhaust which rusted through after several harsh winters. I didn't hurry to replace the exhaust, though, as the sound reminded me of the SCCA stock cars running on the weekend. After lots of parental complaints a new exhaust was put on.

Great performance for such a little engine. Not many horses, but the horses there are very spirited. Handling, partly owing to its kart-like dimensions, is fantastic.

I have very fond memories of this car. It never let me down and I have a bias towards Honda products after my good experience. I bought a Prelude when I was at graduate school and loved it too, but the CRX was something special.