1994 Honda del Sol Si review from North America

The targa roof squeaks, but this can be dealt with using Silicon Grease purchased from a Honda parts shop. Unfortunately, if you take the roof on and off a lot, like I do, you have to grease up the rubber molding fairly often to keep the squeak away.

Also, the trunk leaks, which is true for just about every Del Sol I've read about. I've tried the standard fixes for it, but it still leaks.

The turn-signal relay is wearing out, and it costs about $100 to replace the relay. I mention this because it is a mechanical relay blinker and will inevitably wear out, and Del Sol parts are very expensive. I have never seen a blinker relay for sale on ebay or anywhere else -- you have to go to Honda.

I bought a 1993 Del Sol on ebay, a samba green gem, for my daughter for college, and had to have one for myself, so I bought a black one last year, also on ebay.

Both cars have over 120,000 miles on them, but I wasn't worried because theses Del Sols are super reliable.

I love driving to work every day. The seat is the most comfortable driving seat I've ever been in, and I drive an hour to work and and hour back every day.

The car has good power from a dead stop, but the pickup is not great once you hit cruising speed, unless you rev the engine.

It gets greats gas mileage on level roads, but the 1.6 liter SOHC only has 125hp and works hard to get up hills, eating into the gas mileage. I live in hilly area, and I get about 33 mpg. My daughter gets about 37 mpg on her 1993 Si, same engine, D16Z6.

The one thing to beware is that there is a major expense every 90,000 miles in replacing the timing belt and related parts like the water pump. This has to be done, or you risk ruining the engine. I've had it done to both cars, and it was over $400 each time. If you buy a used Del Sol, you should calculate another $400-500 to the price to get this done, unless you have written proof that the timing belt is up-to-date.

I'm giving the 1994 Del Sol to my younger daughter when she goes off to college next year, and I'm getting a DOHC VTEC with the 160hp engine.