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• 1983 Honda Civic Wagon [Down On The Street]

  Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. We haven't seen many Hondas in this series, though I'm still hoping to find a very early Civic or- better still- a 600 on the island. The early-80s Civic wagon is a good example of the Japanese cars that shifted American car buyers' opinion from the "cheap, gets good gas mileage" view of the 70s towards the "these things never break" view widely held today. They were once everywhere, but nostalgia doesn't adhere too strongly to a reliable appliance... and so most were crushed as they hit 300,000 or so miles on the clock. 2,033 pounds. That's right, this car barely weighed one ton, and it would haul four passengers and plenty of cargo. With only 69 horsepower, lots of wind noise, and no cupholders, a car with the same specs as the '83 Civic wagon would be laughed out of the showrooms by car buyers today.... Posted Aug 12 2008, 02:00 AM by Jalopnik Filed under: Station Wagon, Alameda, Down On The Street, Honda, 1980S, Civic, 1983, 1983 Honda Civic

• 1986 Honda CRX HF [Down On The Street]

  There's a lot of talk lately about the skyrocketing value of the Geo Metro, what with high gas prices and all, but it seems that folks are forgetting about the astounding fuel economy of the Honda CRX HF. The HF got over 50 MPG highway and was orders of magnitude more fun to drive than the Chevy Sprint/Geo Metro, yet you don't hear much about it these days. I spotted this example, in the white/gray/red color scheme most mid-80s CRXs seem to have, parked just a few doors down from the VW Rabbit Diesel pickup and decided that 22 years and 50 MPG gives this car DOTS status, regardless of how many are still out there. Honda was still branding the CRX with Civic emblems in the mid-80s, but the little two-seater felt like a totally different car. The HF got a mere 58 horses from its 8-valve 1300 (compared to 91 in the hot Si's fuel-injected 1500), but 58 horses is plenty with a 1,713-pound car. I've had a couple of these cars, and they'll keep going forever if you don't... Posted May 29 2008, 02:00 AM by Jalopnik Filed under: Alameda, Down On The Street, Honda, 1980S, Civic, 1986, Fuel Economy, Crx, Lytebox, 1986 Honda CRX HF, 1986 Honda Civic

• 1979 Honda Civic [Down On The Street]

  I'd really like to shoot more Malaise Era Civics, but it seems most of them have been crushed by now, victims of their own reliability. The problem is that these cars just did their jobs without showing a huge amount of lovable personality, and thus it wasn't much like shooting Old Yeller when an owner's coldhearted fix-it-or-scrap-it calculus came into play on a broken 20-year-old Civic. Well, that's my theory, anyway. So, here's a '79 that's beaten all the odds and kept on doing its job; I photographed this car just across the street from the '77 Volvo 244DL , making this block a little museum for Malaise Era imports. I've driven many of these Civics, and they're actually pretty fun to drive. Noisy and bouncy, sure, and other vehicles tower over you, but the late-70s Civic didn't feel stricken by the same level of Malaise that was hammering American and European cars of the time. The CVCC engine meant Honda didn't have to put catalytic converters... Posted May 21 2008, 02:00 AM by Jalopnik Filed under: Alameda, Down On The Street, Honda, malaise, Civic, 1979, 1970s, Malaise Era, 1979 Honda Civic

• 1987 Honda Civic 4WD Wagon [Down On The Street]

  Back when we had our What's the Cutoff Year For Japanese DOTS Cars poll , the image I used as an example was this '87 Honda Civic 4WD wagon. I'd meant to DOTS-ize this car soon afterward, but I kept getting distracted by cars and trucks that seemed so much more, well, interesting . But 3rd-gen four-wheel-drive Civics are rare and weird- hardly anyone bought them new, they turned into red powder in the rusty parts of the world, and California's stringent emissions tests have doomed many 80s Civics (some of which have the most complicated tangle of vacuum hoses ever placed in an engine compartment ) to the cold jaws of The Crusher. So here we go- today the little four-wheelin' Civic gets to shine! And, since we had a DOTS Car of the Week Poll last Friday, let's have one today- after you check out the gallery, make your vote count! 1987 was the first year of Honda's so-called "Real Time" four-wheel-drive system, which engaged automatically. Toyota's... Posted Dec 14 2007, 01:00 AM by Jalopnik Filed under: Station Wagon, Alameda, Down On The Street, Honda, 1980S, Civic, 1987, 4Wd

• Down On The Street: 1976 Honda Civic

  Since we went with a monstrously huge '78 Eldorado for yesterday's DOTS car, let's find an example of the other extreme of the Malaise Era automotive size spectrum (sorry, haven't found a '79 Midget on Alameda 's streets yet, and the Honda 600 is pre... Posted Sep 14 2007, 03:45 AM by Jalopnik Filed under: Alameda, Down On The Street, Honda, malaise, 1976, Civic