Civic Aerodeck

[Shad]

Anyone any experience with Civic Aerodecks? In particular the 1.8 VTi model.

I'm looking for something more economical than my Volvo and seeing as I don't need to tow as much weight these days it seems like a decent buy, particularly as they are around the £1300-1500 mark at the moment.

I have to admit the rev-happy B18 engine and LSD are also appealing, but mostly it's the extra economy.

Honest

[Guy]

Anyone any experience with Civic Aerodecks? In particular the 1.8 VTi model.

I'm looking for something more economical than my Volvo and seeing as I don't need to tow as much weight these days it seems like a decent buy, particularly as they are around the £1300-1500 mark at the moment.

I have to admit the rev-happy B18 engine and LSD are also appealing, but mostly it's the extra economy.

Honest

A friend of mine, whos on the SXOC has one as a daily drive, and has nothing but praise for it. It does look rather tasty with the LSD and rev-happy 1.8!

[Fatboy40]

It's not as economical as you think, to get the most out of it MPG wise you have to drive it like an old man and keep the rev's very low.

It's a damned nice car though

[Shad]

I'm already driving my Volvo like an old man. I achieved 435 miles to 59 litres the other week, something like 33mpg which is 5mpg more than the book figure - I was quite chuffed!

I even gave it some stick the other day and it felt fast. Which is bad, because it's really really slow!!

What are the Civics like insurance wise? Do they come with remote central locking and an alarm?

[Vimeous]

Shad you're taking about the wagon edition of the Vim-mobile

Insurance Grp 15
Central locking is infra-red (to thingie by the rear-view mirror).
Alarm? My early car has an aftermarket but pro-fitted so I guess it was a dealer fit option. I'd guess later cars (mine's an early '97) probably have something more fitted.

MPG in the hatch is 28 mixed with a-roads and spirited. 36+ m-wys and the ability to stay below 5600rpm. I once got down to sub-15 but I'd class that as circuit driving and you've got a perfectly good motor for that!

You know how good the b-series motor is. Push hard and it'll drink some oil, maintain it well and it should last forever. Gearbox will be a little stiff and it's not unusual to have to double select reverse as they get older.

Seats are good. A working clock is a bonus as fixing it is a nightmare and resistor packs for the fan are weak but a scrap-yard Rover job (fitment behind glovebox).
Don't do sterio work yourself, get someone else who values their knuckles less to do it.

Handling - it leans, the aerodeck more-so. Polybushes or a roll-bar swap usually cure it. Performace parts in general are harder to find but their are exhausts out there for example.

I love mine

Try http://forum.hondaevolutions.com/ as there are / have been quite a few aerodeck owners in recent times. There might even be the odd one forsale



One last thing:

LSD's rule.
You can do things with this car that the body roll suggests is not possible.
It has opened my eyes to the benefits of an LSD to the point where it's almost a necessity!
The only issue with this is you tend to take liberties with the throttle on roundabouts and the tyres can suffer somewhat

[Shad]

Cheers Vim, very informative, thanks a lot

I don't plan on doing anything with the car other than making sure the stereo's ok. I'll be coming to it from the boatyest of boaty cars, so I don't think I'll be bothered by body roll.

Clock and fan are identical issues to the CRX, remember them well!

What sort of range (miles) do you get from yours and how much fuel do you normally get in when it's empty? I can just about manage 320 miles mixed from £70 / 60 litres at the moment

[Vimeous]

If it's not town-only I reckon:

280 miles / 42 litres approx

I've never chanced it further and that was through the red, past the light and out the otherside
I'd believe an 11 gallon tank.


If you tow the 7 around you'll clearly suffer and ofc the aerodeck will be heavier.

[Shad]

That's not too bad, certainly better than what I can get now. I don't plan on doing much towing in the future, in fact I've just sold my trailer anyway. But towing the 7 comes to about 700kg so it should be perfectly capable, although with such a low torque figure it's going to be interesting!

Going to look at a couple of Aerodecks tomorrow so we shall see...

[Vimeous]

How did it go?
Rubbish?
Too small?
Wonderfull?

[Shad]

Ah yes!

Well, firstly the dealer. Very dodgy, wouldn't buy a packet of crisps from them let alone a car. The car itself was nowhere near as good as the ad suggested, it was much tattier on the outside, the mileage was higher and suspiciously there was no stereo. The engine was loosing oil from around the top of the head (could've been rocker cover gasket, VTEC solenoid, or something more expensive). The inside was half decent though.

So I already knew I wouldn't be buying this car, but I took it for a drive anyway just to see if Civic and I would agree. First concern was the steering, there was a huge dead zone and after that it was very heavy and nondescript. There was a dodgy clonging noise from the rear left and the ride was pretty choppy. Something was definitely wrong with the engine - it was so slow I couldn't believe it! It took an age to get up to VTEC range and even though it had been sat idling and was nicely warmed up, it would not engage VTEC.

So that particular Aerodeck was a shocker. However, what won't change is how cheap and basic it felt. I've been accustomed to my luxo-barge Volvo for a good couple of years now and while the idea of a Honda is nice, I want something a bit more refined.

So I'm now looking into V40s

[Vimeous]

LOL
Sounds like you discovered a lemon there!

Even so I had wondered how you'd perceive it. The interior has aged significantly so I'm not surprised by your reaction
Mind you to me it's the lap of luxury compared to my previous chariots that did without even a brake-servo!

Best of luck hunting for another luxo-barge

[templetons]

have a look at accord type r if you want a performance bargain - cost a bit more though £4k+ min