crx
This page was last updated on SUNDAY, 5/30/21
NOTE: During the auction, you can call-in and bid by phone so if you live out-of-town, you can still bid without actually coming to Athens on the auction date.
CLICK HERE for DETAILS about ABSENTEE BIDDING
(NOTE: you’ll need to register ahead of time).
At that same auction I will also be selling my house, furnishings, and virtually everything I own. So if you like auctions, maybe you’ll find other treasures you can’t live without.
The Auction starts at 4pm. Household goods will be auctioned off. Then, at 6pm, the house and car. Then, until 9pm, the rest of the contents of the house.
But it’s an incredibly fun and reliable driver-car.
There are some cosmetic flaws I’ll point-out below.
I’ve had it almost 17 years and it runs great, has plenty of energy, and is the most fun-car I’ve ever owned.
I drive it only about once a week and get 1 or 2 compliments a month and, of course, enjoy slightly-longer conversations with those who are nostalgic because they owned one when they were younger. So if you don’t want people occasionally rushing over all excited to tell you how much they love your car because they had one almost just like it 30-years ago, then this may not be the car for you.
(Even Elon Musk’s kid doesn’t have such a cool name.)
Sad News: No cruise control. The air-conditioner needs refrigerant. Radio/Cassette-Tape-Deck doesn’t work (but who uses either of those any more? Take it out and replace it with something modern like a hot-air popcorn popper.
83,122 miles (as of 5/22/21)
At the equator, that’s more than 3-trips around the planet.
(It’s 24,901.461 around the earth’s equator.)
If not, this may not be the car for you.
Yes, even as far back as 1985, they had side-view mirrors.
And you have to crank-up-and-down the windows with your own muscles (if you don’t know how, I can probably teach you but first check YouTube for tutorials.) Actually, I rarely open the windows (except at the bank drive-through where it’s still difficult to reach the tubes because the car is so low) but cranking them up-and-down helps keeps your left-shoulder rotator-cuff flexible and in good condition.
I actually like the fact that this car is just bare-bones basic and has no electronic-gadgets to go bad. It’s not overwhelming.
It’s nice, simple and reliable, the way life used to be.
It’s surprising what I’ve been able to haul around in this car. I can fit several 8′ 2-x-4″ pieces of lumber (by angling it from the hatchback down to the floor-well of the passenger seat) and still close the hatch-back. The hatch-back is great for groceries, laundry, whatever. The only thing I don’t like about it is the lack of privacy. So I sometimes used a tarp or blanket to cover things
I’ve never used it, partly because I forget it’s there; partly because I don’t use valet parking. I don’t like handing the keys to my car to a total stranger just because they’re wearing a vest.
The first-owner, who bought the car new in Columbus, was an international graduate-student. When he graduated, he sold it to his professor who intended to sell it fairly quickly as he already had two cars and was buying it mainly as a favor to his student who needed to leave town.
The log-book on the right was kept by the second-owner who was an engineering professor at Ohio University and who documented everything as he was a data freak. He once wrote a paper comparing the fuel-efficiency of this very car to that of a U.S. fighter plane. The car won by a factor of something like 10,000.
After he found out how much fun the car was to drive, he drove it to Colorado and kept it garaged in a condo he owned so he’d have a car to drive when flying out to visit family once or twice a year. That’s one reason the mileage is so low. Eventually, he sold his condo and towed the car back to Ohio.
The engineering-professor was a close friend and sold it to me in August, 2004. I’ve got a complete log book (on the left) of every time I put in gas or did maintenance. Most years, I’ve driven the car only about 1200 miles a year. Many years, I put gas in it only 4 times a year. (I walk and ride my bike a lot.) In the last couple of years I’ve driven it maybe 2000 miles a year since I’ve broadened my horizons and been driving to Columbus or Chillicothe for various appointments and errands.
OK, the bad stuff…
In addition to the things I mentioned above (the radio/cassette deck doesn’t work, there’s no cruise-control, and the air-conditioner needs refrigerant) there are some other flaws you want (and need) to know about:
I covered the seat-back on the driver’s side with a simple black t-shirt because the seam had burst and foam was going to come out.
There’s a small dent on the blue-part of the door, just above the silver.
Much of this car is plastic or Fiberglas. As you can see, the area below the driver-side door has several broken pieces in the molding (and there’s a crack to the right of the door.) Fortunately, these are not terribly noticeable because they’re down low where it curves under. (You probably didn’t notice these flaws at all in the pictures above, right?)
When the car is idling, at stop signs, and traffic lights, there is sometimes a vibrating / rattling sound which Firestone identified as a heat shield that had come loose. I got this spot-welded at Muffler Man this week (on 5/24). They looked at the entire undercarriage and said everything looked fine except the rust spots which they said was not at all bad for a CRX, or a Honda, in general, though it looks bad to me:
Actually, I forgot to mention that in 2011 I replaced the front nose-part of the car because (being plastic or whatever) it had cracked and had become brittle (probably because of the UV radiation from the sun.) Rather than paint the new replacement-piece (which is dark gray) to try and match the color of the car, it was much cheaper (and easier) just to cover-it with the black bra which makes it look sportier anyway.
This car offers the driver and passengers incredible visibility.
Lots of glass all around so it’s almost like driving a convertible.
By the way, for not much money, you could install after-market Cruise Control and a Back-Up Camera if you want.
There are a few more things to add (so come back. Whenever I update this page, I post the date at the top.) But you probably have already enough to know whether you’re emotionally-engaged with this car and whether you want to move on to the nail-biting bidding-stage at the auction (June 3rd.)
READ SOME REVIEWS of THIS MODEL: