Now pushing 35 years old, there’s some interest in these square-rigged mid-80s #Honda Civics, but that interest is usually confined to the three-door Si or the short, special CRX. If these four-door cars ever get any notice, it’s usually in their #Rover200 form - made famous by Patricia Routledge and Clive Swift on the BBC sitcom “Keeping up Apperances.” - There’s more to it than that, even if these cars have always been just cheap transportation - they’re unfailingly reliable, they drive well, and they get good gas mileage. There were a slew of different versions of this #Civic, but most of them never came to North America - including the aformentioned Rover, which was created out of Austin-Rover’s partnership with Honda. - In #Japan the regular #HondaCivic sold alongside the #HondaBallade - an almost identical car with slightly different front and rear end styling; both cars sold through different Honda sales channels (Honda Primo and Honda Verno) in Japan’s highly stratified market. The CR-X was actually the first version of this flexible platform to debut, in June of 1983 - but it was the four-doors and regular hatchbacks that paid the bills, and they arrived in September. Japanese advertising labeled the sedan as the #WonderCivic. Ballade naming conventions followed the CR-X, and there were sedan models labeled CR-U, CR-B, and other CR names few remember. - The cars came to the United States as 1984 models. They were \more refined than the outgoing Civics, but also cut costs in some ways - trading fully independent rear struts for cheaper trailing arms and a beam axle, but they were still very sharp handlers. If this car was badged “Lancia” instead of Honda, there’d be huge interest in it. The U.S. base engine was a carry over 1.3 EV CVCC, with a new EW 1.5 optional - both with carbs at first, then later FI. - These Civics were not quite as big a hit as the earlier cars had been owing mainly to the sharp decline in fuel prices in the mid-80s, but they increased every year, from 136K in ’84 to 173K in ’87. Survival rates are high owing to the high quality of the cars - their main weakness was rust. #EACivic #1980s #1985 #HondaCivicSedan #HondaHistory https://www.instagram.com/p/BoR94v6lRgB/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=13ywdpapypxzs