A Proper Honda Civic!!

Volvoboy

I've seen this car around artane / raheny / killester area over the last few weeks and i have to say its even better in real life!

truely a one of a kind car!!

http://www.usedcars.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=Car&carID=558313&message=You%20searched%20for%3A%20Honda%20Civic%2C%20Year%3A%201975%2E%20Your%20search%20returned%20one%20vehicle%2C%20which%20is%20shown%20below%2E&CFID=400613&CFTOKEN=10506344

N.B photo was taken in the back of saint annes park sybil hill road if i'm not mistaken.


-VB-

unkel

A 2-speed automatic? :eek:

--amadeus--

Just becasue a car is old and / or hasn't covered a lot of miles doesn't make it a classic, IMHO.

Why on earth would anyone want to spend €2,500 on a 30 yr old automatic Civic? Especially one that's THAT colour? There are plenty of better cars out there and some cars really aren't worth saving...

TigerTim

Fabulous looking car - well worth the money when you see what some of the English rust buckets are making IMO. Not too many of them left.

T

Dades

--amadeus-- wrote:

Just becasue a car is old and / or hasn't covered a lot of miles doesn't make it a classic, IMHO.

I'm kind of with you there. It's an old brown Honda Civic. Granted it's in fine shape, and it would be cheap to run.

But there's a fine line between kitch, and classic...

layke

Lol, isn't that the 'new' Honda Skinner had in that episode of the Simpsons where Bart debadged it.

Max_Damage

The front of them always reminded me of the Triumph Acclaim (which the Acclaim was based on).

While I'm not really a fan of Honda's, I do prefer it to the newer Civics.

--amadeus--

Max_Damage wrote:

While I'm not really a fan of Honda's, I do prefer it to the newer Civics.

I think most people would rather a wheelbarrow than a Civic...!

BrianD3

amadeus, what do you drive (from previous posts I seem to remember it's a 911?) No matter how much of a classic you think it is, chances are some people would have as poor an opinion of it as you have of that Civic. Eg someone who owns say a 1925 Delahaye might regard a 911 as a piece of crap.

I know you were only giving you opinion but if someone wants to fall in love with a brown 1975 Civic then let them. There is no agreed definition of what is a classic anyway and classic car snobbery is pointless.

unkel

I am to blame entirely! I moved this thread from the general motors section to classic cars just because the car mentioned is old enough to be recognised as a classic for tax and vrt purposes alone

--amadeus-- wrote:

Just becasue a car is old and / or hasn't covered a lot of miles doesn't make it a classic

BrianD3 wrote:

There is no agreed definition of what is a classic

Indeed

--amadeus--

Brian - I know for a fact that anyone with a shred of taste or style would recognise my car for what it is. In other words as crass, flash and with an image slightly worse then W. Bush in downtown Bagdad...! But thats the fun of a board like this - we are all car snobs (in the sense that we have all looked at something and thought "you'd never see me behind the wheel of THAT!"). It's this difference that makes cars and car people interesting.

The "what is a classic" debate is really one for the pub but anyway...

For me old cars have two types of value. Intrinsic (value in teh car for it's own sake) or Personal (value in teh car for what it represents to you rather than everyone else).

Intrinsic value can be because of a cars design, innovation, teh marque heriage, driving experience, etc. It often tallies with material value but not always - an original Mini has a lot of intrinsic value (great design, innovation, engineering and driving) and so is and always will be a popular classic. That doesen't mean it'll command a six figure reserve at auction.

Personal value is usually tied up with memories of a particular make or model of car - if your granny spoiled you as a kid and she drove a first gen auto Civic then this car probably rings your bell.

Cars in teh first group I would call "classics". They have a value for themselves and a relevance to the wider world. Cars in teh latter group I call "nostalgia" cars. They have a relevance for an individual because of the feelings they invoke. I would suggest that this Civic falls more into teh nostalgia than the classic category?

My test for which group your car is in? Park outside a National school at lunch time. If a dozen 12 yr old boys poke thier head over teh wall and ask "How old is it Mr?", "How fast will she go?" or even "What is it!!??" then you know you have a true classic. If you get ignored...well enjoy your nostalgia car!

Dades

--amadeus-- wrote:

My test for which group your car is in? Park outside a National school at lunch time. If a dozen 12 yr old boys poke thier head over teh wall and ask "How old is it Mr?", "How fast will she go?" or even "What is it!!??" then you know you have a true classic. If you get ignored...well enjoy your nostalgia car!

That's an interesting rule of thumb. So schoolboys are the real judges of classic cars...

I like it.

tc20

The Atheist wrote:

That's an interesting rule of thumb. So schoolboys are the real judges of classic cars...

I like it.

Seconded.
I drive my ol' merc cos i was attracted to the lines, solidity, and so on. I dont drive it to get attention, but if a kid stops and stares as i drive by, maybe it will instill in him an appreciation of older cars. (i can see myself as that kid 30 years ago when something fancy went by )

G Luxel

Was there an earlier attempt to sell Hondas here in the I970s. The reason I ask is that I remember seeing some civics and a smaller honda on the old number plate system. One of the Hondas was even older, an N360 or N600? This car resembled a taller and narrower Mini and it was on the road up to a few years ago.

breanoh

What a nice little car! Much better than the skanger my banger civics we are used to these days!
I would add another genre to the mix: retro, maybe that is what the Honda is? I don't know if it is a classic, but I do like it!
I have another one for you! Park outside a nightclub at 2:30 while waiting for your friends, and wait for the drunk students to bypass all the souped up skanger mobiles and walk over to stare at the 21 year old Renault!
Now there's a test!

Volvoboy

breanoh wrote:

I have another one for you! Park outside a nightclub at 2:30 while waiting for your friends, and wait for the drunk students to bypass all the souped up skanger mobiles and walk over to stare at the 21 year old Renault!
Now there's a test!

Thats what i'll be doing with my new aquierement 17yo carina II, when i get her fighting fit again:)


-VB-

RoundyMooney

Boy racer groupies love TR7s on minilites.

17 year old slick-fringed goons take note.

I love seeing honest 20 year old plus "mainstream" metal on the roads, and Toyotas and Hondas are pretty much mechanically indestructible even if the bodywork isn't always as good.

Ratchet

--amadeus-- wrote:

My test for which group your car is in? Park outside a National school at lunch time. If a dozen 12 yr old boys poke thier head over teh wall and ask "How old is it Mr?", "How fast will she go?" or even "What is it!!??" then you know you have a true classic......

true classic? yeah right


can think of lots of cars that will attract tons of attention but would not be considered as classic and taking into account that your audience wouldn't remember most of the cars before 1990s this test is pointless.

but maybe you just fall into new flashy car category

classic cars are surrounded by nostalgia which describes a longing for the past .......including good memories of your granfather's car

--amadeus--

Since I haven't owned a car younger than 30 years old for the best part of 5 years now I don't think I fall into teh "flashy new car" box...

Who mentioned *remembering* the cars? That was teh whole point of my post, which - in your mad rush to castigate - you seem to have totally swooshed by. When I was a kid in school I LOVED old cars and loved nothing better than scrambling round scrapyards and playing in them. I hadn't a clue what they were but that wasn't the point. I liked them for what they were. Now that I have cars of my own I have gone past crowds of schoolkids in a couple of different classics and young lads are always nudging each other and shouting "look at THAT car!!!".

As an adult you always filter your opinions. Whats cool? What do other people think about this car? What are my memories of this car? Kids don't do that - they give an emotional reaction to teh car, not it's image.

You may hanker after a classic car becasue of a "longing for teh past" - personally I wouldn't go back to 1970 / 1980s Ireland for all the money in the world - and you are welcome to want a particular car because your Grandad had one like it. Thats your free choice. But we're all different and I appreciate classic cars becuase of what they are, not just what they represent.

breanoh

To be honest as someone born in 1985, I don't rememer the '80,s, but I do remember the cars, the ones which my family (extended included) drove! I am Driving a R9, because I like it. I bought it for the nostalgia factor, My mother had a gold '84 R9 1.1 for years she then replaced it with an 11 Diesel. Aunt had a gorgeous Black R9 GTS. My Dad always drove Renault 4's, and when the family got bigger in the mid 90's mum drove a R21 savanna.
My aunt had a really old early 80's Carina diesel, and another aunt had an early 205, My Grandparents had everything form Beetles, R16's and Hunters to Volvo 340's and Seat Ibiza's.
I have fond memories of all of the above cars, and some others like the Daihatsu Charade, (I still have an 89 auto!) The VW jetta, the Mk1 golf.
I have a photo of me at age 5 with my little sis and my dad painting a white Renault 4, I learned how to dismantle a car on an old MK1 golf. And how can I forget making a trailor out of a R11 van so we could travel to clare to visit the family for Christmas, with my little brother in the boot on our R11 on a specially made extra seat....
I have the car I have because I remember the 9's and 11's that were in my family, and the fun that we had on the various road trips in them, I remember helping my dad to convert the R11 from Diesel to petrol, and so many other fun things we all did, I learned to drive in a Renault 11 (And we still have one in the Garage!). I could go on for hours about all the happy memories I have as a child perched on the back seat of Renault 9/11's but I won't. I have my car for a reason, and I love it and would never part with it, People I meet also have fond memories of them, and they consider it a classic, as do my friends, So.. speaking as a 22 year old, I think it is narrow minded of people to suggest that this little Honda, or others like it are not classics, or that they never can be. My contemporaries will beg to differ.
Breandán

Dades

Isn't that the whole point, however? Personal nostalgia does not a classic make. There will always be one person somewhere, with a fond memory for every car ever produced - but surely not every car can be a classic.

Hence the suggestion of an objective test (schoolboys as a light-hearted example).

breanoh

I do agree with you, but. what test? Every old car gets a reaction from people. No matter what it is. I consider my own car to be 'retro' as opposed to classic or just old car. But others have put it in the classic box. The 1980's cars are dissappearing at an alarming rate, and maybe it's time for us to have a look and see if they are welcome to become classics? How many people at the time thought that the Austin 1100, or the Morris Minor would be classics? or that the MK1 Golf would ever be considered as a classic.
I don't think that we can really say what is and isn't a classic. To me, a classic is about age, design, and the ever reliable smile on your face factor. It's about what you think of your car, not what others think. You, after all, are the one who drives it.

--amadeus--

The what is and what isn't a classic debate will never be resolved and we all draw our own personal lines in the sand.

Personally I go with the consensus view - if most people would consider it a classic then a classic it is. That means that cars like the Morris Minor, Mini and Beetle that were considered humdrum runabouts at the time are classics but quite a few Maserati's aren't. A first generation Ford Focus will get a reaction from some people but that doesn't mean it's a classic.

Your 20 yr old Renault may well get attention from people who remember them but that takes me back to my original post - cars that have nostalgic rather than intrinsic value. Be objective - if it wern't for teh strong family memories you have of Renaults would you choose one over (for example) a similarly priced Mini or MGB based on looks, driving experience, marque history, etc? (Please don't take this as judgemental or "having a go" - I'm just trying to make a point!)

And I still think that your local U-12's football team are the best judges!