Junkyard Find: 1983 Honda Civic Wagon

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Junkyard Find: 1983 Honda Civic Wagon

16 - 1983 Honda Civic Wagon Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin The 1973-79 Civic was a very good car for its time (mostly because just about all the other subcompacts of the era were so bad and/or boring), but the second-generation Civic was the one that gave Honda its reputation for bang-for-buck performance and miraculous-for-the-price build quality that seemed unbeatable for nearly 15 years. The value of the 1980-83 Civics became so low by the late 1990s that it wasn't worth fixing any problem that cost more than a couple hundred bucks to fix, and so nearly all of them were gone by the time the 21st century rolled around. Here's a Civic wagon, painted in very Malaise-y beige, that managed to hang on for thirty years. More than a year has passed since the last second-gen Civic in this series.
05 - 1983 Honda Civic Wagon Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin Only 139,302 miles! The interior and body are in nice shape, which suggests an indoor parking space and very sparing use. Maybe the head gasket blew back in '94 and it sat in a garage, or maybe it was an extra car that was well cared for but didn't get driven much.
08 - 1983 Honda Civic Wagon Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin How late into the 5-speed era did bragging rights last? I've seen early-90s Sentras and Tercels with 4-speeds, but 5-speeds weren't particularly exotic in subcompacts by 1983.
10 - 1983 Honda Civic Wagon Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin This car's early years were spent in Northern California.
07 - 1983 Honda Civic Wagon Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin The first-gen Civics were just tiny, even by the standards of the time, so the added room in the second-gen cars was most welcome.
24 - 1983 Honda Civic Wagon Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin Believe it or not, this vacuum diagram was simple compared to what CVCC-equipped Hondas with computer carburetors had by 1985. Good luck getting this setup through a California smog check!
21 - 1983 Honda Civic Wagon Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin 64 horsepower seemed adequate in these cars, amazingly enough.
14 - 1983 Honda Civic Wagon Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin Will these things ever be considered collectible? Hard to say— 20 years ago, very few thought that Country Squire wagons would be worth saving, and now we have legions of Malaise Era wagon fanciers.