quick buying advice needed on CRX HF

[McPatrick]

I am going to look at this CRX HF today. Comes from Texas and has 145.000 miles on it. Judiging from the pictures it is virtually rust free. I owned a CRX VTEC while living in the Netherlands and my wife had a CRX there as well and I really like these CRX's. Do you think I'd be crazy to give my VX up and go for a CRX HF? Could I expect mpg's that are about the same?

Also, what should I pay attention to while looking at this CRX?

I will be leaving here around noon, so any advice before than would be greatly appreciated!

[TomO]

Check the usual Honda stuff: for rust on the underbody, condition of motor, plugs, wires, cap etc. Basically test drive it and if you're happy with it, get it. You know your VX will sell on here. You can get 50MPG out of an HF easily, but if you want to, swap in a VX motor down the road.

[mrmad]

That's a pretty clean HF. In addition to what TomO said, check the CV boots condition to see if you may need to replace the axles right away.

From what I've seen here, direct comparisons between the HF and the VX, the VX would probably get a little better FE and have more power, but an HF can get pretty good FE on its own.

[SVOboy]

The EPA rates the HF better and you always have the option of throwing the vx engine in the hf, so I would say go for it, unless you need the extra cargo capacity at all.

[McPatrick]

Thanks for the advice guys. Putting VX engine in there down the road sounds pretty good as well. Someone on here did that and I haven'ts een any ictures on the end result but in his garage entry I saw he is doing like 85 mpg, but then I do believe he has taken extra stuff of the car to make it even more light weight. Haven't really seen enough to judge well how much trouble it is to put a VX engine on a CRX HF. I have to take into account that I would have to have someone do it for me since I am (technically) unable to do it myself.

An extra motivation for me for buying an HF is that I want my wife to drive it to work during the week so most of our miles are driven with an economic car and for some reason she doesn't like the VX. She does like s CRX's so at least she'd take this to work (I work from home).

Thanks again and I will post some more pics later on.

[mrmad]

Considering you're trying to please your wife, our opinions just went out the window. I guess you're getting the HF.

[McPatrick]

On the contrary. If there would have been anything in your opinion that would have made a case against the HF I would have kept on driving the VX. It does look like everyone agrees that this is a good option to get a good mileage as well. And I do like CRX's myself as well
And anyways, I will have to see if the CRX is technically as good as it looks of course (as far as I can tell).

[mrmad]

Well if you wife has a semi lead foot, you can tell her that it will be slower then the VX. 62hp fora 88-89 HF, 70hp for the 90-91, and I think the VX has 90HP.

[McPatrick]

Well, with the numbers I have been getting with the VX my wife is definitely getting interested in driving carefully herself. I will still be driving it on longer trips I sometimes make on the weekends 9which is regularly lately), but I just want all the miles we make as a family to be as economic and 'green' as possible. So instead of letting my wife drive a Buick Le Sabre, she got for free from family, to work I figure I would rather have that sit in the parking lot here and take it on the short trip me and our 2 year old make from time to time when I cannot use my bike. That thing gets like 26 mpg on average.
I'm sure she won't be getting the mileage I will, but it cannot be 26 mpg I'd say...
Ok, gonna go on the 3.5 hour trip to take a look at it.

[1993CivicVX]

What doesn't she like about the VX? If it's the loud cabin noise, the lack of power steering or the great handling, then she isn't gonna like the CRX either. Has she driven a CRX or does she just like the look of it?

[Gary Palmer]

First, if your wife likes it and will drive it, A+. Second, if it's in as clean a condition as it look's, it should be a good choice.

[McPatrick]

Me and my wife both drove CRX's in the Netherlands. both one owner cars and in superb condition. I had the VTEC edition myself with leather interior and what not. I can post some pics if anyone is interested in seeing them.

Anyways, I checked the CRX out and it was worth the 7.5 hours driving (round trip) with a 2 year old in the back seat that i had to entertain at the same time. The CRX is a two owner car that has spend its life in Texas untill three years ago before it was driven up to Michigan and it is very clean. The underside of the car is totally rust free as well. The interior is fairly worn and especially the seats needs redone or exchanged. Oh and the back shocks that hold the hatch open are bad, but that is very common with these.

Anyone know of a good place to get two replacement seats for a CRX in blue (car is white with blue interior).

Gonna pick the Rex up next week and will post more pics then.

[mrmad]

Look for some used Del Sol seats, they are much better then the stock HF seats. How much did the HF set you back?

[McPatrick]

It set me back $1650 which i didn't think was a bad deal considering the body and the fairly low miles. Thanks for the advice about the Del Sol seats. Do you have a picture of what these look like? Will they fit on the existing rail or using the same holes to bolt the new rails down with?

[mrmad]

$1650 is pretty good, I paid $2000 for mine and from the photos, I don't think mine is in as good of shape. At least being a CA car, like yours, there's no rust. I just did the front brakes on it and it is nice not having any rusted/frozen bolts on a 17 year old car.

I'm pretty sure you'd have to modify the seat rails for the Del Sol seats. From what I've read on the CRX forums to find out, the Del Sol seats are the ones people there are trying to get. Also heard of them being swapped into Integras because they apparently are as comfortable as integra seats, but you sit about 1 to 1 1/2 inches lower then the Integra seats.

From what I've read on CRX forums, you'd have to modify the CRX Si seat rails.

I wouldn't recommend the Ebay seats for about $250 only because of safety factors. A car seat has to support you in a rear end accident or you can break your back. I would trust one of the major car manufactures to have tested their seats not to fold up alot more then some no name Ebay brand.

Here's a thread on how to install Prelude seats into a CRX.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/327027/9

[VetteOwner]

Originally Posted by mrmad

$1650 is pretty good, I paid $2000 for mine and from the photos, I don't think mine is in as good of shape. At least being a CA car, like yours, there's no rust. I just did the front brakes on it and it is nice not having any rusted/frozen bolts on a 17 year old car.

I'm pretty sure you'd have to modify the seat rails for the Del Sol seats. From what I've read on the CRX forums to find out, the Del Sol seats are the ones people there are trying to get. Also heard of them being swapped into Integras because they apparently are as comfortable as integra seats, but you sit about 1 to 1 1/2 inches lower then the Integra seats.

From what I've read on CRX forums, you'd have to modify the CRX Si seat rails.

I wouldn't recommend the Ebay seats for about $250 only because of safety factors. A car seat has to support you in a rear end accident or you can break your back. I would trust one of the major car manufactures to have tested their seats not to fold up alot more then some no name Ebay brand.

Here's a thread on how to install Prelude seats into a CRX.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/327027/9

that is good advice about car easts and how safe they are. thats why i swapped in bucket seats in my truck that came out of a blazer. pretty much mint condition seats too.

generally the newer the car (age and miles wise) the better the seats so tryign to find 10+ year old good condition seats is gonna be hard/costly....might wanna look into somehting like 2003+ year wise.

[UfoTofU]

Congrats on picking up a CRX!

They're great cars. Would love to see some pictures when you get a chance.

[McPatrick]

I will make some pictures as soon as we pick it up! Thanks for all the advice and input.
What would be the best resource when it comes down to do-it-yourself instructions and parts for the CRX HF and such?

I will look through the thread on Gassavers.org and try to accumluate the resources as they came by in those threads about the CRX HF.

I do believe I am going to miss the great expertise that members here have on the VX and hope there is just as much expertise about the HF

[SVOboy]

Poke around on honda-tech.com for information and parts, there are also tons of local honda forums...seats that're in good shape might be a tall order these days, but you can prolly get yours redone or swap seat from another car in (though the crx seats are cooler anyway).

Nice buy!

[bobski]

You might want to check out http://www.crxcommunity.com. Its a CRX-specific enthusiast site with over 3000 registered users, several of which are highly knowledgeable when it comes to the CRX. The atmosphere there seems to be more civilized than what you find on honda-tech.

[88HF]

Wow, looks great, very straight looking HF. When I get a few more minutes I'll be reading the rest of this post.

[88HF]

I'm interested in the pictures of the crx vtec edition, sounds sweet. You are selling your vx?

[McPatrick]

Ok, I looked up some pics. On the first one you can see the rides we had in the Netherlands. My CRX VTEC, my wife's CRX and our 66 Mustang convertible in the back.
After that pics of my CRX VTEC, which I bought of the original owner and that has the 150 hp VTEC engine, leather interior and the other niceties that came with that version. The drive was awsome...

[UfoTofU]

That is a gorgeous Rex that you had!

Very nice. I would have hated to have gotten rid of that car.

[mrmad]

Originally Posted by UfoTofU

That is a gorgeous Rex that you had!

Very nice. I would have hated to have gotten rid of that car.

I agree, I don't think the US Si versions were even close to that. Plus the US Si I think had 130HP, not 150HP.

[bobski]

Originally Posted by mrmad

I agree, I don't think the US Si versions were even close to that. Plus the US Si I think had 130HP, not 150HP.

Nah... The US Si got a D16A6 putting out a whole 108 HP. It's sportiness compared to the DX and HF really came from shorter gear ratios and a rear swaybar.

[88HF]

Damn! How old was the car when you bought it?

[88HF]

Whats up with the red light in the middle section where the other side is only white (backup lights)

[bobski]

That's a fog light commonly found on european cars. Not a fog light like the ones we have - designed to let you see through fog - but simply a flashing red light to make your car more visible to drivers behind you in foggy conditions. If you look closely, the black CRX in the first pic has one too... It's just along side one of the reverse lights instead of replacing it.
Another difference between US and european tail lights: the US lights have red side markers while the EU turn signals just wrap all the way around.

[McPatrick]

Thanks for the nice comments. It sure was hard letting them go. My wife's CRX, even though not the VTEC model was in real nice shape too and in this regular model already had more hp than the US Si model. I would have liked to both bring them with me to the States and would have definietly paid the price to put them in a sea container. Thing is though that these are Euro models and don't have a specific US type aproval which would have costs at least $20,000 per car. That was a bit too much

They are both 1991 models and I bought the VTEC in 2001 0r 2002 if I am correct and my wife's CRX in 2001. The VTEC was always garaged and very much pampered by it's first owner. Even still had the original exaust system! And yeah, it was pretty much in mint condition. It was generally considered to be the nicest VTEC in the Netherlands because even the leather seats were mint and that was super rare. Sigh....

By the way, the fog light in the back does not flash during driving and will just be red continiously to be seen in the fog. And the it had the foglights in the front of course (original JDM and original equipment to the VTEC).

It sure was hard to let them go!