Back to Honda – 95′ Civic DX

So the truck was dying and I was ready for something a little more civilized. After two manual transmissions I was ready for an automatic. My car search started and stopped with the 5th Gen Honda Civic. I loved the styling of the coupe and I started searching for one I could afford. After a short search, I found one right by my college in Wayne, NJ. It a was a bone stock 1995 Civic DX Auto. The price was $13,399. I was obviously going to need a loan for this one. They DID give me $800 for the truck! That was incredibly generous! I remember when I was signing the papers the sales rep asked how soon before I start modifying the Civic, to which I replied, “Never! I’ve learned my lesson!”

I know what you are thinking, “Well, that didn’t last long…” You’re actually wrong! I left the car stock for over a year! The car came with a Kenwood tape player and I didn’t own any tapes. Instead of swapping out the head unit, I left it and made myself some mix tapes. The car was amazing. It was so quiet and smooth. My parents got a Lexus around the same time I got the Civic and I swear the Civic was quieter. It was so nice having PS and AC. The wheels and tires were really lame. I think they were 13″ steelies. A friend of mine at UPS (I worked the pre-load) had some 15×7 MSR wheels that he was rocking on his CRX and asked if I wanted them. I said, “How much?” and he said, “$200 with the tires.” Sold.

So now I had a set of “rims” and the Civic was dying to be lowered. My mechanic friend was now full-time so I bought a set of Intrax lowering springs off of Nopi.com and he threw them on and gave the car an alignment. Around the same time, I ran into a high school friend who was selling his under the dash neon tubes. He asked me if I wanted them. I asked what color they were and he said, “Veep Green.” Prefect. The Civic had green dash lighting. The car was really coming together. Time went on, the Civic racked up the miles. I began to miss the 5-speed and vowed that my next car would be manual. The mods continued, I was still paying Car Toys on the reg. My $232.15/mo car payment was keeping the mods to a limit, but I found ways to get things like Enkei wheels, a Wings West 3-piece wing, Alpine head unit, Bazooka base tube, projector headlights and an Airmass Thundermuff cat-back exhaust.

One late afternoon coming home from college I hit a deer on Route 78 going about 80mph. The deer bashed in my fender, cracked my windshield and dented my hood. The Civic was down for about a month, but came back looking like new. It had about 120,000 miles on it when I decided it was time to sell it. I knew it was worth something and I didn’t want to drive it into the ground like I did the truck so I wound up selling it for $7500. What I would buy next shocked everyone, even me!