As far as fuel economy is concerned Honda developed a reputation in their early days for low cost driving while giving their owners a little more comfort than expected from an inexpensive car. In 1986, it was hard to beat the economy of a Honda CRX HF and a time-capsule example is up for auction here on eBay in Hurricane, West Virginia for an opening bid of $6,000.00 or BIN at $6,999.00
With Honda’s first hybrid car still well off into the future, Honda looked to their trusty Civic line for a platform to create a high fuel economy car in 1984 that was fun to drive and had styling that owners could be proud of. The result was the CRX HF two seat sports/commuter car. With fuel economy ratings from the EPA as high as 57 MPG on the highway, drivers could enjoy a nimble small car and save money at the same time.
The car for sale here is nice but not exactly pristine. The paint is mostly shiny and the plastic trim that could be so fragile back in the day seems to have survived intact, with the exception of some cracked body panels on the nose. There are a couple of dents and scratches that the seller clearly discloses, but for a car that was originally sold in Wisconsin, there is no corrosion visible in the photos.
Photos provided of the interior show a car that looks absolutely brand new. As expected in a car with less than 9,000 miles on the clock, the carpets and upholstery are spotless. The dashboard is free of cracks and blemishes and looks as good as the rest of the interior. I love the hatchback load area and the hidden under floor storage that the clever Honda designers came up with.
Here is the 1.5 liter CVCC four cylinder engine that delivered 76 horsepower to the front wheels. Gear swapping is done with a 5 speed manual transmission. Like the rest of the car, a good detailing will bring benefits to the engine bay. Be prepared to chase down vacuum hose leaks, since vacuum was used to operate a lot of the emissions controls on the engine. It would probably benefit the new owner to just replace them all since they are 32 years old. This little egg of a car would be great first classic especially now that early Japanese cars are gaining a following.
Nice to see one that isn’t all goofed up with off camber wheels and a dumb spoilers.
Vacuum hoses for days, plastic fenders, plastic front header panel and a plastic front chin spoiler (all of which crack) is exactly why I don’t like the first gen CRX! Other than that, it’s in amazing shape! Good luck finding a nicer one with lower miles and priced like this one is! However, i’m a second gen 88-91 CRX guy all the way. I have two 91 CRX’s.
No way the car has only 8k miles with that faded paint and cracks. It was not stored in a garage or covered it’s entire life as stated.
I believe the miles. However I DON’T believe, “The car was kept garaged and/or covered during it’s lifetime” as stated on ebay. The paint and plastic cracking tell another story!
I don’t believe the mileage is true. I have asked seller to verify mileage is accurate. I bet he can’t
A guy I’ve raced with did some mods to his 2nd gen and got 118mpg
https://www.treehugger.com/cars/modified-honda-crx-hf-wins-fuel-economy-competition-with-118-mpg.html
Well, I’ll be darned!
I know Chang Ho Kim via the SCCA. Great guy. Interesting to see this, I was not aware of his accomplishment!
Already sold.
Wow my company bought one of these as a vehicle our techs could drive out to customer sites across the upper Midwest it was the twin to this car but in all silver. The car was very reliable, economic and loved 75 mph. We ran the car to 300k miles then one of the techs bought it and drove it another 30k miles. The car was a great vehicle and lived a long life in a fairly abusive environment. I give this one a good solid “A”
I had a 2nd generation CRX HF that I bought new. It was a blast to drive and being 19 at the time, you can imagine how many speeding tickets I got with that car! Instead of growing up and being a responsible adult, I foolishly sold the car. I followed it with more sedate cars that were used and needed a lot of repairs. Lots of fond memories though!
Are base models really worth that much?
The “hidden under floor storage” was actually used to fill in what would have been a third seat in the Japanese domestic model.