Hot hatchbacks are a genre that I have never dipped my toes into but I’d like to someday. There are quite a few contenders but Honda had a winner on its hands with their CRX. The seller has this 1989 Honda CRX Si posted here on eBay in La Plata, Maryland, there is no reserve, and the current bid price is $6,100.
I’m more than a little surprised at the current bid price for this CRX given its mileage – 213,570 miles – and that it appears to have been debadged and has been repainted a couple of years ago according to the seller. They say that they’re selling it for their parents and it was garage kept for most of its life including the last fifteen years. I don’t have a clue what that means.
For some reason, I don’t expect to see a religious sticker on a debadged black Honda CRX Si but there it is. These are really interesting cars and even though I very much prefer the slightly-boxy first-generation cars, the second-generation CRX was undoubtedly a better car in almost every way. Hagerty is at $7,700 for a #3 good condition car but there are a few issues with this one. Hagerty lists $20,400 as being the value for a #2 excellent car which surprises me a bit – and I know, it isn’t still the year 2000 but wow.
The second-generation CRX was made for the model years 1988 through 1991 and as almost always with updates, this version was a few inches longer and wider than the previous one. A 2022 version would probably be as big as a Suburban if they kept getting 4″ longer and wider every generation! Ok, I’m exaggerating. There are a few things to fix inside as you can see from the photos.
The engine is Honda’s 1.6L inline-four with 108 horsepower. This is not a supercar but I guarantee that it’s super fun to drive all while getting 40 mpg without blinking. Have any of you owned a Honda CRX?
If you’ve been behind the wheel of one of these, you know. Exitably fast and a hoot to drive!
All I remember is the salesperson scared the heck out of me in one of these on a two lane backroad that ran through a manufacturing district. I just prayed no one would pull out in front of us going down and back up that road. I would venture a guess someone besides the parents put a lot of the miles on this and the selling for parents is just to increase interest in the car and nothing wrong with that.
Too many miles? For something that is 33 years old, It averages to about 6,400 a year which seems low. Now, if it was someone’s commuter car with 15k miles a year, then you are going to have a 500k miles.
When they first came out I wanted one quite badly. I went to my local Honda dealer to have a test drive and hopefully buy one. The salesman treated me so poorly and with so little respect that I left (without a drive, much less the car) and have never been back to a Honda dealer since. I’ve purchased a shocking number of vehicles, but never a Honda. Amazing what an early bad experience will do.
…had an 87 Civic si… (stick) they’re not lying about the mileage… the Civic (Hatch) is a little heavier, but a total blast to drive, (si = sequential injection (vs the 1500s (carbed)
very well mannered and quick… a CRX (the bobtail) is even lighter and even more responsive…
–questions to ask would be: has been the engine been kept current with timing-belts, hoses, (etc.).
…you don’t normally find one of these in this good a shape…
-definitely- worth picking up…
–i’d be all over it like ugly on an ape if it were on the left coast…
To add to your list of engine variations, depending on year. 1500 was also available as DPi dual point injection. There was also a HF version (3 valves per cylinder) which would be the one that regularly exceeded 50 mpg.
It appears to have 3 left wheels.
Decent car but beware honda plastics from this era. I have a super clean first gen crx and I’ve found both body and interior its and pieces to be very brittle.
Fun to drive too. To me the crx, particularly first gen was the peak Hondaness.
I had a first gen HF model that got close to 50 mpg on the highway but you could have fun with it by down shifting (sometimes two years). The second gen SI models are quick for real.
I think Honda was at the top of their game in this era. These were excellent cars. Very prone to rust and so many of them met horrible fates with cheap, tasteless mods so there are not a lot of them left. Even with it’s faults this is an extremely good example, and unless they are super low miles they don’t come much better than this. I forget where I saw it online but it was a regular CRX and it had like 40,000 miles and I think it went for $25,000. I wanted one but was too young, when I could get one they were just beat up but I did get a 2011 CR-Z and I think those were the closest Honda has ever come to bringing this type of car back, and Honda failed with the CR-Z it looked good and handled well but not even close to being what the CRX was. The CR-Z is now 11 years old and they’re going the way of the CRX rusting and being modded to death.
My first new car was an ’89 Honda CRX. It was the HF model that got 50 around town and 53 on the highway. It was a blast to drive and cornered like a dream. Great for commuting, but not very practical if I wanted to go anywhere with friends as I couldn’t take more than 1 passenger.
Looks like an excellent deal for that price. If there is any rust, it tends to be localized to the rocker panels and/or rear wheel arches, and metal bracing in rear bumper. All of which could easily be addressed. For it’s age it has low miles. For this generation of Honda Civic or CRX my experience has been 300,000 miles is easy to achieve before the engine and transmission need attention. Unless you have the ability to time travel back 20 years, I doubt you will find a better one for this price.
I owned one of these back in 1n 1991, it was a great car, and I stole it . The previous owner had to get rid of it because she was 9 months pregnant, and I knew he had to sell it. He wanted 7k, I offered 4500.00 and that’s what I paid. Now being 6″ 3, it was a tight fit, the moon roof stole 3 inches from me, but it was fun to drive. Sold it for 7500.00 a year later, to get rid of it. Fun car.
SOLD for $7,695.
Thank you, sir!
I had an 88 CRX Si, brand new, as my third car, when I was 20. You never see 88’s. They’re more rare. They weighed about 200 pounds less, and all rusted out because of cheap metal used that year. Mine looked like **** after 3 years, getting rust spots on it, but I drove that thing HARD! I forget why they weigh less, one reason is the doors are thinner. They had regular seat belts. 89-91 had auto seat belts, that were attached to the door. Also, they had something different in the suspension. I think by 91, all SI models had 4 wheel disc brakes. Mine had rear drums. You had to do brake jobs every 20,000, or the front end would wobble when you hit the brakes. It was the best car ever made. So nimble.