Junkyard Find: 1993 Honda Civic LX Sedan With 351,119 Miles
Published: April 12th, 2021
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In my search for super-high-mile vehicles in the car graveyards of the land, all the cars I’ve found showing better than a half-million miles on the odometer have been Mercedes– Benzes (other than a 1982 Rabbit Cabriolet showing an implausible 930k miles on what I think was a defective gauge). The most-traveled Honda I’ve documented was a 1983 Accord sedan with 411,794 miles, and today’s Junkyard Find now takes second-place in the Highest Mileage Honda In the Junkyard contest.
Yes, 351,119 miles, or just over 12,500 miles for each year of this car’s existence. I’m sure I’ve seen plenty of Hondas with more miles during my junkyard journeying, but American-market Hondas only got six-digit odometers starting in 1981 at the earliest (Volvo and Mercedes-Benz ditched the old five-digit ones decades earlier) and the cars made during our current century have electronic odometers that require vehicle power to boot up.
As is so often the case with extreme-high-mile vehicles, this one looks very solid and well-maintained for its age. Sure, I’ll find the occasional beat-to-hell hooptie with big miles, but it takes conscientious owners to keep a car— even a very well-built one— alive for such a long haul.
The seats have aftermarket covers and some of the trim pieces came from a different vehicle with a gray interior, but otherwise, the cabin of this Civic doesn’t show the wear and tear you’d expect to see in a car that traveled twice as far as most others its age.
Power windows in a fifth-generation Civic? They were available, but I’ve nosed around in hundreds of these cars while searching for bits for my own ’92 hatchback and I’d say maybe 2 percent have these switches.
The same goes for the power remote mirrors and cruise control.
Four different engines were available in 1993 Civics: the El Cheapo Edition CX got an 8-valve 1.5-liter four rated at 70 horsepower, the Sips Fuel Through a Cocktail Straw Edition VX had a 16-valve 1.5-liter with 92 hp, the Not Quite So Cheap Edition DX and LX had a 102-horse version of the VX engine, and the Hot Rod From Hell Edition EX and Si got a VTEC-equipped 1.5 making 125 horsepower. This LX has the 102hp D15B7.
Up here in the thin air at 5,280 feet, that engine probably sent 80 horses to the wheels at best. The five-speed manual made that amount of power (barely) tolerable.
Why is it here? There’s some rust, but nothing too serious. My guess is that the timing belt or head gasket failed and the repair cost ended up being far higher than the real-world value for a high-mile non-truck with a transmission most used-car shoppers can’t operate; the second guess is that the owner traded it in on a new car and the dealership didn’t even bother trying to auction it off.
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The Number One Girl approved of the JDM version.
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Most 1993 Civics sold here were hatchbacks, but Honda USA still advertised the sedan.For links to more than 2,100 additional Junkyard Finds, visit the Junkyard Home of the Murilee Martin Lifestyle Brand™.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Something else just caught my eye on this one: the side mirrors were either replaced or painted at some point! Only the EX Coupes and Si hatches had body-colored mirrors in the 5th-Gens (I’ve had that generation wrong in all the posts on this thread — my Honda fanboi card is sitting at the front desk in the lobby awaiting disposal!) until 1994, and the Sedans may have been all black for those first couple years, with the EX going body-color in ‘94 and ’95.
I have never personally owned a Civic, but I have always liked them and wanted one, but I will probably never buy one just because I live in Pueblo, CO and Honda thefts are ridiculously high and insurance rates are higher on Hondas in the zip I live in. At any rate I though I would throw in my Two cents on something in this article. For the 1990 Model year in Gen 4 the EX Sedan trim was introduced. I know that in the early 90's some of what was standard on the Sedan was not standard on the hatchback. That changed as the decade progressed. So from there going into Gen 5 in 1992, we had DX Sedan which was your very basic trim level with crank windows, optional A/C I believe and not many other amenities. The LX was actually the volume leader sedan-wise for a time because it offered the most value. Standard Power windows and locks, cruise, A/C, and subtle trim details like chrome around the windows. EX would have added the moonroof, nicer upholstery than the LX and fully color-keyed outside door handles and mirrors. Most sedan lines followed some type of formula like this in the 90's and beyond. Keep in mind I am only reviewing the sedan trims due to our subject being a sedan. I know there were other trims in the hatch and coupe. The silver trim in the interior on the dash that is in question is native to this car. That was the color Honda used on these trims as standard from 1992-95 across all the lines from what I can see. I highly doubt those bits were swapped in. Shame this went to the crusher. Someone in Pueblo, CO would certainly have taken this off their hands without it being crushed!