Buy/Drive/Burn: Basic Japanese Compacts From 1998
We continue our 1990s-then-2000s series today, with the Japanese counterpart to the American compacts presented here recently. These Japanese compacts from 1998 represented the last of the Nineties’ Golden Era quality. Civic, Sentra, Corolla, make your pick!
Honda Civic
The seventh-gen Honda Civic is in its third model year for 1998 and is offered in coupe, hatch, and sedan versions within the North American market. Interesting five-door body styles are available in other locales. There are five trim levels of Civic this year: CX, DX, EX, HX, and LX. Today’s specification is a sedan, which means the bargain basement CX is out of the picture as it’s limited to the hatchback. The cheapest DX sedan asks $12,735 and uses a 1.6-liter inline-four. That engine is good for 106 horses that proceed through the five-speed manual.
Nissan Sentra
The Sentra is near the end of its fourth generation run and has been with us since 1995. Unlike the Civic, Sentra is available only as a sedan. Nissan technically offers a Sentra coupe, but it’s badged as 200SX for sporting credibility reasons. The Sentra has four trims in North America in 1998, which include the basic and much cheaper XE, and SE, GXE, and GLE which all cost about the same. A five-speed manual XE asks $13,699 this year and offers a 1.6-liter inline-four that produces 115 horsepower.
Toyota Corolla
Toyota sells all sorts of Corollas around the world based on the present E110 platform, and the North American version is new this model year. Corolla is built at NUMMI in California and is also rebadged as the Chevrolet Prizm (formerly Geo). Corolla is only available as a sedan in North America, over three trim levels: base VE, middling CE, and luxurious LE. A VE with a five-speed manual and 120-horse 1.9-liter engine is our choice today and asks $11,908 at your Toyota dealer. By the way, the twinning Geo Prizm asks $12,143.
Three bare-bones compact sedans, all promising long-term reliability. Which goes home with the Buy?
[Images: Honda, Nissan, Toyota]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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In order of horsepower (apparently there was a shortage in 1998; let's be simple-minded like 1998 automotive enthusiasts): - Walk past the Corolla and buy a 1998 Camry. - Walk past the Sentra and drive an 1998 Altima. - Walk past the Civic and set a 1998 Accord on fire. (This will teach Honda a lesson for knowing how to build good cars, but just not doing it.)
Burn the Sentra. Drive the Civic. Buy the Corolla. The Civic and Corolla are likely still in the family. Driven by grandkids or various neices and nephews