Plain wagovan questions

sum wagon

Does anyone here have the lowest wagovan? the one without power steering? If so hows the handling compared to a civic with power steering?
I'm looking at an 89 base model, but I've never driven a civic without power steering. Also, I'm not the best person when it comes to driving a stick...to be honest, I suck. :P
In your opinion do think this would be an okay car to learn in?

hopfully this will be my first car. it has fairly low milege, and a little rust, but its only 1200, assuming everything with the buyers inspection goes okay, i'll probley get it.

wagodizzle

you get used to the manual steeriung pretty quick, even though parallel parking can be a pain.

as far as learning the stick, i think it is a super easy car to learn in. i talk a 14 year old girl to drive a stick without stalling in my car once. well, maybe i just have mad teaching skillz hehe

for a first car, its perfect

im not sure who has the lowest wagon here, but with my bullbar and fropnt lip i have a grand total of 3 inches of ground clearence. add the mudflaps to that and i got 3/4 inch ground clearence :roll:

sum wagon

lol sorry, I meant the lowest model, guess base model would have made more sense than lowest civic.... I've heard that starting off in the manual version can be hard, kinda scared me. dont wanna get in over my head :P does the base model have power brakes?

the one im looking at does have some rust over the rear driver wheel well, is that anything to be worried about as long as rust isn't a big issue around the rest of the car?

SiWagon

sum wagon wrote:

WagoVan(Lowest Model would be the WagoVan.)... power steering? ... hows the handling compared to a civic with power steering?

The same maybe slightly less feel.The secret to driving a Civic W/O PS is to keep rolling.It's a lighter wgn so is easier to steer.All wgn have PB.

Honda manuals are the EASIEST cars to learn how to stick shift.

Kahuna

I took the powersteering off of my car, and I honestly can't drive one with power steering now. I like the slower response of the no p/s, it feels more agressive I guess you can say. When pulling out of parking spots and stuff is where its somewhat tough, but I don't even notice it anymore..

I have every power steering part out of my car if you wanna buy it. It's all in mint shape.. Lemme know!

heraldhamster

Kahuna wrote:

I took the powersteering off of my car, and I honestly can't drive one with power steering now. I like the slower response of the no p/s, it feels more agressive I guess you can say. When pulling out of parking spots and stuff is where its somewhat tough, but I don't even notice it anymore..

I have every power steering part out of my car if you wanna buy it. It's all in mint shape.. Lemme know!

did you track or notice an increase in mpg w/o the p/s pump?

wagodizzle

Kahuna was in the middle of a B16 swap when he changed to manual steering, so as far as gas mileage goes.. he prolly can't help ya there.

but im sure it would help something, even if like 1 mpg

sum wagon

doesn't look like I'll have to worry, he sold the car already. We went to look at it...the engine bay was scary...a thick coat of oil on everything. He started it and everything was okay, but after a few minutes of running, fumes started. Verrry strange smell, burnt my nose to breathe. It did however have those speaker cases in the back, I don't know what they're really called, I read here that they were rare. I really wanted that car too...doesnt look like I'll be able to be a part of these forums.