New Civic VX Owner!

[beamerjld]

Hey guys, just picked up my VX this weekend. It is unmolested and bone stock from what I can see. It just has 14" Honda steely wheels on it. Not sure if these are from an HX? The paint is also pretty rough,and it has the normal Honda rust around the wheel wells.

I had been looking for one for a while in my area (Ohio)but to no avail, so I had to drive 7 hours to pick her up! Paid $1650.

Has high miles at 280k , previous owner has owned 3 VX's. His second one had over 550k on it before someone T-Boned him and it was totaled. So that gives me hope that she still has plenty of life yet...

Runs pretty good, just need to to some standard maintenance... Looking forward to trying to get upwards of 55 mpg!

[slogfilet]

Welcome to the club!

At 280k mile, it's just getting broken in. There's a ton of information here for VX owners, and a full tuneup will give you a great shot at maximizing fuel economy. What do you know about the maintenance history?

[beamerjld]

Originally Posted by slogfilet

What do you know about the maintenance history?

The previous owner actually just found a bunch of receipts and service history, and he's mailing them all to me, so that should be fun to go through.

But I do know that its had zero accidents and four owners. It was in Florida for the first 6 years of its life, but that didn't do much to stop the rust once it got up north.

In the owners manual that came with it, The first owner kept track of the "required Maintenance record" He had it serviced every 7500 miles up until late 1998.

[ChewChewTrain]

Ask the former owner, "What happened to the ultra-light VX wheels?" Those steelies are 16lbs vs VX alloys at 9.7lbs. That 6lb difference is a big deal, especially on 13" rims.

[beamerjld]

Yea I'm looking for OEM 13's or HX 14's ... Cant seem to find many in my area, but it's definitely a priority on my list.

[whirledpeaz]

Good find! The Vx wheels probably got bent on the first pothole they encountered.

[slogfilet]

The original wheels are nice, but I don't think the impact on fuel economy is much... unless you can find a set dirt cheap, there are other items that will serve you better. Plus, if you put pizza pans over your existing wheels, you can always *imagine* you have the originals!

I did buy a set of VX wheels, but sold them after a few months for more than I paid... spent the money on maintenance items, and got better mileage.

I do think they look nice, though.

[ChewChewTrain]

Originally Posted by slogfilet

The original wheels are nice, but I don't think the impact on fuel economy is much... unless you can find a set dirt cheap, there are other items that will serve you better. Plus, if you put pizza pans over your existing wheels, you can always *imagine* you have the originals!

I did buy a set of VX wheels, but sold them after a few months for more than I paid... spent the money on maintenance items, and got better mileage.

I do think they look nice, though.

You are right. At Ecomodder.com they found light wheels only make a small contribution to fuel savings, unless you do a lot of stop / start driving.

Here's an idea. Ask a muralist to paint VX wheels on the pizza pans!