Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Author: banpei (Page 73 of 318)

Down on the Street: Hungarian Honda Civic Mk3

Time to start going again with the blog and what would be more suitable than sharing one of my holiday finds:
Down on the Street: Hungarian Honda Civic Mk3 AJ
This four door Honda Civic Mk3 (AJ I think) sedan was parked regularly next to the swimming pool of Mesteri (the village I spent my holiday at) and I suspect it is owned by one of the employees of the pool and the car itself was in great condition if you consider it is almost thirty years old by now…

The Honda Civic Mk3 sedan was designed together with British Leyland to replace the Triumph Acclaim. The car was destined to be sold under the Rover brand as this was the brand BL was pushing forward as their main brand. The Rover 200 was identical to the Civic with the exception of a difference in the nose part that looked more posh: BL clearly wished to prevent the mistake they made with the Acclaim.

This particular car is the Civic counterpart that was sold less regular in Europe thanks to Rover owning the right to sell the 200 for the first years exclusively to countries where they were present. So this Civic is actually quite a rarity on the European soil! ;)

All this is something I recently learned from an 80s Honda/Toyota history book so I was unaware of this during my holiday. Actually the reason why I took the picture of the car was a nice detail on the boot lid spoiler: Continue reading

Input needed: tough choice to make

It has been a while since I posted on the blog. First there was my vacation that came in between (yes I still have a shitload of pictures to post!) and then I had to catch up with various things at my work and finally this weekend it was my son’s birthday celebration that came up. So finally I have some time again to post stuff here.

First of all my latest struggle is to replace my current daily driver with somewhat more decent car. In the very rare occasion I would buy a new car, which one would be the best choice of these two?

Honda Civic 2013
2013 Honda Civic Sport (so not the Type R displayed here!)

or…

Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback 2013
2013 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportsback (so no EVO either!)

The Lancer is a lot cheaper than the Civic but decreases in price a lot earlier. Lancer is a lot bigger (and roomier) while the Civic is more agile. Also the model of the Lancer is already six years old while the Civic has only been one and a half year on the market. If I sit in the Civic and Lancer and compare the two I have the feeling there is a gap of 8 years between them.

So…can you help me out with this tough choice so I can free my mind and start posting stuff again! ;)
And no: I can’t buy both of them!

Ebay treasures: fancy a Mitsuoka taxi?

No this is not a product of an undiscovered British car brand with an exotic name:
Ebay Treasures - Mitsuoka Galue
It is is also not the new London taxi built by a Chinese car manufacturer either…
It actually is a product by Mitsuoka called the Galue and is based upon the Nissan Crew taxi!

All Mitsuoka products are inspired by 40s and 50s British cars (like Jaguar, Rover, etc) and the two versions of the Galue are no exception to this rule: Continue reading

Top Gear missed it’s chance with the Toyota Comfort GT-Z!

Today I watched the second episode of the new Top Gear season (season 20 already!) where Hammond organized a Taxi race. In this race he featured taxis from various countries like Russia, India, South Africa but for some reason he left out Japan. Now this is a missed chance as Japan would have an adequate contentder:
Toyota Comfort GT-Z Supercharged SXS10
Okay, the supercharged 3S-FE may not be the most powerful of the whole bunch, but with its tweaked suspension it probably would have beaten the competition in half a lap… Or could it be that they were actually frightened?

See the full video of the Comfort GT-Z here: Continue reading

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