I never intended to buy two 90’s cars. I certainly didn’t have the budget for it. And it’s not like I went looking for a del Sol, specifically. But just like some people get a cat because it showed up one day and demanded attention, my del Sol just sort of happened, and boy did it need attention.
Previously I was leasing a 2017 Honda Fit. It was both the first new car and the first Honda I ever had. It was the base model, white, with a manual transmission. The shifter was great and it had just enough power to be fun. I really enjoyed that car, but I found leasing to be too expensive and, as the lease was ending, I decided to look for something used.
I Meant to Buy Only One Car
I had a pretty low budget, around $2,000, and I knew I wanted something with a manual transmission. In my searches, two cars piqued my interest. One was a 1998 Hyundai Accent in excellent condition and with surprisingly low miles, but the owner was difficult to get hold of so I moved on. The other was this little blue 1993 Honda Civic del Sol with just over 100,000 miles. I remember really liking the look of these cars when they first came out. With just two seats and a targa top, they seemed like fun yet practical cars for a single person. Lately I had really been getting interested in Japanese cars from the 90’s (like everyone else in the world), so I called the owner and set up a meeting.
And then I did all the things you’re not supposed to do when you go to look at a car. I fell in love with the car almost immediately. I forgot to look underneath it to check for rust problems. I ignored some obvious flaws. I blame all of this on the fact that it was pouring down rain on the day I went to see it (you’re also not supposed to look at a car in the rain), so I couldn’t get a really good sense of the condition of the body and paint. I did, however, get an excellent introduction to the key problem of a del Sol’s unique roof: subjected to enough water, it leaks.
But of course it was fun to drive, even in the rain, and it looked like it could be a good project car. Mind you, I didn’t need a project car. I needed a daily driver, but I wanted something unique. It was already October so I figured I could drive it through one winter, then find a second car the following year and save the del Sol from any additional winters and all the road salt that a Wisconsin winter entails. The owner was tired of everyone low-balling him and intended to raise the price if I passed on it. I didn’t want this car to slip away (and I hate negotiating) so I paid him his asking price of $1,800. The del Sol was mine.
The very next day I got a call back from the daughter of the owner of the Hyundai Accent. Now committed to buying the del Sol, I wasn’t sure if I could also afford the Accent, but the car was too good to pass up. I bought that car too (which is a story for another article) and immediately began thinking of where I could store the del Sol. Its days of surviving Midwest winters were over.
Initial Driving Impressions
I seriously could not stop laughing every time I drove it. Even though it was the lower-spec model with the non-VTEC D15B7, it was so small and light that driving it was instantly fun, and the transmission was geared well enough that it was pretty quick up to about 40 miles per hour, in spite of its low horsepower. The exhaust was loud and raspy, the roof made a rattling noise over every bump, and one of the hood hinges was broken, so it felt kind of sketchy, but I think just added to my initial enjoyment.
It felt more raw and pure than anything I had driven before. Let’s say, “unrefined”. At the same time, it was immediately apparent that this was the best-handling car I had ever owned, in spite of the suspension being quite worn out and having small all-season tires on rather awful-looking 14 inch aftermarket wheels. Despite its flaws, it was a brilliant little car. I finally understood why so many people love 90’s Hondas.
Please Wait, Pandemic in Progress
After getting it home and figuring out some of the things that needed to be fixed, I had a problem: I had also just purchased the ’98 Accent which meant I now had two cars and only one garage space. I rented a storage unit that was just big enough for the little car and intended to bring it out the following spring to begin working on it, but this was late 2019. The events of the following year put everyone’s plans on hold, and the del Sol sat in storage for about a year and a half. In the meantime, the Accent proved to be a reliable and fun daily driver, and I was blessed with a higher paying job to fuel my car habit. I finally got the car out of storage in the spring of 2021 for some much needed maintenance and repair after nearly thirty years of operation.
Meet Suzuko
I like to give my cars names, and in researching the history of Honda’s little targa top I learned that all of them were built in Japan at the Honda factory in Suzuka, Mie prefecture. While Suzuka is a valid Japanese given name, it didn’t feel quite right to me. Instead, I decided on a variation that seemed to suit the “cute” nature of the car: Suzuko. I don’t know Japanese, but according to the various translation websites I used, apparently this can mean “bell child” or “little bell”. I think it’s a cute name that fits the friendly design of the car.
If I’d known how much she would fight me every step of the way, every time I worked on her, I might have chosen to call her something else.
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