ArmyofOne

^Look at that interior. I can think of a few cars TODAY who's interiors arent that well made. Looks like ALOT of effort went into this car's design.


^37,000 ORIGINAL MILES!




^awww its a 4 spd! how cute
Credit for the pix: Pix came from this thread.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Pretty cool. The last 4 speed manual I drove was my dads old 81 Toyota Tecell.

-J-P-L-

Coincidentally, I saw one very similar at a Honda dealer yesterday in Rhode Island. Nearly mint as well in the showroom.

Impressive and amazing that economy cars would have been purchased but barely driven. Very rare situation as such cars are specifically bought to be a daily workhorse.

Lexmex

I used to live in Bradenton about 2 years ago. I'll have to check this out next time I stop by up there.

Och

iTrader: (3)

This is awesome. Looks way better than any USDM interior of that time.

plex

iTrader: (11)

That's clean, somebody school me on what the choke button was for again?

mmarshall

Some nice pictures. I remember it well. My brother had one, and so did his best friend....and a later girl friend of mine. It was markedly smaller than its rival Toyota Corolla, and was actually the first subcompact car in the U.S. market to introduce FWD on a large scale....previous FWD Minis and French Renaults not having sold here in significant numbers.

I just hope that one doesn't have the notoriously balky Honda CVCC engine of the period (It doesn't, from the look of the underhood pictures). The CVCC engine was the only mass-produced engine of the time that could meet the upcoming 1975 emissions wihout an expensive catalyst....and could still run on low-lead gas, as opposed to unleaded. The CVCC engine had two combustion chambers for each cylinder...a small upper one for a rich mixture, and the much larger, regular one for a super-lean mixture. The smaller one fired off the larger one. It was fine when it warmed up (meaning over 140 degrees) but was awful when cold. Even fiddling with the manual choke, it stalled and stumbled to no end, even slipping the clutch.. You pretty much had to let it sit still, warming up while idling, for a while before you went anywhere. That was not as much of a problem with the non-CVCC, standard engine. Makes you really appreciate modern EFI.

-J-P-L-

The Japanese set the stage for the modern interior. They were way ahead in terms of ergonomics and build quality. Especially Honda.

sphy1005

iTrader: (3)

Carbureted cars. So it can warm up.

Thats very clean though. I always like seeing old cars that look new.

Lexus 4 ME

What size of the engine? Great condition.

mmarshall

The choke is a device on the carburator often called a "butterfly valve". It is a metal plate with some small holes in it, usually circular-shaped but sometimes otherwise, depending on the shape of the carburator throat. It opens and shuts, on a hinge, and regulates the amount of air entering the carburator to mix with the fuel, which enters via a fuel line and mixture/idle-adjustment screws. When you see a **** on the dash labelled "CHOKE", that means that it is manually-operated, on a pull-cable, that closes the butterfly valve as it is pulled out. Normally, on a stone-cold start, the choke is pulled out almost all the way, to close off the air supply and richen up the fuel mixture for initial start-up. A rich mixture is needed because fuel does not vaporize well in cold temperatures. As the engine warms, the **** is gradually pushed back in to lean things out, as the fuel starts vaporizing better. At normal engine temperature, the **** should be pushed in all the way.

More common, however, especially with American-designed cars, is the automatic choke...especially after emission controls got stricter and the EPA didn't want people forgetting to push the **** back in when warm (that would cause an unneeded rich mixture and a lot of unnecessary emissions). But automatic chokes with the cam-notch linkage, and, later on, the electric chokes, where the butterfly valve opened and shut by an electrically-heated spring-coil linkage, could often be (trust me) a real PITA. With automatic systems, you often either got too little or too much choke, and/or sometimes carburator icing from the manifold heaters that often screwed up.....the systems never seemed to work correctly when needed. It was these ongoing carburator problems, and the resulting stalls/stumbles/hesitation that drove car owners nuts, that finally convinced the auto industry to convert to fuel-injection in the 1980s. IMO, they should have converted sooner...back in the 1970's.

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

^^^MMarshall, would it be the same thing as pumping the gas several times before starting the engine?

I remember my neighbor told my father to do that on our old 79 chevette before starting.



Cool, there's a 0% lease on that civic

IS-SV

Good flashback stuff, I've driven a later version of that gen 1 Civic, it was a stick-shift nearly new rental car. For a small car it was way ahead of its time in terms of reliability, refinement and surprisingly fun to drive.

bagwell

they could've cleaned up that poor old motor a little bit....

madoka

Pictures like these always make me wonder if today's LS460 interior will be what tomorrow's 2025 Camry is going to look like.