Looking at the tail lights, something seems odd about this late eighties Civic. Looking closer, those from the USA might notice the Acura badging and the Alpha-numeric model call out. On the other hand, Canadians wonder why this Acura EL wears California plates. What’s an Acura EL? Honda’s version of the Plodge, a US model modified to better fit the Canadian market.
For many years, Honda’s Civic has been the best selling car in Canada. Although they may forfeit that crown this year, in the late nineties and 2000s, Honda dominated the sales chart. Looking to capitialize on Canada’s preference for smaller cars and the popularity of the Civic, they developed this small sedan. Somewhere along the line, this Canadian resident moved south, and it now spends it days basking in the Cailfornia sun.
A quick look in the interior shows leather seating surfaces, upgraded door panels, manual transmission, and an aftermarket steering wheel.
I’ve heard this car compared to a 3/4 scale TL (think model year 2000). Looking at this angle, perhaps you can see it as well.
This reminds me of when I visited my aunt and uncle in British Columbia and laid eyes on a Pontiac Tempest (Chevy Corsica), a Chrysler Dynasty and the Pontiac Firefly (Geo Metro) and an old Mercury truck that could have been in the opening credits of Sanford and Son if it didn’t have a “Big M” on the grille.
Had an uncle that bought a 1998 EL Sport new, it handled and felt better than a Civic. Seeing these now reminds me just how ugly Honda’s started to get in the mid 2000’s…
This wasn’t a first either, in the mid 90’s honda gussied up a civic and called it honda domani or something like that, i believe it was JDM
No wonder Honda kept this a secret from Americans…horrible case of badge engineering going on here.
Reminds me of the Malibu-cloned Cutlasseseses.
Not really. The EL has a much nicer interior than the Civic. In fact, up until last year a similar model, the CSX, was available in Canada. The EL always sold well, too.
Not really… The EL shares the dash and all major interior components with the Honda. It’s a huge price premium for leather covered seats, chrome door pulls, and an Acura badge. It is by the very definition badge engineering, and a particularly lazy effort at that. A Civic EX with dealer installed leather seats would run thousands less, and be identically equipped.
I’m not sure we could even get leather in a Civic in Canada.
The US didn’t have it as a factory trim in those years either. It could be dealer installed, a family member purchased a Civic EX in Texas, and the dealership had an accessories department and they did leather seats and steering wheel for around $950. Our Hondas come 1 way per trim level, basically no options, and everything else is dealer installed. Fog lights, alloy wheels, spoilers, CD changers etc.
That said, the EL always sold well in Canada and that’s what it is all about, moving metal.
True. Canadians eat up any car that’s small and practical. I can see how the few small premium cars that exist would do very well there. I bet if Cadillac had sold a version of the Aveo/Wave Canadians would have bought them by the thousands too. I swear sometimes 50% of the cars in BC are a Toyota or Pontiac hatchback, I didn’t notice it quite so much in ON and QC, but still a Civic or Corolla appears to be the default car there even, versus a Camry or Accord sized car in the US.
Fuel prices have always been higher in Canada and in general Canadians have been less willing to stretch themselves financially than Americans. The harsher climate means that cars tend to not last as long. That’s why the Civic is the most popular car in Canada, whereas the Camry is the most popular in the USA.
And then there is the fact that socialism has impoverished us all.
Given the reputation Honda’s leather seats have, you’d be better off with aftermarket.
OTOH I’ve never encountered even a 20-year-old Honda with torn cloth seats.
Somewhere in the mid 80’s Honda improved their seats and interior fabric quite a bit. Earlier Honda plus seats used to come apart just from sun exposure. My first car was an 82 Civic which had hardly any fabric left covering the foam on the seats by the time I was done with it. OTOH I also had a 20 year old 88 Accord for a while, and it’s plush seats were perfect.
Though I have a ’10 Civic, I wish it had the more conservative dash & analog instruments of the previous generation, like the one pictured. But it’s a hoot to drive though, not a Baby-Boomer Barge.
The Acura ILX is the latest dressed-up Civic. I always suspect such models are sops to whiny dealers.
At least they did a pretty good job of restyling the ILX. It’s proportions are different then the Civics (longer hood, shorter deck, different roofline), and the interior is more Acura conventional than Civic two-tiered dash. Not that I’d ever consider buying one, especially when you can get a new TSX for only about $1,000 more than a comparably equipped ILX.
You’re right, the ILX has different bodywork, not just trim. I did see some Civic bits inside it though. As with you, it’s not my cup of tea. TSX is how one gets a JDM/EU Accord, & is built in Japan.
It’s like a Civic with Accord upgrades. The EL’s successor was the CSX, which was also a rebadged Japanese-spec Civic. Now that was quite an odd site when I saw one outside the Omni Parker Hotel in Boston. It did have Ontario plates though. It was also a 2010, wearing Acura’s Power Plenum grille.
My understanding is that this was actually designed first as the CSX for the Canadian market, and then badge-engineered into the JDM Civic.
That is a bit of a poor colour. They looks quite sharp in black. A friend of mine has one and while a long way from mint it is still a nice car.
I performed service on one of these that migrated to Minnesota. My first thought was WTF is this? I figured it out pretty quick when I saw the speedometer/odometer was metric. The Acura morph was a pretty nice car to drive. I agree though, this isn’t the right color. They look better in white or black.
I recommended one to a friend 14 years ago. 12 years of trouble free driving and cheaper than a loaded Civic. For non-car people, what’s not to like?
I had no idea that these were ever made. The Civic of this generation had awfully good bones, so why not add some luxury? I’m with Roger628 on this. I could do this.
What a quirky little car that at first looks weird. Reminds me of the occasional Cheviac Tempica I used to see in New York along with the rare Pontiac Firefly or Wave and even a Toyota Echo Hatchback among other Canadian vehicles that have migrated down here.
When an acquaintance bought a Lexus-badged Toyota FZJ80 Land Cruiser (LX450) in the ’90’s, I questioned the logic of spending more on a badged Toyota, functionally identical except for questionably retuned spring/shock settings. He pointed out that few Toyota dealers (at least then in the mid-90’s) knew how to sell and service a $40K car, so he might as well spend $42K and get the Lexus dealer experience … nice loaner cars, flexible appointments, a fully detailed car at every service, good espresso in the waiting room. I do most of my own service but have bought a few new Toyotas and I can relate. Don’t know if that holds true for Honda/Acura, and/or in Canada …
I’ll bet that car was intentionally purchased as a gray-market import.
Here’s how and why: ‘Round about 2001, the dollar-CN dollar exchange was so out-of-kiler…it was $.55 USD to $1 CND. Living in Buffalo, NY…I used to drive over to Niagara Falls to eat prime rib for around five dollars; then load up my car with beer and booze for the trip back.
I had wanted to buy a Canadian-market Echo hatchback (today’s Yaris is almost the same car) and bring it over. The emissions standards were almost the same. The instruments were marked both in Metric and English – no problem there. But the official channel of getting legality established was a little murky.
There was a “fixer” in Buffalo who would do this – with funding I’d arrange, his company would buy the car in Canada, import it for me and transfer it to my ownership. The whole cost of getting a new Toyota was going to be around $6500.
The plan got shot down when I got “identified” by Canadian authorities at the Peace Bridge as an “unrehabilitated felon” – I’d had a ticket in New York, twenty years earlier, for “Driving with Ability Impaired.” That was a gray-area alcohol-related offense…less than DWI or DUI. But the Canadians interpreted it as a DUI…and expelled me with an armed escort and a written, acknowledged warning not to ever return.
But, yeah – that Californian got a cheap Honda by going north to shop.
DUI is a criminal matter in Canada. This wouldn’t have been an issue in the past, but we now have a right-wing, borrow and spend “law and order” style government.
Recently, a friend of mine was denied entrance to the USA because he was arrested, and released without without charge an hour later, 25 years ago.
Actually, FWIW…today, I’m welcome back in Canada. The law has changed; however I remain a “person of interest” and am flagged for an interview every time I cross the border.
How do I know this? I worked for two years with CN’s American operations…in Michigan. My job was to bring the daily train over from Escanaba and Green Bay across the bridge at Saulte Ste. Marie.
Haven’t done that in three years…maybe I’ve fallen off the radar. But – from what I learned, unofficially when speaking with someone in Immigrations Canada…the “Zero Tolerance” DUI policy was effectively barring two-fifths of all Americans. So it’s been changed to a “one-strike-permitted” policy – if the offense was more than ten years in the past.
Yeah…right-wing or left-wing…when government ministers get their hackles up, there’s going to be problems. A lot of the new passport requirements and other exclusions are coming from this ongoing pissing-match with the two Customs agencies.
The EL was a great little car and my #1 recommended cheap car at the moment. You get a nice little car that is as reliable as a brick, cheap to run and has a nice interior. A very nice one is less than $5000 while a good one can be had for half of that.
Clearly a badly done badge job. They should have named it the Acura Cimarron. The Lincoln style alphabet soup name does name help its case either. The sad thing is they are still trying to fool people into buying a gilded Civic, except now they call it an ILX. Granted, the Civic is a good enough economy car, but at the end of the day it is still an economy car. Lexus was smart enough to use the Camry instead of the Corolla for its badge jobs. Cadillac learned its lesson, why didn’t Acura? If they wanted to be seen as more than a second tier near luxury brand, they have to do better.
Yup, must be pretty bad when Honda made loads of profit on the EL. Sold lots of cars, too.
GM made loads of profit and sold lots of cars in the 90s too. Ironically much more than Honda. Didn’t they end up needed to get bailed out or something? Please try your best to convince me that Acura is in the same league as BMW, Mecerdes Benz, Lexus, or even Cadillac and Infiniti. The only thing they are equal to is Lincoln, and on a good day maybe Buick. Would you be so forgiving if Toyota slapped a Lexus badge on a Tercel, or if Ford tried to do the same to an Escort? Also I doubt Honda sold more than a few thousand EL’s considering it was only sold in Canada. They are barely selling any ILX’s now. I read in TTAC a while ago that it was handily being outsold by the Buick Verano, which isn’t exactly flying off the lots either.
+1 Like many of GM’s badge jobs, this is a perfectly good car to own and drive but it does nothing to convince people that Acura is a name worthy of being considered luxury or even near-luxury. A V6 Cadillac Cimarron was a great bargain and a reliable car at one time as well, but that really means nothing over the long term. People only remember it as the Cavalier with a Cadillac crest, as people (rightly) will only remember something like this as a tarted-up Civic.
Canada and the US are similar, but there are some differences that allowed a car such as the EL to succeed in one market while being a bad idea in the other.
Americans pay less for new cars than most of the world, for a variety of reasons, which opens up more downmarket opportunities for automakers in Canada and elsewhere. Acura needed a lower cost product for the Canadian market, and a badge engineered Civic was the easiest way to get it. It didn’t seem to do any harm there, unlike the American branding torpedo that was the Cimarron.
Mercedes sells the B-class in Canada, but not in the US, for similar reasons. Offering it in the US would probably be a serious mistake, but it makes more sense for Canada.
Pch101 – That’s definitely true, and I thought I had included something to the effect of “maybe this car can exist within the quirks of the Canadian market for reasons I don’t understand” in my above comment, but I guess not. This certainly isn’t indicative of Honda’s approach to platform sharing, and they usually do a much better job despite Acura having several other ridiculous problems. Aside from the Isuzu Trooper-based and completely forgotten SLX, Acura has never really sold a car like this in the US until now with the ILX – which seems like a much better effort, at a glance anyway. I’m not really that familiar with it.
“Acura has never really sold a car like this in the US until now with the ILX”
The Integra was derived from the Civic platform. From the start, Acura has always had something in its lineup atop a Civic platform. (Presumably, “ILX” is meant to signify that it is a luxury Integra.)
The EL was unique in that it was such a blatant example of badge engineering. I can’t imagine that anyone was fooled by it being anything more than a Civic with a better trim package.
Pch101 – And despite there being some (possible?) sheetmetal differences between the two, I can’t imagine that anyone would mistake an ILX for anything but an Acura Civic whether looking at one or sitting behind the wheel. The Integra/RSX and Accord-based Acuras were clearly much different vehicles from the Hondas they shared their bones with.
Did some googling and found that the best year for the EL was in 2001, they sold 9,073 units. According to Honda, the EL was made for eight years, from 1996-2004, during which time the entire production run was 61,733 units. The best year for the Canadian Civic for the same time period was in 2002, they sold 69,973 units.
In comparison the Cadillac Cimarron was made for seven years and the entire production run was 132,499 units.
http://hondanews.com/channels/167/releases/8c065150-5693-e439-76f8-87004c34c1e2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Cimarron
The EL was Canada only so this is not a valid comparison. The market is one tenth the size. If one were to assume one tenths of the Cimmarons were sold in Canada, that is 1885 a year. The EL was thus doing much better, close to five times.
Yes, there are a lot less people in Canada, so it makes sense that they would sell a lot less cars. However the figure that struck me the most was that more Civics were sold in one year in Canada, than ELs were sold during the entire 8 year production run. I did some math and found over half a million Civics were sold in Canada from 1996-2004. This was roughly 8x more Civics sold than ELs. I also find it hard to believe somebody passed up buying a BMW 3 series or Lexus IS 200 to buy a Acura EL. Most likely the EL did nothing more than cannibalize Civic sales. This was probably the main reason why the EL was discontinued.
Or thinking about it another way, the Civic did nothing more than cannibalize EL sales
In Canada, the EL was replaced by the CSX.
In America CSX is the name of a railroad company
http://www.csx.com/
EL became the CSX which became the ILX. Three names over a 17 year period for essentially the same car.
Dont you have the Trofeo Domani Torneo crap from honda it litters this country and makes great rebar.
The EL uses the Domani front clip. The Domani was just a Civic for a different dealer network in Japan, as were the Torneo and Trofeo special Accords. But the US or Canada never received the Domani or any of the other “side channel” dealer specials Honda made for JDM use only.
The real treat would have been if they’d turned the Honda Rafaga into the Acura EL. That would justify the cost of admission. It was basically a Domani/Civic with the 5 cylinder out of a Acura/Honda Vigor.
I went to Montreal in 1999 and these were all over the place. I had never seen or heard of it prior to then.
I wouldn’t mind having one of these Acura Civics. My only real complaint about my current badge-engineered Corolla is the cheap interior. I’ll have to have a look at my family tree. Perhaps I’ve got some Canadian ancestry…
I’m surprised this car was able to get a US registration, and in California of all places! I know that it’s relatively easy to import Canadian versions of cars that had near-identical equivalents sold in the US, and even though this is 95% of a ’96-’00 Civic, I would think the fact that it’s a model that was never sold here would be grounds enough to exclude it.
I’d love to buy a Canadian Skoda and bring it to the US, but I understand not many are left (most would qualify for legal import, being more than 25 years old). I look at Mexican classifieds sometimes as well and see that there are tons of old Renaults available for ridiculously cheap prices down there.
Sean, I have some bad news for you….I haven’t seen a Skoda since the early 1990’s, when they hit the beater used car market. They were very hit and miss, some were really good but others total junk, just like Ladas. They were advertised at $5988 for the base model, really cheap when the Canuckistani Peso wasn’t worth diddly. They were really popular in the granola set, but these people had no idea of how to take car of them (really easy) as the cars were designed for owner maintenance. The dealer network was often Joes’s Garage type places who also knew nothing about the cars. Parts were also spotty. Too bad because as a disposible car, they were pretty good. About $7000 for five years.
I know, bummer… I found some Canadian Skoda enthusiast site not that long ago which estimated there are less than 70 Skodas left in Canada – most of which are probably rotting away in a field or barn somewhere. Considering where and when these cars came from, they seem remarkably “OK”, but I’m mostly interested in them just because they’re odd and obscure relics, and I’ve always been interested in rear-engined cars.
How about Dacias and Innocentis? Seen any of those lately? There’s a Dacia 1300 roaming the streets somewhere in New York, but I have yet to see it with my own eyes.
Ye gods old Skodas ran in the Heatway Rally here and won their class quite an achievement for a cheap n nasty thing like that. I used to ride home from work on occasion in one the guy loved it he thought this thing was wonderful I was buying a Humber80 a better car anyway I ve ridden in and driven thousands of cars but that Skoda stood out it was bad in every respect rear engine traction yeah it had that but so did old VWs those Skodas didnt get old the rust activated on first startup and was the most reliable component one local surfer got one it was gone in 3 years from new that was in 74 by 77 it was toast his girlfriends beaten 68 Viva a known rust bucket was still going it sat next to the Skoda all its life and rusted slower
I was up in Thunder Bay , ON in 2003 ( my god has it been ten years already ?! ) and while there , I noticed that it seemed that every other car was a Kia . . . . I asked my buddy whom I was visiting about it and he said that they are very popular .I found that interesting. I drove a mid ninteies Kia and thought it rubbish . . .
In northern Ontario, the Kia wagon is king of the beaters. They ran $8000 as late as 2004 and they are all Mazda underneath. They go and go and are cheap and easy to fix. The climate in this area is so harsh that people often buy a disposable car for the winter as there is a long way between towns in this region. Then after five years they are passed on. When I was there last year, there were legions of used Cobalts taking up beater duty. I respect people who look for good, no-nonsense transportation and may drive a lot.
Funny, I live in Thunder Bay and drive a 2007 KIA Spectra, 5 speed manual, bought with 28,000 kilometers (18,000 ish miles) for $9200 CDN tax in. The cost of entry for a car with such low mileage is what lured me in. It has the 2.0 “world engine” and has been reliable as a stone. Nothing except oil changes, and tires. Front end links for the suspension had to be replaced as our roads are horrible. Other than that its a great car, use it for pizza delivery and now has 102,000 kilometers. It has a soft-tuned suspension which is nice for our horrible roads. Due for timing belt/tensioner/water pump service soon, that will be the biggest ‘repair’ to date (even though its maintenance). Happy with my KIA.
I’ve seen that thing before on the interwebZ. It’s called Isuzu Gemini or Honda Domani (if I follow what wikipedia says)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ISUZU_GEMINI5-1.jpg
It looks from the pics like this was taken in the parking lot of an office building, which may explain how it got there. More than a few Canadian tech-sector workers have packed up and moved to the US. Two former coworkers of mine went to work out west, one to Silicon Valley and one to Seattle, and took their cars with them.
As for the car itself, the Acura branded Civics are a blatant badge job IMO. Canadians tend to be spendthrifts on vehicles relative to Americans, for reasons that have already been mentioned, and Honda/Acura is highly regarded in Canada, so the EL seems to get a pass on the “badge engineered” stigma.
Quite the opposite, actually. Even today, Canadians are extremely monthly payment sensitive. The reason Hyundai and Chevy have eaten into Honda’s turf is cheap financing. Honda is not doing 84/0% like Hyundai and GM are so the cheap buyer goes there. The Hyundai has good warranty, too. Cars don’t last long in many places in Canada so cheap is a real selling point. Five years and flog ’em.
Cicra 1999, all cars were absurdly expensive in Canada due to our low dollar. The Civic was heads above the best car on the market but they routinely went out the door at $23k plus. The EL had a nicer interior for only about a thousand more.
You would think the Corolla would sell better than the Civic. In the US, Civics seem to rust out much quicker than Corollas. Of course GM cars seem to be the most rust resistant, but then you sacrifice on the mechanicals. Maybe the Canadians don’t use as much salt as the Americans? Or is it that the Canadians are more style conscious and wouldn’t be caught dead in something as dowdy as a Corolla?
The Corolla also sells well in Canada. The Civic is seen as more fun to drive.
Yes, that makes sense. I’m sure Canada has miles of open road, making fun to drive a bigger factor. It is amazing how different the car markets are considering how geographically close the US and Canada is. I wonder how the Mexican market compares to the US.
Oops, I didn’t mean to write “spendthrifts”, which is the opposite of what I wanted. Replace with “stingy”. 🙂
If I recall correctly, the ELs came with the VTEC motor from the Civic Si that wasn’t available in the Civic sedan. So the premium price also brought a better engine for enthusiasts.
One other thing to mention regarding this car too is that once this came on the market in 96 we no longer got the Integra 4 door that had been sold here prior to that.