This ’81 Civic 5-door was found in Amsterdam by Corey Behrens, and its condition is remarkable. Even more so when it turns out it’s a Hondamatic equipped one; Honda’s unique semi-automatic transmission.
The Hondamatic chapter has already been covered at CC a while back. The short scoop is, upcoming Honda knew it needed a self-shifting unit to lure more urban buyers into its fold. Due to previous patents, using planetary gears was not an option. Brief talks to get Borg Wagner involved quickly stalled, and Honda decided to go about it alone.
Honda’s new semi-automatic featured gears on parallel axes, with each having a dedicated clutch, hydraulically controlled. Shifting was achieved by sliding the gear selector, from first to second (more details in the link further below). The original Hondamatic ceased production in 1988, though the name remained alive in company print for full automatics.
The 5-door Civic hatchback was never offered in the US, though a nifty wagon was. It was the featured star on our dedicated Hondamatic post.
Curbside Classic: 1978 Honda Civic Wagon – Five Doors And Two Speed Hondamatic.
Nice survivor ! .
I hope someone who drove a Hondamatic will tell us how it was .
-Nate
I drive a 1980 Hondamatic today. Shifting is fun and the engine likes to be at 45 mph before going into 2nd. Still pulls strong at 75 mph too.
Thank you Sir ! .
How many C.C.’s is the engine ? .
I well remember driving those early Civics with four speeds boxes, much fun to drive .
-Nate
If I recall correctly, most Civics of that generation had a 1500 cc engine. The base engine was 1300 cc.
fact- the Honda 10 speed is their first automatic to use planetary gears. The 6 speed and automatics prior were all self shifting manuals.
The 5 door hatch was never officially imported to the U.S., but I have seen a few JDM cars brought over. My brother and a buch of our friends worked at an independent Honda shop, and used to rebuild those Hondamatics all the time. Very clever design. What used to take them out was shifting from forward to reverse (or vice-versa) while the car was still moving.
This is one of those cars where Canadians got official options, models, or body styles withheld from the States, and the 4 door Civic hatchback (in both 1st and 2nd generation car, and the second gen Civic). We did let the four door sedan and the funky fife-door wagonon later body styles, but no four door hatch for decades to come.
Lots of hatchbacks offferend in the grate white north that didn’t make stateside, the z99 and 99 Saab 5 door, tne 5 eoor 323, and nore variations of saab 86, 89, or 9000, Same for Mazda Turbos.and low-end 323s too,
I had a very clean ’75 Civic wagon with Hondamatic. I can compare it to an earlier CCVC four speed coupe. The CCVC car was perfectly adequate in every traffic situation. The automatic could be started out in “high” and left there, but acceleration was very slow. Or you could start out in low and then shift to high at around 35 mph. Acceleration was better, but still very slow. It would easily cruise at 70 mph. once up to speed. I drove it out to Fresno over the Pacheco Pass and as long as I didn’t get stuck behind a slow truck it cruised at the speed limit. On another occasion I drove it to Sacramento from the South Bay and it was fine.
The biggest and scariest problem was merging onto the freeway. There were many times when I knew that I couldn’t get the speed up high enough to merge safely. Then I would have to come to a stop to wait for an opening. Bay Area drivers don’t understand that, so I often had to pull onto the shoulder to avoid being rear ended.
Around town it was fine, San Jose has lots of 50 mph. expressways, but those were never a problem. The Civic wagon was extremely versatile with four doors and a big hatchback. All it needed was more power.
Honda actually used a similar type of transmission on their four cylinder 750cc. motorcycle for a time. I had experience with those earlier five speed 750’s, they probably had more power than that Civic! I imagine that it was fine for that application.
The “Hondamatic” transmission in the Civic was not the first automatic transmission from Honda; that distinction goes to the Kei-class 1968 N-series. Fully automatic, four forward gears, also branded Hondamatic:
https://global.honda/heritage/episodes/1968hondamatic.html
The original Hondamatic as used on the N360/400/600 and later on the Civic and others was dubbed “three-speed” by Honda, because in addition to its two actual gears, the torque converter also locked up, which gave an effective reduction in gearing, albeit a rather modest one. It’s generally referred to as a two-speed automatic, which is relatively more accurate.
I worked in a transmission shop for a long time, the Honda automatics were interesting with no plantetary gears, they always worked well. Shifting fron reverse to drive or vice versa while still moving was hard on them though. Shouldnt do that with any automatic really
A friend of my father’s in Montreal in the 1970s bought a first-generation Civic – a Hondamatic because that was all that was available.
She was of Spanish/Italian descent, raised in Egypt, and had always driven manuals. One day soon after purchase, she saw a traffic jam ahead on the expressway and went to shift from fourth to third. This put the transmission into Park, and the car came to a screeching halt.
Fortunately… nobody hit her, and after breathing deeply for a few seconds she was able to put it back into a forward gear and head off with no apparent damage.
So cool to see one of this generation. I keep looking for either an ’80 or ’81 wagon as I had an ’80 wagon, which was a neat 5 speed to drive, but no luck.
Sad that the ‘5 door” never hit the US market.
Automatics were much more expensive in 60/70/80s Europe. They were bought by careful owners – it seems their survival rate is better compared to their manual equipped companions even though they sold less.
Looking at the registration, this Honda is a recent import. It probably did not have to endure our harsh (salty) winters.