I have a 1974 Ford Maverick. It’s about as typical a commuter car as you could possibly find from the period. Driving it around in modern traffic isn’t exactly intuitive. It has non-assisted drum brakes on all four wheels that require a hearty shove to work. My girlfriend has trouble exerting the needed amount of pressure on them when braking. It has clumsy steering, with a solid 10 degrees of play in the wheel before the steering box reacts.
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It’s slow, ponderous, and clunky. But this is how people used to get to work! Or I should say, it was how people used to get to work before the Honda Civic landed. Launched in 1973, that car changed the way we drove.
Walking up to our cheery Caroline Yellow test car, a 1975 model, one can’t believe that such a tiny package is actually a functioning car and not just a toy. The wide expanses of glass invite you to look around the airy cabin before you’ve even opened the door. Its gerbil-like silhouette rides on dinky 12-inch rims. I can imagine American car buyers of the 1970s approaching the little Honda with some skepticism. But I can’t imagine their reactions to how well this car drove, or the kind of fuel economy it delivered.
The Civic was a cosmically right car for the times. Earlier Hondas (1964 through ’72) were novelties, full of fascinating engineering, but lacking in real-world usability. After toying with complicated and tiny air-cooled projects like the Honda N600, Soichiro Honda finally set his sights on building something for the masses.
The Civic had nearly twice the displacement of the Hondas that preceded it, and outwardly, it was significantly larger. It could comfortably achieve American highway speeds, and it could seat people in the rear in moderate discomfort for shorter drives. But most importantly, as the OPEC oil embargo reached its crescendo in 1973 and ’74, the Civic got an honest 40 miles per gallon – about 7.0 L/100 km – in real-world driving. This was in a time when even the most frugal of American cars struggled to eclipse 20 miles per gallon.
And in the real world, the Civic sparks joy. With just 52 horsepower on tap, it is expectedly slow, but the bright yellow paint and adorable proportions make me very happy. Hyundai Elantras tower over you at stoplights, and first gear runs out before you’ve even cleared the intersection. But compared to my ‘74 Maverick, the Civic feels 10 years ahead in terms of driving experience.
The ride is comfortable but controllable, without the signature waterbed wallow of contemporary American cars. The rack and pinion steering isn’t Type-R precise, but it is a world of improvement over the worm-and-roller type that was common back in the day. The ergonomics of the car feel natural, too, as if someone actually paid attention to where a driver’s legs and arms were going to be, a radical concept for the mid-1970s! All the controls have nice, even weighting.
You’d think something this puny would have trouble keeping up with traffic in the modern world, but it really doesn’t. Admittedly, although I pulled off this test drive around southern California, I didn’t try the Civic on the famously ferocious 405 freeway, but it accosted itself well on quite a few 50-mph roads. I’m sure with just four gears on hand, it would get a bit buzzy at 75 mph (120 km/h).
But overall, I was taken by the refinement of the experience. It doesn’t feel tinny like a 1960s Japanese car. It feels a lot like a miniature Citroën ID: refined, well-made, comfortable, and unhurried. Unlike the hot hatches that would follow in about a decade’s time, it doesn’t feel particularly sporty, and it doesn’t really like to be hustled. It’s not a sports car.
Hyundai Elantras tower over you at stoplights, and first gear runs out before you’ve even cleared the intersection—but the Civic nevertheless feels 10 years ahead of its time in terms of driving experience
The lack of fuel injection is really the only part that betrays the Civic’s true age. It just lacks a bit of the low-end smoothness and ease of starting the later injected cars have. But frankly, it’s a miracle this car has survived at all! Even for the standards of the 1970s, the Civic was a prodigious ruster. It was the subject of a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit and a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration safety bulletin for rust. A total of 936,000 first-gen Civics were subjected to a rust recall, as the front fenders were rusting out within three years of use.
Our test car actually still has the sticker on the door jamb indicating the rust inspection had been performed on this car as part of the recall action. Today, finding an early Civic that isn’t rusted out is quite the feat. And the American Honda Collection Hall has two.
Located near Los Angeles in Torrance, California, the American Honda Collection Hall is a living museum of Honda’s history in the U.S.A. The collection contains roughly 60 cars spanning Honda’s entire history, from its very earliest models to significant modern cars like the 2021 Acura NSX. It even contains concept cars that never made it to production, and dozens of historic Honda motorcycles.
A small but dedicated team with American Honda Motor Co. keeps roughly 30 of these cars ready to drive at the turn of a key. It’s a rare treat to be able to drive cars from a carmaker’s history: Porsche, Mercedes, and Jaguar have excellent classic programs. Honda’s rival, Toyota, has a large collection of historic cars in Texas, but those are only for display and cannot be driven. Kudos, Honda, for making this history accessible!
If you want to check out the collection in person, you can visit the AHCH for free during business hours in Torrance. Honda also puts on a very popular “Cars and Coffee” event at this location. The C&C is usually on the morning of the third Saturday of every month, but double-check their website before you head out.
Driving the Civic, it’s easy to see why it became such a smash hit. Despite its tiny size, it’s roomy inside and quite comfortable. Its thoughtful design allowed it to maximize interior space and minimize fuel consumption. On the road, it’s agile and easy to drive. It makes you want to drive it until the wheels fall off — which some owners surely did, due to the aforementioned rust issues.
Like listening to a band’s very early albums, the sound is there, and you can really see where the modern Civic comes from. The Civic changed what we expected from “ordinary” cars; it set new standards. Call it a small car that made a huge impact.
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