- Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:56 pm
#99126
For your first Civic I would recommend you find a stock DX.
The DX is cheap and easy to find. It has many features not found in the VX and CX, like multi-stage wiper speeds (CX and VX have the legal minimum of only 2, quite annoying), tilt wheel, rear wiper, sound deadening, and other things I'm forgetting. The DX engine lends itself to high compression mini-me swaps. Or you can get an aftermarket cam and a turbo charger for a better result even than the Si VTEC engine.
The Si is nice but heavier, more expensive, and much harder to find unmolested. Watch out for a leaky/rusted sun roof. The Si has power mirrors, power windows, power door locks, and cruise control. It has a SOHC VTEC engine (consequently making B series VTEC swaps virtually plug n play). The transmission has much better gear ratios than any other model Civic which accounts for much of it's speed advantage.
The VX is a great model being that it comes with a tach like the Si. It's wired for VTEC but all 92's and the federal models have a 5 wire O2 requiring a 4 wire O2 conversion. It has some exclusives like a lightweight alloy engine mount and alternator mount. Lightweight flywheel and a rear diffuser. Problem with the VX is they're hard to find, they have the most driveability problems (any tiny little vacuum leak or modification causes hiccups), and they are the most expensive to maintain (the non 93+ CA models at least) due to the expensive 5 wire O2. The VX engine does not lend itself to any kind of modification due to the very concise tuning in the ECU and the tiny throttle body.
The later models have some revisions to the fuel filter, valve cover, etc. The 94, 95 are a slight bit nicer but it may only be noticeable to people who really know these cars inside and out, upside and down.
I have a VX but I swapped the column for tilt wheel; and I swapped the black box inside the fuse box and the combination switch for multi-stage wipers. I may add dynamat one day to decrease road noise. Right now I'm actually working on swapping in OEM cruise control and power mirrors.
