One of my Hondas should be sold off. I can't decide which.

TL; DR - We have too many cars and something has to go. It's either the ratty CRX or the decent EP3 Civic Si. I flip flop on this decision daily so I'm looking for opinions.

Long-winded version follows:

Our fleet has become pretty much unmanageable these days as car #9 showed up a couple months ago. The wife isn't about to give up anything on her side of the ledger so if something's going to go, it's going to be from 'my' stash.

The two most likely candidates:

1988 CRX Si. I'd probably ask $2500 and take $2K if I'm lucky. High miles, rusty but not too far gone. Koni/GC coilovers, cheap header and loud exhaust. Rides hard, a hair too low to be very practical. Leaks from valve cover gasket. No A/C. I do enjoy driving it because it makes me feel 17 again and every kid in town pulls up next to me in their primered Integras wanting to race till they see the middle-age driver in the CRX. I have practically no money in this car which is nice.

2002 Civic Si. I'd ask maybe $4K and hope for $3500. 120K miles, box stock. Year-old tires, new battery, new brakes, new clutch, new idler pulley. Starting to make new sounds which might be the water pump starting to go. Minor exhaust leak at the manifold. Paint is starting to come off the hood and above the windshield. Throws CEL for knock sensor which I can't find and/or get a wrench on and/or turn said wrench. Quiet, comfortable, not particularly quick or fun but a perfectly adequate commuter.

The grown-up in me says ditch the CRX before it turns into a money pit and while it still has some semblance of value. I like the cars, I enjoy driving this one but it's not really an ideal car for someone who's old enough to be the father of most CRX drivers these days. Stick with the Civic, act like a responsible grown-up and enjoy A/C and cruise control and decent stereo.

The cheapskate in me says I can realize more money by selling the Civic, which carries a materially higher insurance premium than the CRX (both insured as low annual mile cars). While I worry about eventual parts availability problems with the CRX, drive that until it becomes a real headache sometime down the road and replace it with something similar to the Civic that doesn't carry a Si insurance penalty (early Mazda3 perhaps).

I'm not looking to get rich, just need to free up a parking place and chip a couple bucks off the insurance tab. There's no timeline for anything to happen but if both cars are still around in the spring the Civic will probably be more likely to stick around just because it has air conditioning.

The rest of the fleet is made up of mostly impractical cars, none of which we want to part with or are prohibitively expensive to keep around (many Miatas, Honda Fit, my derelict MGB and the Ram truck).

Sell both, buy S2000?

Not much interest in a S2000. Just need something with a roof for my brief commute and occasional rides elsewhere in cold/yucky weather. I already have two cars for that, but I only want (need) one.

Keep 1988 CRX Si. It's awesome, different, and fun. Enjoy the fun cars in your life when and while you can. Sell the boring one. There will always be boring cars to replace it with. But first-gen CRX Si's have become unicorns. If you sell the other one, you won't miss it. It you sell the Si, you'll be kicking yourself for a looong time.

It's not a first-gen.

What about selling both, and perhaps some others. Pooling the money and buying something different?

Side-grading to a mazda3 won't net you much in insurance methinks. The ep3's didn't suffer the standard SI insurance hike due to it being the unloved stepchild of the SI family. That being said I'd say sell the ep3, especially if you have a fit already. The CRX sounds like it has a special place in your heart.

I would ditch the CRX. The potential $1500 gain of selling the newer car isn't worth the risk that something serious on the CRX will crap the bed and effectively render it valueless overnight. Sell it now before that happens and use some of that money for maintenance / upgrades on the Si.

I think you should dump the CRX. They still seem to have a following and you would probably have a better shot of selling that than the breadvan SI.

Let me address some of the very welcome suggestions

lnlds wrote: Side-grading to a mazda3 won't net you much in insurance methinks. The ep3's didn't suffer the standard SI insurance hike due to it being the unloved stepchild of the SI family. That being said I'd say sell the ep3, especially if you have a fit already. The CRX sounds like it has a special place in your heart.

Insurance savings is almost real money. Yes the 02 Si isn't a 99 but it's still one of the more expensive cars in the fleet to insure, more than the Ram or Fit which are not insured as low annual mile cars. I've asked my agent about insurance on a 06ish Mazda3 and it seemed a bit more reasonable, though not by as much as I'd like.

Also, I'm not that enamored by the CRX. It's loud, uncomfortable, smells bad in warm weather. But it is much more in line with what I enjoy driving (bare basic no-frills transportation). I suppose I could easily source less brutal springs and raise the ride height a bit. If I do sell it I doubt I'd ever get another, and I do have a soft spot for these cars in general (the '87 Si I had back in the 90s is still in my top three or four of best cars ever owned).

foxtrapper wrote: What about selling both, and perhaps some others. Pooling the money and buying something different?

I don't want to give up anything else in the fleet. Historically when I've owned cars, I've kept them till they fell completely apart, so selling a running car is a fairly foreign concept in the first place. As for getting something else, nothing out there really piques my interest, at least not enough to make me want to give up something in the fleet now. We recently picked up a '08 MX5, our first NC, so the new car itch is being satisfied for the time being and nothing is on the horizon. I joke with the wife that I'd like a C5 Vette convertible, but that's still something I don't have to have for many years down the road.

The civic sounds boring. Sell it and make the crx more fun!

To clarify, what will the remaining car be used for? My thought is sell both and sidegrade. Rsx, celica, mazda 3, etc. As you don't seem in love woth either car.

Sell whichever is the slowest one

jacked

sanman wrote: To clarify, what will the remaining car be used for? My thought is sell both and sidegrade. Rsx, celica, mazda 3, etc. As you don't seem in love woth either car.

Commuting. The CRX is approaching a halfway decent STS autocross build and will probably do a few of those a year. The Civic won't.