The other day I was goofing around on Wikipedia, and for some reason I bumped into the entry for the Ford Pinto, a completely little econo-car from the 70's. Perhaps more significant was that it was one of my very first cars. So I decided to make a list of all the cars that I/Kristie & I have owned. I started looking for pictures, and that's how we got here.
1986 Honda Civic Si
When Kristie and got married we had my EXP as "my" car and she was driving her parent's lovely white Ford Granada. This car just simply would not do for a young and thriving couple, just recently unleashed on the work place. At the time, she was looking for the career job, but working a department store. Then the big event happened and in October of 1986, she got her job with the I.R.S. and big bucks were rolling in. So naturally, we "had" to buy a car.
The sting of mistakes that had happened a couple of years prior were still fresh in my mind. The EXP, while a nice enough car, was not what we "should've" chose. Plus the whole lease thing was dumb. So with tremendous focus and analysis, we had narrowed down our choice to two different cars. Kristie really wanted a VW GTi, which had a new model out in '86, having dropped the Rabbit moniker. I had decided that we must have a Honda (the best car there was at the time...) and we could afford the ultra cool Civic Si. She wasn't enthusiastic about the Civic, as it was a little pedestrian in it's reputation and the GTi was all cool. But, by her own admission, she wasn't nearly as knowledgable about cars as I was, so she would defer to my choice. But my personality was (and still is) to do just about anything for her that would make her happy, so we decided to look at both cars.
We went to the VW dealership first and did the obligatory test drive. This place was a standard Colfax dealership, still selling cars the old fashioned way. The salesman came with us on the test drive. There was all the "how much can you spend a month" nonsense. We had to "meet the manager". All in all, it was the car-buying experience that did the VW in...not the car itself. So we escaped there, impressed with the car, but not the dealership and headed over to the Honda dealership.
It was a complete breath of fresh air. The price was on the car, no negotiation needed. Test 
drive? Just take it for a spin and let us know what you think. No hassle, no nothing. But even more importantly, Kristie loved that little car. It was sporty and nimble, but very comfortable. The Si was the top of the line Civic, so it was loaded (by '86 standards). Sun roof, cassette stereo, nice interior and it drove great. So we bought it. Paid $8500 for it...no hassle. Got the loan through the credit union. About the only negative I could ever utter was that I really wanted a white one! (Honda dropped the white Si in '86, but brought it back in '87...)
drive? Just take it for a spin and let us know what you think. No hassle, no nothing. But even more importantly, Kristie loved that little car. It was sporty and nimble, but very comfortable. The Si was the top of the line Civic, so it was loaded (by '86 standards). Sun roof, cassette stereo, nice interior and it drove great. So we bought it. Paid $8500 for it...no hassle. Got the loan through the credit union. About the only negative I could ever utter was that I really wanted a white one! (Honda dropped the white Si in '86, but brought it back in '87...)And all in all, this was probably our favorite car. We got the windows tinted, put some nice sheepskin seat covers on it and it was awesome. It was Kristie's car during the week, but it was the car that we drove whenever we were together. I drove down to Dallas while she was in training down there, and then we drove it down to Austin from there. That was a quick little car. It was also the car that we drove Kelly home from the hospital in...it was a sweet little car. We held on to this car for quite a while, until sometime in '91, when we needed some cash and a pickup truck.