The title of this recently-shot streetscape would have been “Suddenly It’s 1996”, but just as I snapped, a gen3 Escort shoehorned its way into the shot, announcing: I didn’t appear until the fall of 1997! Ok, spoilsport. So let’s see what 1996 really did look like, from the other direction.
I suppose strictly speaking, it could the fall of 1995, when this generation Civic appeared. Now someone will tell me it’s a later model year because of the wheel covers or something like that. Ok; go ahead and be a spoilsport.
I’ll be that “spoilsport. Those wheel covers didn’t appear until 1998 on the Civic.
I own a similar 97 Civic, it’s silver, and have found 2 different 1st gen Subaru Legacys in my area in the last month or two…both with a claimed near 100,000 miles. They look kind of interesting but suspect they are still (for better or worse) FWD and not AWD. Still….
Actually it could still be suddenly 1996 as the 1997 Ford Escort and Mercury Tracer went on sale on May 23 1996
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/02/automobiles/behind-wheel-97-ford-escort-vs-chevrolet-cavalier-dodgeneon-sizing-up-small-cars.html
Gen3 Escorts, once everywhere, and that sporty coupe (XRT?) based on them seemed to have completely disappeared in my parts. Seemed like they were made until the early 2000s. I rented quite a few, as I advoided the Metro/ Aveo class like the plague, they were pretty darn nice and competent despite a little soft riding. Really shinned on the interstates, and always had cruise in rental spec.
ZX2. Sedans continued least through 2001 for fleet sales only and ZX2s were available a year or two longer than that and even got an extra facelift.
Yep. The ZX2 was marketed as the coupe alternative to the then-new Focus ZX3 hatchback. The older car had an inferior chassis and design, but far better build quality.
I’m probably the least competent person to judge rental cars; for example, I really like the Captiva with the Ecotech 4 and six speed. It has a Honda like vibe. It’s great for bombing around the dirt roads in Kansas, even takes mud, and handles well and feels tight. It’s mpg is Tahoe poor, though- mid teens when flogged.
Having had one or two, I don’t think I have EVER seen a photo of an Outback Sport / Impreza of that age with a full complement of matching hubcaps.
They seem to fly like watermelon seeds at a Fourth of July picnic.
Subarus of that era frequently lost their plastic hubcabs. On my 1990 Legacy Wagon it got to the point where I just bought the 2/$10 sets at WalMart.
Exactly! When I swapped my ’00 Outback Sport wagon for a ’01 Forester, my mechanic was curious why I bothered to trade it for basically the same car again. But I had a perfectly good reason: the Forester came with alloy wheels!
If you pay attention to it, you’ll see that Ford Contour/Mercury Mystique had the same issue. I just ran my Contour without them. The dark grey steelies looked pretty good against the light silver-blue metallic paint.
Certainly not 1997 in the midwest – no Buicks, Panthers or pickups.
Another cool photo and believe it or not, but Subaru hubcaps fit on my 95 Voyager just fine and I never had one fly off.
VERY occasionally I see one of these Escorts on CL in my area (north Florida) while ZX2s are almost what could still be called common….unfortunately, 99.999% in my area are automatics.
The Zx2s got the Zetec engine which was hard to kill. the regular run of the mill last generation Escort/Tracer got the SPI/SOHC 2.0 engine which was known for dropping valve seats without any warning. It did not matter if you took excellent care of the car or ran it like stink it still dropped the valve seats at some point between 70,000 and 130,000 miles and ruined the engine. this is also the reason it is rare to find a 2000-2004 Ford Focus with that same engine running about because they did that also.
If you run a Zetec out of gas enough times, it will eventually hole a piston.
(Don’t ask me how I know…)
the ZX2’s look like a scale model of a Mark VIII in profile. they were decent handlers for the time and segment.
They also had a junior first generation Lexus SC vibe. Some of the later ones I rented seemed to have some real guts, there must have been an engine upgrade in their model run.
I always looked at them and saw Autozam (Mazda) Clef:
Well let’s see ~
1996 eh ? O.K. , a 1946 Chevy 3100 parked at the curb , a 1953 Split Window VW ‘ Zwitter ” DeLuxe Sunshine Roof Beetle in back amongst the rest of the old VW’s….
BMW /2 and /5 Motos in rows , including Captain Kirk’s (EDIT William Shatner) LWB ’73 R75/5 , all gone now .
Breezing and wheezing to work in a 1960 36HP Beetle was fun , my Son about to graduate High School top of his class .
-Nate
heh…looks like Casa del Steve about 5 years ago: where you could find a 98 Civic hatch and a refrigerator white, ex-fleet Escort.
The Escort sedan was available for fleet sales through 2002. All the little touches the civi Escorts had, like the cloth inserts on the doors and slightly more colorful upholstery were gone. Plain grey, with black dash and wheel. Forget the valve seats dropping. On first start in the morning it developed a bearing knock that would wake the dead, but then was fine the rest of the day. Dumped it at a used car lot. I watched the lot’s web site to see what they would ask for it, but it never showed up. Either they had someone who was looking for an Escort, or they heard the bearing knock the next morning and dumped it at auction.
Yes, that Civic has the 98 or later wheel covers. I also had a 97, which had a different style, and the 96 had 13″ wheels instead of the 14″ they wore from 97 on.
Neither the Escort or Civic ever threw one of their plastic wheelcovers as the lugnuts held them on. I haven’t replaced the cheezy OEM Bridgestone tires on the Jetta as I’m waiting for the plastic wheelcovers to pop off and get themselves lost, so I’ll have an excuse to get nice wheels with the better tires.
Amazing how small that Rabbit looks next to the Civic and Subie. There used to be a pic on the German VW site with a gen 1 Golf and the new Golf head to head. So, now the Polo is the size of an old Golf. In another 15 years will the Polo grow so much that they have to introduce a new, smaller, model….oh wait, they did.
BMW and Audi certainly have model-creep. Not to be confused with using creepy models…
BMW and Audi certainly have model-creep.
When it comes to the Golf, creep isn’t the word. How about “marathon run”?
1980 Rabbit
length 3950mm
width 1620mm
wheelbase 2410mm
2015 Golf
length 4255mm
width 1790mm
wheelbase 2637mm
for the un-metricated, that’s a foot longer length, 6.69″ wider and 8.94″ longer wheelbase.
for fun: 1st gen Dasher/Passat
length 4190mm
width 1600mm
wheelbase 2470mm
Achtung ! The girls are looking for friends !