TurboWarrior said:
They can't be compared. Im sure we've all driven a civic. lol
Maybe I'm missing the point of this arguement, but this is how I see it:
As far as I recall, we're trying to compare apples and oranges here... the MkIII, originally in today's money, is something like $50000 CAD to buy? A Civic is what? 20000 CAD for the top of the line, today?
Stock for Stock a civic should get blown apart in performance by a Mk III, and especially a MkIV. As for what's done beyond stock is dependant on the skill and/or dedication of the owner, and the size of their wallet.
I'm very confident to say there's many guys with Honda Civics out there that know what they're doing, and do what they do quite well and would put to shame many MkIII owners. But since civics are cheap to get in the door, I'm sure the rest is self explanitory as to why they get such a bad rap.
From the factory, the MkIII was originally a sports car, is a sports car, and will always be a sports car.
From the factory, the Civic was an economy car, is an economy car, and always will be an economy car.
If you go out and buy a Civic sport model, put in a bigger engine, turbo, all the bells and whistles... you STILL have a car that was originally designed to be bulletproof reliable, get awesome milage, and be reasonable to drive... except now it's probably very few of those things, and blisteringly fast.
I think my point is that I would personally rather have a sports car that was designed to be a sports car rather than an economy car that was bread into a sporty hatch by popular demand. Making a 10 second civic, albeit an amazing feat of automotive modification, misses the point of what makes the civic a truely awesome feat of engineering: reliability, affordability, and dependability. A civic will always command my respect for what it was designed by Honda to do, rather than what the tuning niche does to bastardize a large majority of them.
To me, the measure of a car is what the company that designed it put into it, not what the end-user can get out of it for many times more the cost of the original vehicle. You can make anything run 10 seconds with enough money. But, look at the MkIII: People not in the know still mistake them for a new car, they still run strong after +20 years, they're still competitive to drive, mod, and have fun with. Even stock, they're still a good car. Coversely, a 1987 Civic does what it was designed from the factory to do: be reliable, dependable, and affordable. They're both great cars at what they were designed for.