Good morning! We’ve got a short week this week, so we’re already a day behind. I’ll keep this quick. We’re going to do three pairings, and then play “track, daily, burn” again on Friday. Sound like fun? Good; here we go.
Friday’s runoff elicited a rousing “meh” from a lot of you. Others welcomed the opportunity to vote on some decent cars for once. I figure if some of you are disappointed, but some of you are happy, it’s a wash, and I’m doing all right. The Volvo 850 won, but it doesn’t sound like anyone was super-enthusiastic about it.
Me, I’d take the Ford Escort, and check with junkyards in Canada for a set of non-motorized seat belts and corresponding interior trim for it. I really like those cars, except for those dumb passive restraints.
Lots of cool things came out in 1983: The Police’s Synchronicity, Return Of The Jedi, and the Tamiya Frog, to name a few. But it wasn’t a great year for cars. The bleak time of poor build quality and emissions-choked engines known as the “malaise era” was winding down, but not over yet. American automakers were playing catch-up with a group of modern front-wheel-drive imports that were taking over the streets, with mixed results. Today, we’re going to look at one of those imports, and one of the domestic challengers. Here they are.
1983 Honda Accord LX – $2,500
Engine/drivetrain: 1.8-liter OHC inline-4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Portland, OR
Odometer reading: 500,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
The farthest-traveled man-made object is the Voyager 1 space probe, which has covered about sixteen billion miles since 1977. No other object is likely to beat that mileage, especially not a car, but if one were going to, my money would be on a Mercedes-Benz W123, a Lexus LS 400, or a Honda Accord. This second-generation Accord has already been to the moon and back, and it’s still going strong.
The engine propelling this car to such heroic mileage is a 1.8-liter four-cylinder, which drives the front wheels through a five-speed manual gearbox. It’s a one-owner car with a salvage title, and I imagine whatever happened to ding the title happened when it was fairly new. At this age, for this price, it hardly matters if there’s a brand on the title. It runs and drives well, and the seller says everything works as it should. Here’s a fun fact: I believe these engines have a timing belt change interval of 60,000 miles. If it has been changed regularly as it should have been, it should be on its ninth timing belt. Not many cars can say that.
Nothing lasts forever, though, and this car’s interior definitely shows its age. The driver’s seat is not original; I imagine it was replaced because the original seat simply wore out. Even this one is looking a little threadbare. But overall, considering its age and mileage, it’s remarkably well-preserved.
The Accord’s greatest natural enemy is rust, but this one seems to have escaped it. It’s in excellent shape outside, and there’s no sign of whatever damage caused the branded title. Someone really took care of this car, and I love to see it. I only hope the next owner keeps it up just as well.
1983 Mercury Lynx L – $6,500
Engine/drivetrain: 1.6-liter OHC inline-4, three-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Odometer reading: 58,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
You know how sometimes when someone says that something is seven years old, and then they follow it up with “that’s like 49 in dog years?” I think there’s a similar thing going on here. At first glance, this early Mercury Lynx hatchback seems like it’s low-mileage, but in, say, Honda years, its 58,000 miles is a lot more. Maybe not half a million, but a lot. Let’s just say early ’80s Ford products age a whole lot faster than early ’80s Hondas.
The Lynx was Mercury’s version of the Ford Escort, which in the early days was powered (barely) by a carbureted 1.6-liter version of our buzzy little friend, the Ford CVH four-cylinder. The transmission in this one is Ford’s ATX three-speed automatic, giving this car a 0-60 time longer than the average Neil Peart drum solo. The seller claims this one was only driven to church by an elderly woman, so depending on how far away that church was, it might not have even gone 60 very often. It runs and drives fine, and has had a lot of recent service work.
The Lynx was always a little fancier than the Escort, and this one actually looks pretty inviting inside. The seats are in great shape, and the only wear and tear I see is a few iffy spots in the carpet. It has air conditioning and cruise control, fancy stuff for an economy car in 1983. I have no idea whether the cruise control works, but the seller says the air conditioning is getting serviced next week.
Outside, it’s in better condition than any Escort or Lynx I’ve seen in years. I’m sure it was garage-kept. I’m pretty sure the wheels have been repainted, but they do look good. The seller says the tires are getting replaced next week too, which would make it a good time to paint the wheels. I’d check for rust underneath, just because of where it is, but I wouldn’t expect to find much. I get the feeling Granny didn’t drive in the snow.
As much of a champion as I am of US domestic vehicles, I freely acknowledge that there’s a reason the imports were beating the pants off them in the early ’80s. Still, it’s a rare treat to see a car like that Lynx in such good shape. I have a feeling I know the answer, but which one of them do you like better?
I’ll be the nutter who lights $6500 on fire for a mint Mercury. It deserves to be shown. For no other reason than it’s a reminder of the mundane cars that got the job done. Slowly, but done.
Nearly that exact Accord, an 82 in Honda Red, was my first car. So many memories. Got mine at 241,000 in 1993, drove it until Aug 1995 when it was taken to the junkyard at 269,000.
Amazing cars. Not great in the sand, and can take being buried into a snowbank with four teenagers in it. Also easy to pull out of a snowbank with a John Deere.
My first car was an ’85 Mercury Lynx. It was my grandma’s summer house car so she could fly in and have something to drive. Black, gray interior, automatic, AM radio, A/C, and the 1.6L HO (!) engine.
She gave me the Lynx as my first car in ’91. So, the car was 6 years old at that point and had 60k miles BUT:
Already had an engine rebuild (burned oil)
A/C quit working
Rust was bubbling through on doors and rear quarter panels
All brakes and suspension had already been replaced.
It was 100% gutless.
So, based on that memory, it doesn’t matter how clean one can be, they are garbage. That Accord is the better buy.
Honda did somehow carve out a styling identity out of the Era of Box, and this one is a great example. Also stick. And Honda. So I voted Accord-ingly.
So much more optimistic than the next year’s model, the 1984 Honda Orwell.
I’m not afraid of half-million mile cars. My El Camino had 500K on it when I bought it in 2000.
While I’ve never owned a Honda, this one being a 2-door hatch and a 5-speed seems like a good place to start.
Manual. Looks good even at 500k except for the driver seat (not hard to imagine). Honda vs Ford-ish. Yeah, I’m taking it to 1mil.
We owned the Escort version of the Mercury with the three speed and it couldn’t climb the hills around here without a running start! I’ll take the Honda. I have no use for it, really, so it may not see another timing belt after I change it initially, but it’ll be a fun story.
My ’79 Pinto probably had that same 3-speed auto…fuck, that thing was slow.
$6,500 for a wheezing 1980s badge engineered econobox? No, Lynx! Bad kitty! That’s a bad goddamn kitty!
The novelty of owning a 500,000 mile car for $4,000 less won me over.
I owned a very slow car with a three speed slushbox and y’know, it wasn’t terrible. Got me where I needed to go.
I adored those Accord hatches. But realistically, if I’m gonna have to live with a car and have it get me places, I’d prefer the comfort (and likely functional A/C) of that seemingly very overpriced Merc.
Accord all the way. For like, a dozen different reasons. Price, manual, Honda, insane mileage that is past the threshold of concerning and into the area of legend… the list goes on. The Lynx sucks, even if it’s a slightly more accommodating version of the trash-ass Escort of that era.
If the Lynx had a manual, I’d consider it, but with the auto, forget it. If you’re fortunately young enough to never have experienced early 80s domestic econo cars, you may not realize how uninspiring they were when equipped with the autos of their day…you’d push the pedal completely to the floor, and it was driving a locomotive, not a car.
That “split torque” automatic was the worst. It had the ability to split the torque to the wheels in half. I had an ’82 Escort with the “high output” engine and close ration 4-speed, which made owning it bearable.
I see 500k as a badge of honor and as a calling to never let it die. Accord is the easy win.
It may be worth $6500 to someone who managed to make some great memories in the backseat (I’m not sure how that’s possible), but for the rest of us a crappy car teleported into the future is still just a crappy car.
Accord for the novelty of it. Drive it kindly and send it to the junkyard the moment it breaks.
I used to have a Mercury Lynx. I paid $500 for it. There’s no reality where a Mercury Lynx should bring $6500, no matter how minty it is.
Accord. I would take as a mission from God Almighty to get that odometer to a million.
This Accord is somewhat iconic and a good car for its time, but I cannot imagine spending another 500k behind the wheel of it.
If that’s a mission from God, then it’s a mission of punishment and repentance.
We all have our crosses to bear.