The Illusive Honda Civic Shuttle: Perfection in Simplicity
Wondering why your next build should be an EF wagon? Let us remind you.
Automotive enthusiasts from all sides of the spectrum seem to have an unusual obsession: wagons. “Normal” people never seem to talk about wagons as if they descended straight from the sky into people’s driveways. However, every time a sweet wagon seems to come along, everybody always fawns over them. What is wrong with us? Are wagons really that cool? We aren’t exactly sure we have the complete answer quite yet. However, we think we can understand at least one thing about this obsession. Wagons are unique and usually standout among their boring in comparison sedan and coupe peers. The only thing that would probably interest us more than a standard wagon would be a Shooting Brake. Please Honda, put one of those into production and we’ll all collectively foam at the mouth.
So, remind me again why we don’t see EF wagons getting the same amount of love as the hatches and sedans? Well, doing a local Craigslist search might provide some level of clarity. Right now, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, there not a single EF wagon listed for sale. Interestingly, there was only one EF for sale within 100 miles of Los Angeles, a hatch. The car that was listed was in such poor condition, it would barely pass as a donor car or shell. See the problem? It seems the shortage of these fantastic vehicles has made builds featuring them more uncommon than we would wish.
However, after seeing these two stylish 4th-generation Honda Civic Wagons (aka Civic Shuttles) featured on Speedhunters, we think there has never been a better time to find one of these unicorns and go all out. Why? Because they are oozing with style, practicality, and are just straight-up fun to drive. Honda’s involvement in Formula 1 at the time of production graced all EF-generation cars with double-wishbone suspension as standard. This meant quality, performance-focused ride characteristics for the whole generation. Nowadays, good luck finding anything with this style of suspension geometry on anything that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
So, does this mean you have to spend every nickel and dime you have to make an EF wagon look good or perform well? Far from it. You’ll notice the cars featured in the article aren’t the craziest builds you’ve ever seen. However, that is in part the point. There is beauty in the simplicity of a build as well. Having a $10k air suspension to match your custom $2k a pop wheels doesn’t make a build special necessarily.
Let’s not forget, the whole point of the EF wagon is uniqueness- a personal sense of style. Nobody has them, we all seem to love them, and everybody wants them. They don’t come up often, so when people find them, deals usually go quick. So while there might be a million different ways to build a car, there is no wrong way to build an EF wagon. Want to swap a turbo K-series and make 500 WHP? Perfect. Want to keep it 100% stock and just keep it looking nice? Why not? Regardless of the path you choose, we’ll tell you one thing. If we saw your Civic Shuttle on the street as we were driving by our reactions would definitely be along the lines of “wow, look at how sweet that EF wagon is!”
Photos/Speedhunters
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