OK, so I'm in the process of buying a '97 Honda Civic LX sedan in Florida (actually, just about finished, I put the plates on her on Monday.)

Anyway, I was doing some research, and realized that my VIN number starts with "2HG" and the factory code is "H". So from what I can tell, this means that the car was built in Ontario by Honda of Canada.

So, I'm wondering if this makes any difference in the "big scheme of things". The online parts places seem to break things down by country a lot....I can't but think that the parts meet some sort of Master Specification made by Honda and don't change.... much.

In short, have I bought a USDM car? Or a..... CDM car? Or should it be NADM?

Does it make any difference?

...and to get all of the obligatory jokes out of the way, will my car start saying "Eh?" and automatically drive me to the nearest hockey game?

Actually, that last one isn't a problem (Go Islanders!)

Anyway, it's not like I'm NOT gonna buy the car, and since it's got a Florida title, it obviously meets whatever standards are required. I'm just curious if there are any quirks I should know about.

Regards -

R.T. Perry

 

no difference.

 

Its still a USDM car, a large portion of civics are built in ontario, but they are all built to meet the specs of the country they will be sold in. For example civics built for the canadian market have daytime running lights and the gauge cluster is in KM/H. So no you don't have anything to worry about.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94EG8 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">...but they are all built to meet the specs of the country they will be sold in.</TD></TR></TABLE>

So.... when I go online to buy a part and it offers me a choice of "US" or "Canada", I should choose the "US" one even if my VIN would indicate I should pick the Canadian one? (for exactly the reason you've outlined?)

Of course, most of the time, they're the same part number....but still.

Thanks for the info!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PerryRT &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So.... when I go online to buy a part and it offers me a choice of "US" or "Canada", I should choose the "US" one even if my VIN would indicate I should pick the Canadian one? (for exactly the reason you've outlined?)</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes. Just as an example my '94 civic sedan was made in japan, and while I could try to look cool and say it makes me "JDM as fack" its still a canadain civic built in japan to canadian specs.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PerryRT &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanks for the info!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Your welcome.

 

It's a USDM Civic. It's nothing out of the ordinary.

'96-'00 USDM Civics were built in the US (East Liberty, Ohio), Canada (Alliston, Ontarioo) and Japan (Suzuka, Mie Prefecture).

Coupes were all built in the US.

Hatches were all built in Canada.

'96 sedans were built in the US and Canada and '97-'00 sedans were built in the US, Canada and Japan.

I even made a chart here (bottom of first post).
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=2055230

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NOFX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It's a USDM Civic. It's nothing out of the ordinary.</TD></TR></TABLE>

...which is exactly what I was hoping. This car is going to be my daily driver and I'm planning to keep it bone stock except possibly some upgrades to try to increase gas milage, so a larger potential parts pool = A Good Thing.

Kinda like the tooling question I posed earlier, the point is that I want this vehicle to run (with reasonably maintenance input on my part) for a long time.

Thanks!


P.S. Nice chart, btw!

 

Sounds good to me. Glad I could help.

You might also find this thread to be of help.
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=2059889

Check gassavers.org too. You can track your gas mileage there.