I met a guy with a 98 Civic EX. It is stock except for the Si look-alike wing with LED brake light, it is lowered about an inch still on EX caps, and has intake and header. He claims that his car has no V-TEC and he went into this "Honda history" story about how the 98s built between Sept. - Dec. 97 didn't have V-TEC. I tried to tell him that all EXs have had V-TEC since 1992. He would not believe me. However, after seeing my car he wanted to trade. All my car is is a 1991 base hatch with a few minor door dings, 3 minor hail dents and overall clean with no accidents or thefts. My Spoon radiator cap and resevoir covers along with the chrome Type-R Honda oil cap and Spoon shift **** impressed him. I added the Si cluster and I have the full console including the accessory console. The dash clock was added along with rear speakers. THe black tail garnish was replaced with the red one, 16 Valve rear decal added and the OEM Honda chrome exhaust finisher (tip). It has the vinyl seats still (I cannot find blue interior that looks good and will not go to the trouble of changing everything) with the usual wear on the driver seat (patched) but still very noticable. It is a blue metallic with black bumpers. I have 130,000 miles and the car has never been driven hard (always adult owned before me). I also have the following new: head gasket, o2 sensor, cv shafts, oil pan gasket, 4 tires, spark plug wires (NGK), and a K&N filter.

I don't know the history of his car or if it is on it's last legs, but if it had those mods and a missing CAT (he bought it used with no cat and had to add one to pass inspection), it was probably beaten on hard for a while. It is silver and a 5-speed with all power. My whole thing is him not realizing that he has V-TEC. His: 127hp vs. Mine: 70hp. That is a big difference.

What do you guys think?

 

Here is a simple solution: Take off the valve cover and see if it is VTEC. If it is, don't tell him and trade him anyway. Tell him you are looking for valve train wear or something stupid. It sounds like he is stupid enough to believe you.

 

Just look for a VTEC solenoid. Question answered.

I wouldn't trade it just because something about it makes him sound shadey.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 4drEF &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just look for a VTEC solenoid. Question answered.

I wouldn't trade it just because something about it makes him sound shadey.</TD></TR></TABLE>

correct I double that notion!