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EP3 daily living with an ep3

H

HarveyR

Messages
8
hi, I'm new so hello all.

I'm looking for a car for my partner as a daily driver..... she currently has a tired 306 rallye and an upgrade is long overdue ! before this I come from a multiple mk2 golf gti background, but my tinkering days are all but over. We just want an unmodified fun reliable daily now.

We drove a facelift ep3 for the first time last night, which seemed on first impressions more comfortable than I was thinking it would be.

We are in our later forties now and mellowing a touch.... My first question has to be, how are they to live with on a daily/comfort basis in terms of niggles and ride quality. Is a civic for us ?

Any thought appreciated.
 
HarveyR said:
hi, I'm new so hello all.

I'm looking for a car for my partner as a daily driver..... she currently has a tired 306 rallye and an upgrade is long overdue ! before this I come from a multiple mk2 golf gti background, but my tinkering days are all but over. We just want an unmodified fun reliable daily now.

We drove a facelift ep3 for the first time last night, which seemed on first impressions more comfortable than I was thinking it would be.

We are in our later forties now and mellowing a touch.... My first question has to be, how are they to live with on a daily/comfort basis in terms of niggles and ride quality. Is a civic for us ?

Any thought appreciated.
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Hi mate - welcome. In short, a Civic is for everyone! I have an 05 facelift with a lot of suspension mods and it’s fine as a daily for me apart from speed bumps which you won’t have trouble with. The VTEC k20’s are pretty much bulletproof and nothing on mine has let me down in 2 years apart from a headlight fuse. Check underneath and if needed get it undersealed - I got mine done for £100 so not expensive. Great fun to drive when you want to open the taps and pretty sensible the rest of the time. I recommend.


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I use mine daily and its on lowering springs. I dont have an issue personally. She loves fuel mind.....
 
Ok, positive so far then. I drove another one today..... and their reason for selling..... too uncomfortable :D
 
I've got one as a second car but no worries driving it daily. It's actually more comfortable than my main car and the cabin is a nice place to be even on longer journeys.

Thing I like is it's like having two 2 cars. Pretty comfortable and relaxing to drive when you take it easy and then open the taps into VTEC and you've got a race car for the road. Ideal really


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today's test drive was a little restricted in speed terms, but it drove extremely well and smoothly at lower speeds and was a pleasure to drive. Only one blip up to 6000rpm on the busy roads, so difficult to access the higher speed drive ability and smoothness. At 5.5K for a super tidy 69k miles car with a few slight faults, it did seem a tad pricey though. Now to view one at the other end of the price scale
 
HarveyR said:
today's test drive was a little restricted in speed terms, but it drove extremely well and smoothly at lower speeds and was a pleasure to drive. Only one blip up to 6000rpm on the busy roads, so difficult to access the higher speed drive ability and smoothness. At 5.5K for a super tidy 69k miles car with a few slight faults, it did seem a tad pricey though. Now to view one at the other end of the price scale
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Where are you finding all these EP3's?There must be quite a few in your area. Theres 2 that i know of for sale in mine.
 
HarveyR said:
today's test drive was a little restricted in speed terms, but it drove extremely well and smoothly at lower speeds and was a pleasure to drive. Only one blip up to 6000rpm on the busy roads, so difficult to access the higher speed drive ability and smoothness. At 5.5K for a super tidy 69k miles car with a few slight faults, it did seem a tad pricey though. Now to view one at the other end of the price scale
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Ive had mine since 101k. It now has 135k on the clock 5 years later and with all the bits ive replaced its a better car than I started with. It drives as well as the day I got it and although a tad more creaky and squeaky in the cabin due to age the engine is faultless. I picked it up for 3k and if i wanted to sell it tomorrow id get 2.2k for it easy.

If i look on auto trader for anything else in that price range nothing comes close. To me this indicates a decent buy.
 
There seems to be quite a few about. Is the face lift really the one to have ? I see there's a noticeable price hike between the two and it's the one that's attracting my attention atm.
I'm looking ideally for cosmic grey, aircon, super tidy, full history and hopefully big jobs like clutch/camchain done with plenty of receipts to back it all up. Hopefully not much more than 100k miles and Standard. Prices seem to be between £3000 and £5500 fitting my requirements...... Whats a realistic price ?
 
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Cosmic Grey are facelift only but I prefer the look of them, not that there's much difference really.
 
Not going to lie. While I love my ep3 i wouldn't agree with it being a plush soft drive. Depends on the roads near you. Here in Poland where they spend the bare minimum on repairs the ep3 sometimes has issues with ride quality. It also has an issue with tram lining on divets
 
Not recently. You may be right though, not going to argue that there may be something that could be swapped out to improve.

I'll have a look and see.
 
Have to say, I find it hard. I'm on OEM suspension and whilst it's good fun, it can get annoying around towns etc. Faster roads it's fine. Also at motorway speeds the gearing is still quite short, so it tends to be most happy to cruise around 65, as your near 4k at 80 ish...
 
pdtrewern said:
Also at motorway speeds the gearing is still quite short, so it tends to be most happy to cruise around 65, as your near 4k at 80 ish...
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Agreed i've always thought they could have made 6th a bit taller for the motorway. There is enough torque to pull it. And to be honest who does top gear roll ons in an Ep3 when you can just drop down 2 gears instead.
 
I've driven a few now, but still not found the one. It's amazing how different they can feel from car to car ! Some feel great and others can feel awful.... with a common theme to most being overpriced :D.
 
Ninja9 said:
Agreed i've always thought they could have made 6th a bit taller for the motorway. There is enough torque to pull it. And to be honest who does top gear roll ons in an Ep3 when you can just drop down 2 gears instead.
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You have to drop gears because there's none of this torque you speak of :lol:
 
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