The iconic Honda Civic “Bullet” hatchback.
The “EG” hatchback doesn’t need an introduction to enthusiasts, does it?
Being super popular globally, the Civic EG was an early forerunner of the ‘cheap speed’ philosophy that helped Japanese cars make their mark on the tuner scene.
From B-series engine swaps to the K-series, this platform has become a staple of the Japanese tuner scene, a platform just as notorious as the EF-generation and EK-generation that came before and after the EG.
I happened to see this Civic enter the same mall I was going to, initially assuming it was a sedan with a hatchback front bumper. Turns out I was wrong.
It is a well done-up Civic with a Spoon outlook – colors and parts.
It houses the Spoon spoiler and SW388 wheels, whether genuine I cannot confirm.
Excuse me for nerding out a bit so I can drop what I know:
Corner lights could be Stanley items. What Stanley refers to are the manufacturer of the headlights, and their name will be stamped on the lens of the headlight.
Stanley are generally the Japanese market OE-Manufacturer for headlights, so they’re something to look at when restoring a Japanese market car.
Additional things to note would also include that the corner lights can look different from other markets and remanufacturerd items. For example, JDM Stanleys are clear corner lights, whilst USDM are partially clear and orange, EU are possibly (needs research on my end) full orange lens, and so on.
Remanufactured parts are unlikely to stamp the JDM equivalent unless it is done on purpose.
Overall, this does also apply to taillights, fender signal lights and so on. Any reproduced part will likely not possess the same stamp, but that’s if you’re incredibly detail-oriented to a fault about OEM parts and want your car to be 100% OEM. Feriko probably has a reproduced EG9 spoiler, and the foglights I bought for her definitely aren’t the originals.
Rear seems to have taken a shove, but the parking sticker is nice. I’d like to refer to this car as a project car in the works.
This particular EG – if it is one – did not have the “floating” headrest front seats, instead a conventional OEM-looking reclinable seats. They would be either a
very interesting pair
of EG front seats, or Integra ones. By now I cannot recall.
As mentioned previously, there are reproduced parts for this generation of Civic. Because of how popular the platform is in Malaysia, reproduced bumpers and other parts are readily available on e-commerce platforms. It also includes spoilers, foglights, lights, and others. I cannot verify that all parts on this Civic are originals, but it looks the part.
The muffler doesn’t look like a genuine Spoon item or any design that came from Spoon, I will assume it to be something else.
Some trivia: these generation of Civic were also assembled locally by Kah Motor, otherwise known as CKD. This was
before Honda relegated them as a dealer and opened its own production plant in 2003 for future models.
For those not in the know, CKD and CBU are two terms used generally in Malaysia to refer to vehicles. CKD,
Completely Knocked Down, refers to a vehicle that is imported in parts and then assembled locally. CBU, Completely Built Up, refers to a vehicle that is imported in full, and does not require local assembly.
Vehicles that are CKD have the benefit of lower import duties and taxes, which can mean more competitive pricing as the cost to import is lower. However, in some instances be it true or false, CKD cars may have poorer assembly than the domestic-assembled vehicles.
CBU cars would be equivalent grey imports or parallel imports in some cases. Unless the manufacturer has an assembly or production plant, most vehicles would be imported as a built-up vehicle.
This can apply even for Malaysian-market vehicles for some manufacturers, but in the case of the EG-generation Honda Civic, the CKDs would normally be the Japanese-market cars like the SiR and the CBUs would be the local assembly Civics.
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| Malaysian-market (& local assembly) Civic, unknown trim spec (EH2). |
Regarding the VIN tag, Malaysian-assembled Civics will use a “Redtag” VIN plate, the model code designated as SR3/SR4. This designation does not change on the plate whether or not your Civic is a hatchback (SR3) or saloon (SR4).
The chassis code generally starts with “EH”, as compared to the Japanese market “EG”, but the EG term like many others in the Honda community has been used interchangeably for different market models. Most of these local-assembly sedans and hatchbacks tend to be “EH2”.
Kah Motor offered two trims on the Civic: 1.5 and 1.6 EFI. Both were available as automatic and manual, on both body styles.
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| Japanese market (grey import) Civic SiR (EG9), w/ customized replacement tag |
Japanese domestic market models use the same location as the redtag for their VIN plate, referred to as the “Bluetag” for its blue-dominated plate color.
This entry is not a buyers guide, but I will advise that should you want to buy your own Civic in Malaysia, the VIN tags can be easily switched out for other tags, almost always can the tag be changed into a more desirable (and inaccurate) VIN tag. Check the firewall at the engine bay to see the actual VIN of the car.
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| Malaysian-located Civic (unknown tag) |
What confuses me is that I have seen silver tags and green tags on some Civics of this generation, I will be updating this entry accordingly when I get the relevant information.
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| Thailand-market (& local assembly) Civic, unknown trim spec |
Brown/Black tags are Thailand-assembled Civics. These are located where the other local-assembly cars have their tags. The chassis numbers normally start with “CVC”, but I do not have knowledge on what specifc model like “EH2” are for these Civics.
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Singaporean-market Civic ESi (EH9). Image credit: SGCarMart |
Export markets such as European, United Kingdom and Singapore receive export market specifications.
Their VIN tag are also blue, but feature more information and overall larger size compared to the tags that are housed at the front bumper support (Redtag and Bluetag). These equivalent D-series engine specifications would bear the “EH9” chassis code.
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Export market VIN of a Singaporean-market Civic VTi (EG9). Image credit: |
Generally, any Civic of this generation with a B-series will only be a EG6 or a EG9. Trim differences is incredibly confusing and because of the interchangeable usage of the VIN terms to recognize body styles, this information on the web is more haywire than it will ever take anybody to correct the entire community about.
European, United Kingdom and Singaporean-market VTis (regardless of body style) are equivalent to the Japanese-market SiR.
These export market cars receive a variant of the B-series dubbed the B16A2. More information can be dug online or in my
magazine writeup of Feriko
.
Any other trim and chassis code does not have the B-series engine, the rest having different variations of the D-series.
Anyways, returning to my civic duties in Penang, this Civic Ferio seems to have moved even lesser than Feriko has. Judging by the amount of dust caked on the car that has seemingly started to decolor the paint, its sat here for much longer.
Anyways, returning to my civic duties in Penang, this Civic Ferio seems to have moved even lesser than Feriko has. Judging by the amount of dust caked on the car that has seemingly started to decolor the paint, its sat here for much longer.
I’ve covered this car before in a different entry, and it is definitely a bit bothersome to see it like this. But at least it isn’t left to rot in the open like most cars in Malaysia would have suffered.
Anyways, I’ll update the pieces of trivia above at a later date. For now, over to you, me in another entry.
~Efini
Read More: Penang: Nosing around in June
