My Esteemed Esteem

[Eye of the Tiger]

I went on a little photoshoot today...


Here's my '98 Esteem wagon at Ft. Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth, Maine:



That is Portland Headlight in the background, the oldest lighthouse in Maine.


















Here it is parked in front of the Casco Bay Bridge, which crosses the Fore River, connecting South Portland to Portland. The bridge was just built in the mid 90's or so... it replaced the old drawbridge called the "Million Dollar Bridge".




















And now for some interior shots...


















How many cheap econo cars have a nice organizer on top of the spare tire? It also has several hidden compartments in the trunk area, very nifty.





And the awesome powerplant. A 1.6L SOHC which cranks out an astounding 95hp!




Here's the giant hole I cut in the airbox... now I'm sure it makes 95.3hp!!!

[Pancor]

Life in the fast lane is nice, isn't it?

[The Pirate]

Badass! 

[Payman]

I like the homemade "flame-surfacing" touch you added to the l/h doors. 

[TheIntrepid]

Oh true. I didn't even notice that. WTF did you do?

[Eye of the Tiger]

Oh true. I didn't even notice that. WTF did you do?

Oh, I didn't do it... as I recall, my dad had an encouter with a guardrail.

[TheIntrepid]

Nice.

So you're living with him now?

[The Pirate]

How's it handle?

[the Teuton]

Do I smell a turbo kit coming soon? 

It looks pretty nice.

[The Pirate]

Hehehe, it's got less hp than my car. 

Though it probably has more torque. 

[Eye of the Tiger]

Nice.

So you're living with him now?

Yup.

How's it handle?

It's lightweight, has soft suspension and skinny 13" tires... the ride is comfortably firm, it ain't perfect, but it's reasonably well-balanced and the steering actually has quite a sporting feel to it, even if the steering ratio isn't all that quick. I haven't really pushed the limits too hard yet, so I can't really say too much about the handling, but it seems well suited for driving on the bumpy, winding roads of Maine.
The brakes work.
The engine is obvioulsy nothing spectacular, but revving it up doesn't produce too much objectional NVH (or power for that matter); actually louder than the engine, is the wine of the transmission; there's nothing wrong with it, it jsut does that. The lack of power is also mitigated somewhat by some fairly close-ratio gears, which makes shifting more fun as well, which is good, because a lot of shifting is needed to keep it going.
I have always liked the feel of the rod-actuated shifter as well. It has somewhat long throws, but it has a solid, decisive feel to it. The effort is a bit higher than usual, but I consider that better than the artificial, flimsy feeling of many cable-operated levers.

Do I smell a turbo kit coming soon?

It looks pretty nice.

I have researched this possibility in the past, but the fact is, any more than 5psi on this motor and gearbox would cause serious problems. For the foreseeable future, nothing major is planned in the engine department.

[Eye of the Tiger]

Hehehe, it's got less hp than my car.?

Though it probably has more torque.?

Power is 95hp @ 6000rpm, and torque is 99lb-ft at 3000 rpms.... I think you got me beat 

[The Pirate]

Hehehe, I'm rocking 106hp and 103lb-ft of torque.


You just need to get a tach in there.  My car didn't come with one either (DX model), but I grabbed a gauge cluster from an EX off of eBay, and popped that in.  Honda gauge clusters are plug and play, and the necessary wiring for the tach is already there.  It's just a matter of installing one that has a tach.  Couldn't be easier.

[Eye of the Tiger]

I think a tach is pointless in this case. I like my 90mph speedometer anyway, it makes me feel like I'm going fast. 

[nickdrinkwater]

Cool.  Looks like a useful little runaround.

It is called the Baleno in the UK, IIRC.

[Eye of the Tiger]

Cool.? Looks like a useful little runaround.

It is called the Baleno in the UK, IIRC.

Yup... I actaully had to join a UK-based Baleno forum, since there seem to be no Baleno/Esteem "entusiasts" in the US.

[Raza]

Bastard. 

[Raghavan]

I like the dents.

[Eye of the Tiger]

Bastard.?

That seems a bit uncalled for, don't you think? 

[the Teuton]

IIRC, the magazines actually thought it was a decent small car.  It'll work.

I am surprised how much space is under the hood, though.  Were there any other engine options in Japan?  Also, what options/features does it have?

[J86]

nice!

[TBR]

That is iffy's dream car right there (and I am not being to sarcastic either, last year he was looking hard for one).

[Eye of the Tiger]

Moved to Mainstream!? Foiled again!!!? ?

IIRC, the magazines actually thought it was a decent small car.? It'll work.

I am surprised how much space is under the hood, though.? Were there any other engine options in Japan?? Also, what options/features does it have?

It's a GL.. which means it doesn't have much as far as options. A/C and a tape deck were probably the only options. Of course, I had to replace that with a nice Sony Xplode Cd player.

Up til 1998, the 1.6 was the largest engine available. There was also a 1.3L (maybe even a 1.0?) in the 3-door hatch model sold in Europe and other places. After 1999, a 120hp 1.8L engine became optional.

That is iffy's dream car right there (and I am not being to sarcastic either, last year he was looking hard for one).

Really? I've never heard of anyone trying to look for an Esteem before.? ?:P

[ifcar]

That is iffy's dream car right there (and I am not being to sarcastic either, last year he was looking hard for one).

I only look hard for cars when I need one. Sometimes they just turn up and hard hard to turn down (I thought an Esteem wagon I found last year might be one of those, but the seller wouldn't budge from an obscene price) and other times I'm on deadline and get what's available.

I'd hardly call an Esteem a dream car, but it's definitely underrated.

[TheIntrepid]

That is iffy's dream car right there (and I am not being to sarcastic either, last year he was looking hard for one).

I only look hard for cars when I need one. Sometimes they just turn up and hard hard to turn down (I thought an Esteem wagon I found last year might be one of those, but the seller wouldn't budge from an obscene price) and other times I'm on deadline and get what's available.

I'd hardly call an Esteem a dream car, but it's definitely underrated.

[Eye of the Tiger]

[280Z Turbo]

Do I smell a turbo kit coming soon?

It looks pretty nice.

Yeah I smell that too. Smells like smoke and ethylene glycol.

[cawimmer430]

You must have a very high self-ESTEEM to post this here! 

Nice car. We got the same thing as the Suzuki Baleno here in Europe and when it came out, I actually liked the design of the car because it was something fresh and different from the various Japanese mainstreamers here which all looked alike. This car looked different and it also good decent reviews if I remember correctly.

[TheIntrepid]

I remember in India we used to have one of these...except it was badged "Baleno Altura"...it was pretty nice.

[the Teuton]

You must have a very high self-ESTEEM to post this here!?

I actually liked the design of the car because it was something fresh and different from the various Japanese mainstreamers here which all looked alike. This car looked different and it also good decent reviews if I remember correctly.

I actually thought that it looked like a plainer Impreza back in the day, and I still do.