The best Honda CRZs may be a subjective opinion at best. However, with each new model released, more and more features were tweaked and upgraded.
The latest two models, the 2015 and 2016, did fail to provide a truly game-changing sports hybrid car that highlighted the qualities many drivers wanted.
Nevertheless, the brilliance of Japanese car manufacturing was highlighted in each successive design.
The price would say so otherwise. At least in the United States. In Japan and other foreign markets, the Honda CRZ sold no problem.
In the United States, this is entirely a different story. Whether it is a lack of marketing focus or just a bad product design for the American market, the Honda CRZ was a “cheap” car compared to the overall price of a car.
But for what you get when you purchased a Honda CRZ, most would say that it’s overpriced when it’s new but attractive when purchased used.
For a 2013 Honda CRZ base model (as shown above) with 115k miles, that would cost you around $8000.
This would be an average price. For a general Honda CRZ market range, it would be anywhere between $5000-$16,000.
It would be tough to buy a new one, which usually sold between $21,000-$26,000. So, we will analyze the used Honda CRZ sales and prices.
In this article, we will discuss how demand and specific CRZ issues made the Honda CRZs so cheap in the used market.
Low demand
Unlike the other Honda products (Accord, Civic), the Honda CRZ was not a very popular product.
As a result, sales are not that great. Demand will follow sales, depreciating the price of the car way faster than other wanted vehicles.
Car Depreciation
In general, purchasing a car will lose you money.
For nearly 99% of cars, driving it off the dealer or lot will lose you 20-30% of its value already.
Combine this with low demand, the Honda CRZ will be a nightmare to resell after 1-2 years.
This is a special case for the Honda CRZ since most other cars will have a slow depreciation, making it seem as though the car can hold its value for longer.
For the Honda CRZ, there is a very steep drop in 1-2 years. Then, it will have its usual steady decline.
But by 3-5 years after production, many drivers will not notice that most of the depreciation already happened years ago. All they see is why is my Honda CRZ so cheap.
2 seaters cars in America
Americans are not a fan of having a 2 seater car. Period.
It’s one thing to be a hybrid but adding an additional condition of being a two-seater car makes it very unattractive to a large portion of car buyers.
Small engine
A 4-cylinder i4 engine has been around since the 1950s. It’s old technology in a modern market.
Americans are not a fan of weak engines.
It’s all about muscle cars, powerful engines – V8 or V12.
Weak battery
This is a mixed opinion but I’ll throw it in.
The 12V battery may have some issues with longevity.
Some drivers get away with 5 years. Some with 10+ years.
Your experience may vary but it should follow the law of averages and remain problem-free.
Hatchback cars in America
Hatchbacks are not popular right now.
Maybe there was a brief surge of popularity back then.
However, the market evolved in the sleeker, wider cars with a powerful engine.
I would even say muscle cars have a strong healthy market in America compared to the hatchbacks.
Expensive repairs
Since the car is not within warranty now, repairing essential parts will cost a ton. And the worse part is that you may not even fix the issue after all the time and energy invested. Drivers would call this the “blackhole” for fixing up your car.
For example, a small clutch fix should have cost around $2000 for a 2011 Honda CRZ. However, this can easily spill over to $10,000+ and the issue is not even resolved yet.
At this point, the driver will need to cut losses and pray something can slip through in order to get rid of his problematic Honda CRZ.
Poor visibility
The 2013/2014 Honda CRZs made major adjustments to fix this issue. So, this is only a problem for the two earlier CRZ models.
Nevertheless, it is something that impacts the price as it makes the driving experience a tad bit more difficult.
Possible AC issues
This is not talked about a lot but the AC system used a mechanical compressor.
This means that performance may be noticeable when the engine is running versus when it’s idle.
Some will say this is an issue because if the engine is idle, warm air will start blowing at you.
This is manageable because the car will only idle-stop when the AC is in economy mode. If you are in normal mode, the engine will not turn idle and will continue blowing cool air.
Conclusion
With all this said, all these factors that drove down the price of a Honda CRZ may actually make it an attractive selling point to purchase a used Honda CRZ.
Think about it.
With so little money investing initially, you can afford to get rid of the car with very little emotional and monetary value associated with the car.
Plus, it’s a lot better than purchasing something two or three times more expensive, used or not.
It’s a value play if you want a 2-seater hatchback with a small engine and great fuel economy. Despite what Honda wants to market towards you as a sports compact hybrid car, it’s a daily commuter that gets the job done at a very affordable price.
And although many issues were stated about what can possibly go wrong with your Honda CRZ purchase, most drivers will have a problem-free CRZ with very minor issues. I would consider this a plus.
What most of your Honda CRZ research may entail is people complaining about the price and that alone can really distort the person’s opinion even though he/she may actually enjoy the car.
No one likes to lose money so rapidly especially with a fun little car like the Honda CRZ.
