You can normally spot an amphibious car a mile away. They tend to sport obvious boat-like features such as a curved bow, a propeller, or a certain bulbous shape to ensure buoyancy. In the case of this Honda, it actually looks exactly like a boat. However, you will be very disappointed if you attempt to drive it into a body of water.
Listed on Facebook Marketplace in Alabama, this vehicle quite literally appears to be a boat on wheels. We’re told it’s based on a 2002 Honda Civic with 224,000 miles on the clock, and even better, it runs and drives. It’s had an old 1970s AMF Crestliner boat dropped on top, and it comes complete with a big outboard motor hanging off the back!
For just $3,200, you might be getting excited. This looks like a whole lot of laughs—it’s a Honda Civic you can drive right into the lake, right? Well, no. Facebook Marketplace is rarely so generous.
Sadly, despite the way it looks [And despite my top graphic – Pete], this mashup of sedan and speedboat is not seaworthy. The owner doesn’t go into great detail, merely telling us it “does not float.” Take this thing to your local boat ramp, and you’re going straight to the bottom. You’ll quickly learn how friendly other boat owners can be.
That leaves us with a big question: Was this intended to be an amphibious vehicle, but it failed? Or was this just a cosmetic build for the fun of it? I’ve reached out to the owner for more information as it feels like either could be plausible.
On the one hand, it looks like some attention has been paid to sealing the tail lights into the body of the board, and there are some buoys on board. At the same time, there are lots of obvious tells that this thing is not a viable watercraft.
On the port quarter (left rear in the photo above), we see a cutout panel that would be right on the water line. It’s held closed with a cheap barrel latch, and the panel is not sealed in the slightest. It’s likely an access hatch for the fuel filler, given that this build is based on a 2002 Civic, which has a fuel door in this location.
Other problems are abundantly clear, too. The Civic front end is prominently in front of the bow, which would create a ton of drag in the water. The headlights, too, are mounted low in a position where they’d be completely inundated with water. The Civic’s original exhaust is also very low on the car, and it would fill up with water immediately. The chances of getting water into the engine seem incredibly high.
It does look like fun, though, and it looks better from some angles than others. A Civic is more fun with the roof cut off, even if it’s got the structural rigidity of a wet bag of Cheerios.
Is this a good buy? Old Honda Civics are reliable, and we’re told this one has good heat and working AC. At the same time, it’s been butchered to hell, and everyone who sees it will be disappointed that it doesn’t go actually have any amphibious capability. I’d say its only real value is as a silly Lemons racecar or a destruction derby entry. Still, if you’re simply dying to be the center of attention at every stop light, it’s hard to imagine a cheaper way than this.
If you buy it, you’re contractually obligated to fill me in on what it’s like in the flesh. Have fun out there.
Image credits: Facebook Marketplace; Hanna Barbera
I ran Hot Rod Drag Week this year. Someone did the same thing with a turbo charged BMW and quite honestly was a much better job. Room for four and all safety equipment to run it down the drag strip.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/myc9hC-ws0Q
I thought the worse boat / vehicle ever must be Cybertruck?
Why wasn’t this a choice on Shitbox Showdown?
I think usually there’s an at least attempt at creating tension in the choice, even if under the aegis of the author’s self-delusion. Here, it’s a one-way trip from Poseidon’s place to Hades’ hangout.
Best car ever though.
I think this explains it all
https://youtu.be/LpVDbg0esHo?si=lmNaeF-RCUuQ9Bok&t=3
whoa. i wish it wasn’t rotoscoped so we could know for sure!
I highly recommend Waking Life, great movie
I seriously doubt that the boat windshield provides any rollover protection.This thing can’t (or shouldn’t be) street legal.
That is what the fishing rod is for.
So? Please refer to Jason’s previous article: https://www.theautopian.com/we-should-have-the-right-to-put-ourselves-in-danger-with-our-cars/comment-page-1/
You’re not wrong about the street legal but most convertibles don’t offer much rollover prevention
Actually, they do. First, there’s the windshield. Then, if you look at the seats in many of them, there’s usually a set of roll bars behind the last row. On the 911 convertible, there are rollover bars that pop up if the car tips too far over.
So weird. Why have heat/AC if there’s no top? Is it street legal? Why have front and rear lights without a license plate? Do you sit on the sill and swing your legs over to get in and out? I can’t say I want one but now I definitely want to climb on it.
All I can say is “Kudos, you lunatic.”
Driving a convertible top-down on a chilly day with the heat blasting is a ton of fun.
I agree, also a light rain in the midwest on I70 with the top down was one of my best driving experiences,
That time that there was a freak snowstorm that put a foot of snow in the car with the top down, not so much.
But when cold turns to summer in Phoenix and the heat can’t be turned off, it isn’t a ton of fun. That’s when I found out it was stuck in my ’67 Sunbeam Alpine.
Lol. I had a V8 swapped CJ5 and the genius who did the swap used a radiator from a 4.3L chevy v6. It was fine driving around normally but if you were wheeling in low range, or stuck in traffic, you had to turn the heater on and watch the temp like a hawk.
It seems to depend on the state. I’ve seen street-legal boat cars in Indiana and Florida. It seems so long as you have lights, mirrors, and DOT tires you can get away with some properly wacky stuff in many states.
Now, I cannot comment on the insurance part. I’m not sure how GEICO would react if it found out you crashed your Honda Civic and surprise, it was really a Crestliner with a Civic buried inside.
There was a boat/car running in Drag Week this year, and you have to have a street legal car for that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT2ebgPbzRs
Top shot has dark rocker panels and front bumper, in the rest of the shots they are white.
Did they do this to two Civics or did they actually paint it?
I don’t need an aerospace engineering degree to tell you that this is not very hydrodynamic. The buoy does give it a more nautical feel, though.
And I don’t need to be a rocket surgeon to know that there is no buoy on this vehicle. I do see a life preserver, but a buoy is by definition immobile, and this car is still capable of moving on land.
Edit. Now I see the white fishing buoys on the B-pillars. Snark retracted.
Rule of Amphibious vehicles:
If it can go 40 MPH on land, it can’t go 40 MPH on water.
If it can go 40 MPH on water, it can’t go 40 MPH on land.
UNLESS you’re the Department of Defense, and you can throw billions of dollars at it.
WaterCar would like a word. Their Panther does 80 mph on land and 45 mph on water. WaterCar holds 27 amphibious related patents as well as the Guinness World Record for the fastest amphibious vehicle.
https://www.watercar.com
80? Not on a public road.
Clearly, one should always follow posted speed limits. Having said that, it can do highway speeds and does go up to 80 or 85 mph on the road and up to 45 on the water.
No state in the union is gonna issue a set of road plates for that. And no insurance company is going to underwrite it.
They’re made in California and of course they are street legal. Here’s one for sale with Texas plates and boat registration.
https://watercarforsale.com/
I’m sure this one can go 40 MPH anywhere, when VTEC kicks in.
My parents had a Crestliner/Evinrude combo of that vintage at one point, and my brother had a Civic of that vintage at one point. What a missed opportunity.
Those buoys on board appear to be a single boat fender cut in half and then placed over what’s left of the B-pillar which is probably still sharp as hell after being sawzalled. 10/10 would totally put on a Spongebob costume and drive this thing.
Are you ready, kids?
Aye, aye, Captain
I can’t hear you
Aye, aye, Captain
Oh
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
SpongeBob SquarePants
Absorbent and yellow and porous is he
SpongeBob SquarePants
If nautical nonsense be something you wish
SpongeBob SquarePants
Then drop on the deck and flop like a fish
_______________________________________
Spongebob’s car boat is the first thing that came to mind. It doesn’t float either.
Well yeah, he can’t drive, unless it’s a sandwich.
This is just boat-tail styling carried to an extreme. Been lots of boat-tail cars in history and none of them floated either.
If the outboard runs (or is at least easily repairable) this is totally worth it.
I like it somehow. Although, the Honda Odyssey would have been the better basis.
I don’t know about the Odyssey, but this Civic certainly seems out of it’s Element. It is more of a Prelude to a boat. It would fit in at the Del Sol marina, though.
I wonder what it would be like to Pilot this thing? Wouldn’t want to try taking it over any Ridgeline, might need a Passport for that.
Thanks to all for their Insight on this topic
The powers Accord by the DMV may or may not allow this
You may be right but I still want to Pilot this vehicle.
Edit. I didn’t realize this one had so many entries. I see that Pilot is already taken.
I think we can all agree that this vehicle would be interesting to drive, even if it doesn’t provide a feeling of FaHR-Vergnügen.
A Legendary Concerto of model names, bravo.