As a college student, I was looking for a car in October 1998. My requirements in a car were something small, two-doors, not a sports car (insurance reasons), and under $10k. I was looking strongly at several 1996 Honda Civics for around $8K. All had around 50k miles and appeared to be in good condition. I was upset when I drove one and found that it didn't even have power steering! I was told by the Honda dealer that only the 1996 EX had the power steering and that was at least 2-3k out of my price range. I almost got a tercel, but decided than I did not want an automatic and certainly not with an 88hp engine. I found several cavaliers and test drove one. I was impressed by its standard features. I got a 96 with 23k miles, two-doors, stick, all for only $7500. After a year and a half of driving and 36k miles (the car has 59k miles now) I would like to make the following comments.

GOOD POINTS:
Great standard equipment- ABS, Power Steering/Brakes, A/C, radio with DECENT speakers and much more

Sporty and stylish (IMHO)

Decent acceleration (with stick)

Have had NO problems whatsoever. My total costs have been regular oil changes, and I replaced the brake pads once.

Great price- payments are so low I have enough left over for an occasional Burger King and Mountain Dew.

BAD POINTS:
About the only bad thing I can say has to do with the fit and finish. I have had a few squeaks and rattles out of the dash. Most of the time I hear nothing (I usually have the music up too loud :), but seriously the only time I notice any squeaks is when I go over a bump. A little WD-40 in some of the seams fixes this problem.

CONCLUSION:
To me, the advantages of this car far outweigh the only disadvantage (fit and finish). If you can look past this disadvantage, it is a great value and I do not regret my decision to buy this car whatsoever. The car is small. I am 6'2", so the seat is pushed as far back as possible. The back seat is a shelf for books and papers in my car. This isn't really a disadvantage to me as I'm mainly the only one in it or at most one other person in the passenger side. The coupe is a two-person only car.