1973-1979 Honda Civic CVCC — MPG & Fuel Facts NO OFFICIAL EPA RATING

The EPA's public fuel-economy dataset only goes back to 1984 — the 1973-1979 Honda Civic CVCC predates it, so there is no government-rated MPG number for this car anywhere, including here.

Estimated 27–44 MPG combined.

This is our best-sourced entry: the EPA's own Gas Mileage Guide rated the 1975 Civic CVCC at 27 city/39 highway, and by 1978 the manual-transmission CVCC reached 36 city/44 highway (40 combined) - genuine, government-tested figures, not estimates, and consistent with the CVCC's contemporary reputation as one of the most fuel-efficient cars sold in America.

This is our estimate, not an EPA rating — built from the period road tests, marque-specialist guides and corroborated owner reports cited below, hedged where sources vary. Treat it as a ballpark for planning, not a spec to rely on.

Honda's CVCC (Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion) stratified-charge engine let the Civic meet mid-1970s U.S. emissions standards without a catalytic converter - a genuine engineering achievement at the time, and this fuel-economy advantage is exactly why the model shows up so clearly in the EPA's own records.

EPA/FEA's 1975 Gas Mileage Guide for New Car Buyers lists the 1975 Civic CVCC (91 cu in / 1.5L four) at 27 mpg city / 39 mpg highway - identical to the non-CVCC 1.2L base Civic's listed figures that year, suggesting the CVCC hardware added negligible fuel-economy penalty despite its added emissions-control complexity.

By the EPA's 1978 Gas Mileage Guide, the manual-transmission Civic CVCC (91 cu in) is rated 36 city / 44 highway (40 combined) - among the highest ratings of any gasoline car in the entire guide that year - while the automatic ('Hondamatic') version came in lower at 29 city / 35 highway (32 combined). The CVCC wagon variant landed in between at 31 city / 36 highway.

Secondary sources (Japanese Nostalgic Car, contemporary retrospectives) describe the CVCC as the EPA's most fuel-efficient car in the country for roughly four consecutive model years in the mid-to-late 1970s, which lines up with what we found directly in the primary-source EPA guides.

Sources: EPA/FEA, 1975 Gas Mileage Guide for New Car Buyers (2nd ed., rev. Jan 1976), via Internet Archive · EPA, 1978 Gas Mileage Guide (2nd ed., Feb 1978), via Internet Archive · Japanese Nostalgic Car, "50 Year Club: How Honda's CVCC beat its rivals and made the Civic a household name"

All classics Search Honda Civic CVCC on FuelFacts (in case a later model year is in our 1984+ EPA data)