This Car Is Riot Proof

Like the Lone Ranger needs Tonto — or was it Silver? — a man needs a trusted automobile:

Harry Ettling, like many people who own classic cars, cherishes his ride — but in reverse.

The Inwood resident has let his 1982 Honda Civic, bought brand new, sink into such an extreme state of rot that it has become a legend in the neighborhood where the Arkansas native has lived for 20 years.

“People actually recognize me in other sections of town because of the car,” he says. “The reactions range from laughter to anger to kindred spirits giving me the thumbs up, and everything in between.”

The car continues to run perfectly well despite 170,000 miles on its odometer, and taking as much punishment as New York can dish out.

“One thing that happened immediately after I bought it is it got totaled along with three other parked cars on Fort Washington Ave.,” the 56-year-old jazz guitarist says. “The frame was bent, but I had a shop straighten it out and it was fine to drive.”

A 1992 riot in Washington Heights resulted in further damage. “I came out to find the car upside down in the middle of Dyckman St. A bunch of teenagers were about to strip it but I shouted, ‘Hey, don’t! It’s mine!’ They turned congenial, and a half a dozen Dominican good Samaritans helped me turn it right side up again; $1,500 later, I was back on the road.”

Recently, two of its tires were slashed along with the tires of other cars parked near Ettling’s Seaman Ave. home, costing him $200.

But his insurance bill is a phenomenally low $800 a year and he usually spends no more than $500 a year on maintenance, which includes changing the oil and whatever else the car needs to pass inspection, though this year nothing needed to be fixed.

Bassist and neighbor Steve Alcott, 55, occasionally occupies the Civic’s passenger seat.

“When the car got turned upside down, that was really the beginning of Harry’s car as we know it today,” he says. “The guys in this neighborhood are really into their cars, and can’t believe someone would drive something that looks like that. But it’s a great car — it’ll get you where you’re going. And junk is in the eye of the beholder.”