Is the DX a superior trim level for fuel economy?
 

I seem to remember hearing somewhere that that Civic DX trim level was better than the others for someone trying to get good FE... is that right, of am I just crazy? If so, why???

It depends on the MY as well... from '92 on, for basic features with great FE, you'd want the DX model.

If you wanted a CRX, you'd want an HF, which has the same features as the DX, except the rear wiper, and it's lighter and gets better FE.

Later on, there were the GX, HX, VX, EX, DX, CX, Si, and if you went overseas, there were even more. The DX is by far the most popular, the GX was an NGV, the HX and CX I think were Canada's, the EX was the Si version of the sedan body, the Si was not something you wanted to get into if you wanted fuel economy, and the VX was probably the best model out there for FE, utilizing the lean-burn capability of the D15Z1.

That covers from 88-00, but beyond '00 I stopped caring about Civics.

ouch! bad info! the dx is maybe the most common trim level, smaller of the engines but not the most efficient, ever.
the dx came with alot of options but not all of them, cars like the vx came with non of the options as standard but you could pay extra to get them when the car was new, I have one of these and I have one that came standard, options like passenger side view mirror, clock, a/c, mud flaps, outer door bumper trim, all the higher MPG cars did come with lighter wheels, steel wheels on the older ones, alloy on the newer.
If you want to search for a civic that gets the best mpg you can look for a civic FE from 1974 to 1983, a civic 1.3L from 1984, a CRX 1.3L from 1984, a CRX HF from 1985 to 1987 for the older body style then it's 2nd body style from 1988 up to 1991, a civic VX from 1992 to 1995, a civic HX from 1996 up to the time they started building they hybrid... and of course the civic hybrid is their new trim level of high mpg car and gets the lowest mileage out of any of their high mpg cars that they ever made.

Yeap, not the best for fuel economy, but probably one of the easiest to beat the EPA on :)