...and it was quite good fun. Interesting car, though not without its flaws.
Drove from Bristol through Birmingham, then to Yorkshire and up to Edinburgh for a mate's wedding, then back again via Swindon. Nothing like mega miles in a variety of conditions to see what a car is really like...
Good points:-
++ From the outside the car looks good. Wedgy, modern, and sharp looking.
+ Handling. The one thing that struck me about this car was how eager it is to change direction. The steering is really quick (probably no more than a couple of turns lock to lock) and the car feels light with a go kart feel to it (mean that in a good way), so with a few twists of the steering wheel you can 'flick flack' the car across lanes, through S bends and around round corners. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the handling is fluid (in the same way as a 6cyl E46 would be
) but it is reasonably fun for a mainstream hatchback, and it stays flat in the bends with little body roll. Feels like it has wide track.
++ Fuel economy. Very impressed with its 36mpg in all conditions which included mostly 90mph on the motorway and ragging it along country roads.
++ Practicality. The rear seats folding mechanism is fabulous. You press one lever and the rear seats flip down/squabs more foward (without you having to touch the seat squabs) creating a completely flat load space. The loading area is also deceptively long - more spacious than an A3 or Golf. With one movement, you can also fold away entire the rear seat squabs and backrests to create a load area where the rear seats are - you can actually walk through that area where the rear seats were. In other words you could move a small chest of drawers...upright! All very ingenious and low effort. There's also a storage compartment underneath the boot.
+ Engine. Pop the bonnet and look inside...this engine is tiny, which is a testament to Honda's engineering. Very eager to rev - car probably has a small flywheel but it's still smooth in traffic. Reasonable V-Tec sound in the upper rev range though it does sound a bit like a Playstation (and it can't compete with with cultured thrum you'd get from a straight 6 or V6).
Bad points:-
- Interior. The leather seats were nice, but the dashboard is an absolute mess. It's like someone's thrown a load of plastic of various shapes onto the dash, and built it where its landed. It's a mess, no doubt about it and I reckon it will look dated in years to come. Contrast the elegant design of the E46 dash even though that's a 10 year old design. The plastic on the Civic dash also looks cheap and a bit nasty. The digital speedo is easy to read though and the 'Engine Start' button is a nice touch.
- Ride quality is firm(ish) but reasonably well 'rubberised' so although you feel bumps and potholes, it doesn't jar too much. Still amazes me that Citroen could produce a car 15 years ago (Xantia) that had amazing ride quality, but the likes of Honda (Civic), Ford (Focus), BMW (1 series) and others can't produce anything close to that level of ride quality in their mainstream hatchbacks of today.
- Steering...is speed sensitive. I'm not a particular fan of it. Artificially heavy at motorway speeds and a bit too light at low speeds. You can't quite completely judge what the front wheels are doing at either end of the speed range.
- 6th Gear. Always good to have a 6th gear, but I don't get it on this car, because at 80mph, changing from 5th to 6th only reduces the revs by about 500rpm. Not exactly, an overdrive gear.....
- Rear hump....on the widescreen is absolutely ridiculous. Can't see that it serves any useful purpose (is it a wing?) and blocks half of the view out of the rear windscreen.
- Refinement. This isn't a particularly refined car. Fairly noisy on the motorway with that V-Tec engine generating an odd resonance at 4rpm in 6th. There's also a fair amount of road rumble from the wheels on coarse surfaces. The impression is that Honda haven't treated refinement as a high priority. Either that or they've limited the amount of £££s when it came to the development budget for refinement. I don't think there's enough sound insulation. The car also doesn't have that 'hewn from solid' feel that you'd get from a Golf Mk 5.
- Quality control. Bit surprised by some of the quirks that came with the car. The gear selector (not the gearbox) made a clonking sound every time you changed gear. Seems they skimped with the damping on the selector plate. There was also the occasional uneven vibration from the engine, and what sounded like a 'turbo whistle' sound occasionally under acceleration.
So would I buy one? Probably not, because I think it lacks refinement at 80/90mph, is still a bit rough around the edges and has one too many quirks which would annoy me. I think a Golf Mk 5 and the current refreshed Focus (both dependent on the engine) is a better balanced overall package. However, I can see why people would buy a Civic. It's fun to drive, looks good (from the outside), is economical, very practical and (probably) reliable. I'd give it 7.5/10 in the hatchback class.
Drove from Bristol through Birmingham, then to Yorkshire and up to Edinburgh for a mate's wedding, then back again via Swindon. Nothing like mega miles in a variety of conditions to see what a car is really like...
Good points:-
++ From the outside the car looks good. Wedgy, modern, and sharp looking.
+ Handling. The one thing that struck me about this car was how eager it is to change direction. The steering is really quick (probably no more than a couple of turns lock to lock) and the car feels light with a go kart feel to it (mean that in a good way), so with a few twists of the steering wheel you can 'flick flack' the car across lanes, through S bends and around round corners. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the handling is fluid (in the same way as a 6cyl E46 would be
) but it is reasonably fun for a mainstream hatchback, and it stays flat in the bends with little body roll. Feels like it has wide track.++ Fuel economy. Very impressed with its 36mpg in all conditions which included mostly 90mph on the motorway and ragging it along country roads.
++ Practicality. The rear seats folding mechanism is fabulous. You press one lever and the rear seats flip down/squabs more foward (without you having to touch the seat squabs) creating a completely flat load space. The loading area is also deceptively long - more spacious than an A3 or Golf. With one movement, you can also fold away entire the rear seat squabs and backrests to create a load area where the rear seats are - you can actually walk through that area where the rear seats were. In other words you could move a small chest of drawers...upright! All very ingenious and low effort. There's also a storage compartment underneath the boot.
+ Engine. Pop the bonnet and look inside...this engine is tiny, which is a testament to Honda's engineering. Very eager to rev - car probably has a small flywheel but it's still smooth in traffic. Reasonable V-Tec sound in the upper rev range though it does sound a bit like a Playstation (and it can't compete with with cultured thrum you'd get from a straight 6 or V6).
Bad points:-
- Interior. The leather seats were nice, but the dashboard is an absolute mess. It's like someone's thrown a load of plastic of various shapes onto the dash, and built it where its landed. It's a mess, no doubt about it and I reckon it will look dated in years to come. Contrast the elegant design of the E46 dash even though that's a 10 year old design. The plastic on the Civic dash also looks cheap and a bit nasty. The digital speedo is easy to read though and the 'Engine Start' button is a nice touch.
- Ride quality is firm(ish) but reasonably well 'rubberised' so although you feel bumps and potholes, it doesn't jar too much. Still amazes me that Citroen could produce a car 15 years ago (Xantia) that had amazing ride quality, but the likes of Honda (Civic), Ford (Focus), BMW (1 series) and others can't produce anything close to that level of ride quality in their mainstream hatchbacks of today.
- Steering...is speed sensitive. I'm not a particular fan of it. Artificially heavy at motorway speeds and a bit too light at low speeds. You can't quite completely judge what the front wheels are doing at either end of the speed range.
- 6th Gear. Always good to have a 6th gear, but I don't get it on this car, because at 80mph, changing from 5th to 6th only reduces the revs by about 500rpm. Not exactly, an overdrive gear.....
- Rear hump....on the widescreen is absolutely ridiculous. Can't see that it serves any useful purpose (is it a wing?) and blocks half of the view out of the rear windscreen.
- Refinement. This isn't a particularly refined car. Fairly noisy on the motorway with that V-Tec engine generating an odd resonance at 4rpm in 6th. There's also a fair amount of road rumble from the wheels on coarse surfaces. The impression is that Honda haven't treated refinement as a high priority. Either that or they've limited the amount of £££s when it came to the development budget for refinement. I don't think there's enough sound insulation. The car also doesn't have that 'hewn from solid' feel that you'd get from a Golf Mk 5.
- Quality control. Bit surprised by some of the quirks that came with the car. The gear selector (not the gearbox) made a clonking sound every time you changed gear. Seems they skimped with the damping on the selector plate. There was also the occasional uneven vibration from the engine, and what sounded like a 'turbo whistle' sound occasionally under acceleration.
So would I buy one? Probably not, because I think it lacks refinement at 80/90mph, is still a bit rough around the edges and has one too many quirks which would annoy me. I think a Golf Mk 5 and the current refreshed Focus (both dependent on the engine) is a better balanced overall package. However, I can see why people would buy a Civic. It's fun to drive, looks good (from the outside), is economical, very practical and (probably) reliable. I'd give it 7.5/10 in the hatchback class.
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