From OHC to CIVIC

[pooshnark]

Hi all
some of you would have seen me on this forum hovering between a new Cedia and used CRV... however, as it normally happens i bought something all togather different - a Civic and already drove 2000 Kms on it.

The sole reason for buying Civic was my spotless four years experience with Honda and i assume a lot of people out there would be thinking of upgrading from OHC to Civic.. hence comes this thread.

Some key consideration while reading this –
• I am an average Indian with 5.7 ft height and regular athletic body.
• I am not technically sound in automobiles and have only 1lac + kms experience to talk about.
• This car I bought was a Test Drive vehicle with 20000 Kms on it.
• My OHC was a type II 1.5 exi.
Now for the meat…..

LOOKS - YOU KIDDING?
You Kidding??? kahaan raja bhoj kahaan gangu taili?? OHC doesnt even stand slightest chance before such a sexy looking vehicle right out of some Sci-fi movie. In one sentence.. - Civic is large, better and more "female fan" creating car than OHC. Period.

FUEL EFFICIENCY - SAME AS OHC
Surprise here!! A car of this size is giving exactly same mileage I drove exactly 369 Kms of equaly drive of Highway and inside the city with 28ltr of Petrol in last trip. which is exactly 13 Kmpl with full AC blast in Auto mode.

DRIVER COMFORT
This is where i felt my OHC was a road beater, the driving comfort it had is unparallel and Civic lags a bit. I shall explain some small issues which one feels over a period of time:

Steering Wheel: One look at the steering wheel of a civic and you would swoon on it.. thats where you should stop if you intend to own this vehicle. In an effort to create a beauty out of the steering there is a bit of compromise in driving pleasure.. the spokes have been made a little wide and also at a very uncomfortable angle to the the headlight/wiper control knobs. So what it does is, you will have to use your stretched palm entirle while using any of the controls. Like for instance at night, to use the dipper you would be require to continuouse stretch palms and blv me you will feel tired after sometime.. OHC was damn neat in this department i could control the god damn car at 140 with just one thumb and all controls were still within reach.

Window Panel for Driver (Elbow Rest): While driving on highways normally one tends to keep the right hand elbow rested on the window panel and control the steering wheel with thumbs. This is not possible in civic as the Window panel is above the elbow level hence you will have to keep both hands always on the steering and your seating posturew would also be affected

Seating Comfort: I am not sure if this car was designed by any Japanese. Reason I say this is, you need to have long legs to actually reach the pedals and also slightly longer forelimbs shall allow a better reach to the music panel on dash board. An average human being like me has to sit pretty near to the dash board which would nullify the utility of telescopic steering.

Drive by Wire Throttle System: What **** piece of system is this???? (strictly talking about driving comfort, no question about technology). You feel like actually picking up the gear knob and putting it in place to shift gears.. Its so tiring I cant explain… I love the old style of shifting gears with a push on the knob.. This is the biggest pain I face driving this car.. and to top it the Gear Knob is very large to allow a proper grip.

POWER
My measure of power of a car is its time taken from 50kmph to 90kmph on highway with full AC. And civic disappointed me in this department. The car takes almost same time as my OHC to touch 90 from 50, if I had to slow the car on highway due to some reason. Sometimes I felt like pushing it from inside to pick up fast. I had expected more from a 1800 cc vtec engine.

However, you cross 100 and this car shows its true colors. Even at 150 with a push on pedal the car got me extra 20kmph with a feeling of still more to it. I had touched maximum 150 with my OHC and the engine had felt totally drenched.

In-fact I allow more vehicles to overtake these days cuz of this subconscious feeling of carrying enough power to beat any car whenever I wish. To fir bacchon ko khelne do..

SAFETY
No comparision in this department with OHC. This car gives you unexpiring feeling of safety. It has so many things loaded that one can fit an entire ABCD in it. ABS, EBD, SRS, BA etc etc.

Let the cute looks of car not fool you about its structure. The car has quite robust frame, pretty widely built pillars (too wide for comfort). I have driven Skoda Rider for few hundred Kms and honestly I don’t think this car lags much behind in body build.

However, I do feel that Traction Control System should have been placed in a vehicle of this cost. The Honda sales guy explained to me that ‘Brake Assist’ is actually a Honda name for TCS.. so do back check next time you talk to any Honda sales guy.

ROAD VIEW
I mention this point separately because the front pillars of the car are actually pain in A.. The pillars are at some obtuse angle to the driver seat and very wide in structure that they will obstruct your vision a lot many times while turning the vehicle. Just drive the car for only few kms and take a few turns and you will realize what I am saying. Literally sometimes I had to bend forward to see if I am not missing any upcoming vehicle while turning. The OHC was far far far better in terms of road view.

CONCLUSION
You may feel I am being more critical of civic, that’s because there is a lot of good been discussed that its moot point to talk about its sexy looks, Honda performance, passenger comfort, more leg space etc etc.

However, my advise to anyone with an OHC thinking about upgrading to Civic – please give this car at-east 5000 kms to build on you. Its in diff league altogather which needs lot of patience and a diff style of driving. And over a period of time you would feel almost similar driving pleasure that OHC delivered.

Hope I helped someone’s purchasing decision.

[ajmat]

A great frank review. Very difficult for someone who has spent a wad to admit that the new toy may not be perfect

As a ohc vtec owner, I considerd the Civic but, although a nice family car in space ship clothes, it did not rock my boat.

[hmishra83]

Originally Posted by ajmat

A great frank review. Very difficult for someone who has spent a wad to admit that the new toy may not be perfect

As a ohc vtec owner, I considerd the Civic but, although a nice family car in space ship clothes, it did not rock my boat.

That was funny. Well, I am a fan of Civic's looks. But I am sure you guys have tried your hands on to state that there is scope for lots of improvement - so that it can rock Ajmat's boat

[vid6639]

Originally Posted by hmishra83

That was funny. Well, I am a fan of Civic's looks. But I am sure you guys have tried your hands on to state that there is scope for lots of improvement - so that it can rock Ajmat's boat

that's the problem there isnt much scope for doing anything that will rock Ajmat's boat.

Even a free flow is difficult. Although I'm sure people will find a way but the engine isnt exactly tuner friendly.

[Shan2nu]

Well, the Civic can be tuned to rock anybody's boat but since the OHC is lighter, you can get more real world performance out of it.

Imagine an OHC with a fully tuned Civic engine. That would be awesome.

I like the Civic and the Spoon Type R concept is proof that with the right mods, it can be pretty lethal.

Shan2nu

[benbsb29]

Nice review there, pal... with a proper set of pros n cons.

• This car I bought was a Test Drive vehicle with 20000 Kms on it.

Just rechecked once more... you went ahead and bought a test drive vehicle? Why would you do that for? Arent they usually abused cars?
How much of a reduction did u get on the price?

[csentil]

Good review. Welcome to the Civic club. :-)

I own the AT, so don't know if the gear system is a problem.

The A pillars do get in the way, but I've got used to it now. Anyways used to drive a matiz which also had a raked windscreen with the same A-pillar problem !!!! As you said, the car grows on you.

It helps to be 6 feet tall to drive the Civic I guess. (smiley here).

I've not felt the elbow rest issue till now. Let me check it out if that's a problem.

Was disappointed as well about the lack of TC which is available in the Elantra. Would have also liked the automatic headlights and wiper.

For a car at that level, NO fog lamps and leather seats is too much. I guess Honda is skimming the market now and would launch a new version with these soon.

[pooshnark]

Hi,
thanks for the comment...
i got the car at 9.30 + taxes.. which is exact amount for a new Cedia Select... The car was given to me with all refurbishments except for the odometer.. i am using it for last week and dont see any marks of abusement

one main reason i dint go for cedia is that there have been 5 diff variants of Cedia launched by mitsubishi till now (elegance, executive have been discontinued).. u never know when would they winthdraw ur variant from the market.. basically i followed my heart

[pooshnark]

Hi,
thanks for ur comments.. my idea to write this review was to give a few negatives that i feel this car have...

I got the car at 9.30 + taxes.. the car was refurbished from every corner by auto terrace except for the odometre..

I could have bought a new Cedia at that price but the way they have discontinued Cedia variants in just one year it leaves me with a feeling of distrust towards Mitsubishi... (its like buying a Bajaj bike, u never know the same model is still there 6 months down the line).

i followed my heart and bought a HONDA. my extremely positive 4 years experience with Honda contributed to the decision..

[1100D]

Originally Posted by pooshnark

Window Panel for Driver (Elbow Rest): While driving on highways normally one tends to keep the right hand elbow rested on the window panel and control the steering wheel with thumbs. This is not possible in civic as the Window panel is above the elbow level hence you will have to keep both hands always on the steering and your seating posturew would also be affected

Seating Comfort: I am not sure if this car was designed by any Japanese. Reason I say this is, you need to have long legs to actually reach the pedals and also slightly longer forelimbs shall allow a better reach to the music panel on dash board. An average human being like me has to sit pretty near to the dash board which would nullify the utility of telescopic steering.

ROAD VIEW
I mention this point separately because the front pillars of the car are actually pain in A.. The pillars are at some obtuse angle to the driver seat and very wide in structure that they will obstruct your vision a lot many times while turning the vehicle. Just drive the car for only few kms and take a few turns and you will realize what I am saying. Literally sometimes I had to bend forward to see if I am not missing any upcoming vehicle while turning. The OHC was far far far better in terms of road view.

This has been a very good review with the real pros and cons coming out.

However with the A-pillar blocking the view thru a corner issue, I guess it has to be handled a bit differently. You need to be using the telescopic steering to have your head as far back as possible and tilt your head to the right and look/view thru the driver door window while cornering (cause bending forward looking thru the front windshield is firstly a pain and secondly does not account for all blind spots). However, like you mentioned the pedal placement could be the root cause of all the troubles. However you can try adjusting the drivers seat position with respect to pedal position, then adjust the seatback angle with respect to the steering wheel movement (but then you always have limits to how much seatback recline you would be comfortable driving with).

About elbow resting on window sills, its not recommended anymore, especially if you consider that the same car is designed to carry side curtain airbags in other markets, but you have the armrests for the purpose. Anyway for long drives quarter to nine position always cancels out the weight of one hand with respect to the other (but then this is a topic of debate)


Now about one fair bit that I myself found out quite annoying in the Civic, although I find it on some other Honda models as well is that although the electric steering systems now havethe center-weighting, they still are quite far from providing the right amont of feedback. What say?

However, I very much liked your idea of how you would consider power to be of importance, but I think you also mean to say how soon it would go from 50 to 90 without requiring a downshifting.

[merains]

hi there ,gr 8 buy and i feel good that u r getting 13 kmpl,am planning to buy the same in a month.how is the mileage in city driving and any suggestions for me