12000 km ownership report Civic 1.8S

[ST7677]

Hi Guys,
I was PMed by couple of folks to restart another thread after the New car Honda Civic thread got closed few days back...

I guess it's still a car which people love to discuss
Some love it (because they own it or aspires to), some hate it (because they don't own it)....




Anyway, I would not get into the regular pros and cons of Civic which has already been discussed in my previous thread (under new car ownership report). This is more of how I & the car feels 16 months post purchase.


1. Though I am regularly forced to drive on some worse parts of Bangalore roads, which includes worst road in India award by ToI. I am happy to say that the car stills drives like one single piece - no rattles or any other behavior change observed. Since I am an ICE addict, this is a very important thing for me.

2. While many say that Civic suspension would not last long. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with suspension. It is a soft suspension, which makes lot of sense for Indian roads and I doubt that it will wind up any earlier than the competition.
Why I say so is because Jap cars have reputation of looking fragile and lasting forever (compared to American cars, which look solid but don;t last for long).

I checked up and even Accord suspension is soft and it bottoms out on full load, but so far there have been no Accord suspension related problems reported in general so far. The Accord will complete it's life term in India by next year.

3. The Civic chassis is extreme good and well sorted out, leading to good driving manners.

4. The smoothness and mileage both have improved slightly since I bought the car. The car is so refined that there is nothing in that segment which can beat it (or come close) in terms of refinement.

5. My dealership (Dakshin Honda) experience has been good by and large. But this depends region to region, there are lots of people around with Horror stories from Honda dealers.

6. The mileage is good. It took me 1242 ltrs petrol to do 12ooo km. That gives 9.66 kmpl mileage. I don;t have a foot of lead but then I do push the car quiet often. (This involves 85% Bangalore City driving and 15% highway driving, with 100% AC on).

The only (minor) problem I ever faced so far was that once the bonnet got stuck a little and took a while to open. This got sorted out by greasing the locking mechanism.


If I have to summarize my experience in 1 statement then I would just say that I am considering transfer to a state in north and would require to buy a new car again, as of today, I would buy a Civic again.
Optra Magnum did tempt me a little for a while, but the temptation got over after a test drive. You can;t have best of every thing, but then if I have to make my choice again, the over all pick still remains the Civic...

[kpzen]

Nice short report.!!
I remember u posting somewhere about your 200+ top speed. Do u have a pic of it?? I would love to see that digital speedo.

Your post has 3 smileys. Do the needful before the mods arrive here with inferaction points

[zoom2_ash]

Nice report. Whic city are you moving in North India??

[Strider]

Interesting report.

I wanted to know just one thing, the basic version of the Octavia RS (without alloys etc.) costs roughly the same as the Civic manual (source: Autocar buying guide). Did you consider the RS when you bought this car? How would you compare the two?

[ST7677]

Skoda RS was in my short list. Didn't go for it for following reasons...

1. Cramped rear seats - Civic is even better than Laura in that
2. Poor Dealership
3. A decade old model still being sold to Indians
4. High cost of ownership

On >3k RPM Civic performance is as good as RS.
The only advantage of better performance in lower rev bands was not good enough to lure me to Skoda.

[akshay1234]

Originally Posted by Strider

Interesting report.

I wanted to know just one thing, the basic version of the Octavia RS (without alloys etc.) costs roughly the same as the Civic manual (source: Autocar buying guide). Did you consider the RS when you bought this car? How would you compare the two?

thats the 1.8 rider. the civic has many more goodies than that.

[anandpadhye]

What's in Optra Magnum that you did not like?

[abhinav.gupta88]

A good Allover Report however did you face any problems with the rain wiper because i read too many complaints about the wiper making some kind of a sound.

And Ya the Mileage you Talking about , Is your car the MT or The AT?

[akshay1234]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

What's in Optra Magnum that you did not like?

when he bought the civic the optra magnum was only a rumour.

[alankarm@sancha]

My OHC bought in 2001 has done about 125000 km and of this 120000 km was done in 5 years till sept. end 2006, till I bought a new Civic and put that in daily use. The Civic has done nearly 24000 km.

OHC is an excellent piece of machinery, they probably don't make it like that nowdays, though it does lack in the goodies department. The only thing replaced mechanically (except the wearable parts like tyres, filters, break pad, wiper etc.) is 1 rear shocker at about 75000 km. Most of my driving is Highway driving. NO RATTLES even till date WOWWWWWW!!. Minimal maintenance. Very low cost of ownership. Will not sell it even now.

This experience is what made me go in for a Civic. BUTTTTTT!!!

Well I think most of you know my issues with the Civic from my posts in the earlier thread.

Here's hoping that they improve the Civic to Indian (MY ) conditions.

[BUSA]

Really nice report ST. Looks like your enjoying your car alot.

My advice - Turbo it

[ST7677]

Originally Posted by abhinav.gupta88

A good Allover Report however did you face any problems with the rain wiper because i read too many complaints about the wiper making some kind of a sound.

And Ya the Mileage you Talking about , Is your car the MT or The AT?

No problems with wiper. From my past experience sound comes when wiper does not glide properly over the glass, this can happen if the glass is not clean and has some small deposits (bird droppings etc), these are not visible easily but make the glass surface rough. It can be easily taken care by adding some windshield cleaning liquid to your spray solution.

Mine is an MT but I keep hearing very similar mileage on AT also.

[ST7677]

Originally Posted by busa

Really nice report ST. Looks like your enjoying your car alot.

My advice - Turbo it

Yes, that is on cards, but may be 2 years down. By that time there will be some good tested kits available for R18 engine. Also, I am still relishing the novelty of the car - it still feels like new

Since this is a daily driven car, I would aim at some 7-8 psi boost which should take me to 250 bhp with proper tuning.

[unknown]

ST7677
Do you've upgraded your rims or rubber yet ? Brakes are not very good on civic even it has Abs + Disc breaks + Ebd , increaseing rubber size on current rims will it help ?

P:s - Is it worth to install gearlock in civic ? or it's preinstalled immobilizier is good enough for safety ?

[ST7677]

What's in Optra Magnum that you did not like?

This is not an Optra Magnum thread so I will keep it very minimal

What I liked:
Excellent engine but needs lot more refinement
Torque is addicting but then you have just have a very narrow RPM band 1900-3500 for play
Excellent rear seat comfort
Decent ride and handling

What I did not like:
Boring & cheap Interiors
Lack of refinement (Worse than Octavia TDI)
... exterior - anyway they will change it in next 6 months
Build quality
No climate control
Snob value: Optra doesn;t carry that premium D segment image, it's more of poor man;s D segment. Overall it doesn't feel same class as Civic.

Originally Posted by unknown

Do you've upgraded your rims or rubber yet ? Brakes are not very good on civic even it has Abs + Disc breaks + Ebd , increaseing rubber size on current rims will it help ?

P:s - Is it worth to install keylock in civic ? or i's preinstalled immobilizier is enough for safety ?

I haven't upgraded my tyres yet, but wider tyres are definitely in pipleline.
That would improve the braking performance. However with stock tyres braking is quiet decent.

Can;t comment much on the security part.