Rolled out my Civic 1.8MT V yesterday...!

[karankapoor]

congrats, its a cool ride

[ST7677]

Congrats on your new car. Drive safe...

As I have always said, Low GC is an over hyped issue for Civic. May be because car doesn't have any other flaw...lol

[koolavi88]

Congrats on your Civic man! its a great car and you'll have a lot of fun with it. I've had mine 1.8V MT for 9 months now and i simply love it.

Avi.

[alabjarus]

It was all planned - hit the road at 4.00 am on 1st May, take the Hosur, Salem, Palghat route to Cochin. Get there by little after lunch. Objective - to attend a cousin's wedding.

Jet Airways decided to play spoil sport and it indeed did. My flight back from Delhi the previous night was delayed by 1hr 30 min, which meant that I reached Blr at 12.00 midnight and hit the bed at 1.00 am. Well, 4.00 am plan went out of the window. Finally managed to hit the road at 7.00 am.

CIVIC - it read 116 kms on the odo. A virgin by all means and me at waiting for the opportune moment to have a go at her. You get the whiff...! :-). We were 4 adults and my 3.5 yr old son. All our suit cases, bags et al. The boot swallowed all with no complaints.

Delayed start meant that I am destined to cover the journey though peak traffic at all phases. I didnt have to wait long to realise this - soon found that like me the rest of Bangalore too decided to abandon home for the long week end, translating to mad traffic. Krishnagiri toll booth had almost thirty cars each in 5/6 rows waiting to pay toll charges and get moving. The rest of the onward journey was equally bad with the GQ construction underway.

CIVIC - even in the midst of all this mayhem it was urging me to have a go. Hit 150 kmph mark multiple times, much to my wife's displeasure - cant blame her, had a few guys who believed they were driving Mustangs and had to put them at their places.

Reached Cochin at 6.00 pm with some extended breaks for breakfast & lunch, each taking an hour. The city runabouts was event less. On return I took the Calicut, Sultan Bathery, Mysore route. A picturesque, winding route. Excellent road. We started at 7.30 am and hit Blr at 4.30 pm with a 1+ hour of lunch break at Mysore.

To jot down my observation of the good, the bad, the ugly points in Civic:

Good things - almost everything, will mention few that stood out.

Power - Civic's raw power makes overtaking a breeze. You can do this with little planning. You have the power to carry it through and the stopping power should you want to abort the attempt midway.

Handling & Stopping power - I was quite impressed with the handling. It drives as if on rails. I had quite a few hair raising stops, blame the private buses in Kerala. Each time the car stopped even from speeds of 80 kmph without a fuss. No rear stepping out of line and no out of control feeling. The confidence this car inspires on account of road grip and stopping power is next to none. It a great feeling.

Music system - I am not a music buff and hence cant make an authoritative comparative statement on music systems. I found Civic's system better than the ones in the cars I owned and did not leave anything to be desired.

An interesting observation that I don't recollect reading anywhere - when the car hits speeds above 70 kmph the volume increases automatically. The same goes further up when you cross 100 kmph. The reverse occurs when you shed speed. Initially I thought my son is playing with the remote in the back seat hand rest only to realise that this is an inbuilt feature. Good...!

NVH - The cabin insulates you from the cacophony outside, to the extend that you sometimes don't hear the hoking behind...!

Auto AC - Bliss. No fiddling with the knobs, set the temperature and let it do its job.

Now to the bad things - 2 infact.

Suspension: Under load suspension bottoms relatively soon. Loaded with 4 adults and a kid along with all our luggage ensured that I head a loud and uncomfortable 'thud' each time I hit a pothole at speeds above 70 kmph. The front suspension was holding well. I am sure its the soft suspension which is the culprit. Check out one of the side profile photos below. Even with me outside the car, the rear suspension appears to have traveled its length.

Turning radius: Man, this car takes a good amount of space to turn. Obviously my reference point is my previous NHC, hence my view could skewed.

Now to the ugly - only one. Head light lights - could have been more powerful, at least a 90/100 should have been the standard. Even an Indica lights can scare you.

Some vital statistics:

--> Speeds - I wasn't driving slow by any means, neither rash (would I admit..!). My average speed was in the 120 - 130 range (yes, threw the 'running in' book out of the window, rather Civic made me do it and I succumbed). As mentioned earlier, hit 150 few times.

--> Distance covered - by the time I parked that car back at the basement it had run a total of 1436 km. The trip covered a distance of 1310 kms.

--> Mileage kya hai - 14.46 km/litre. I was AMAZED to say the least.

Thought of concluding with an interesting piece of info - my ODO now reads 1490 km. Noting interesting in it until you know that I have NOT SCRAPED and single bump in the 1490 kms of driving...!

So long guys & gals...take care & drive safely.

PS: Photos were taken in the jungle stretch between Wayanad & Bandipur.

[Jaggu]

Well written again, yes the suspension is soft and rear sags a bit when loaded. This is one of the reason for most people to complain about scraping under carriage.

The auto volume function is quite helpful, even some pio's have that (mine does) its called ASL (automatic sound level) and sensitivity can be adjusted in Pio's.

[mnhegde]

Hi,
Congratulations Sir for your new car. Some say ground clearance in Civic is a bit of problematic. But as I have come across some information regarding ground clearance, its 170 mm according to a magazine. Now it makes me wonder how that is a problem! what did Honda people say to you regarding ground clearance. I wish I also can afford a CIVIC as soon as possible. Keep updating Sir.

[GTO - Touring]

Great objective report! Congrats on the Civic...it is the sedan to have from that price range.

You are correct, it is due to the soft rear suspension that the car bottoms out so much. Observe the last two pictures.....your Civic looks like its ready to take off!

[vkochar]

Very well written there mate !! Stunning car this one is, and one of my dream cars. Will buy it soon hopefully.

14.46 kpl is great mileage ! Wow !

[dhaval]

Very nice report there alabjarus. Even i dont recollect reading anywhere about the auto volume feature in the Civic. Very nice observation there!!

dhaval

[csentil]

Great that you had a nice drive.

The turning radius is actually not that bad for a car of its length. Its a bit longer than the C class if I remember correctly.

170 mm is the clearance. However due to the longer wheelbase when the car is fully loaded you could scrape some of the really bad speedbreakers.

Yes handling is awesome. 160-170 and I haven't had a problem with its handling.

Headlights according to government stipulation is 65/55 I think. If you want anything higher you are breaking the law !! :-) The dealers will not change it for you and please be careful if you are getting it done outside. If the relay is not proper you could end up with burnt wiring and your warranty gets void !

If only they had the suspension fixed. It would have been an even more awesome car. But hey we can live with it. :-)

[aaggoswami]

Perfect side profile pictures of Civic.
Its evident that the suspension is soft. Hope that Honda rectifies this soon.
Nice and precise, interesting, to the point write up.


Regarind the headlights, I feel that apart from the lack of power, the most irritating thing of these low slung cars ( like Baleno, Civic, OHC,
Esteem ) is that even the headlight of, forget indica, a motorcycle can give you trouble. The lights from opposite direction stright hits in the eye of the driver.
Second problem with low slung cars is getting in and out of the car.

[vasudeva]

Originally Posted by alabjarus

Suspension: Under load suspension bottoms relatively soon. Loaded with 4 adults and a kid along with all our luggage ensured that I head a loud and uncomfortable 'thud' each time I hit a pothole at speeds above 70 kmph.

I am not sure if there would be many cars that can take a pothole at 70 kmph without `hearing a loud and uncomfortable thud' or even worse, something giving way. Why blame the Civic?

[jeetu4444]

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[sujaylahiri]

Ya nice ride and great choice of colour.

[jeetu4444]

congrats right choice,drive safe . my civic just completed 1 year, and its a killer machine, enjoy your ride.