1Maverick, as promised here's my reply to your dilemma. Please take it with a pinch of salt as I haven't extensively driven an ANHC. Heck, even my Civic experience is just around 250 kms now. But for what it's worth -
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Originally Posted by 1Maverick And after TDing the Civic, there was that feeling that it's just not a Civic, and the cockpit doesn't wrap itself around the driver in a fantastic fusion of leather and technology. |
Your initial assessment is spot-on and is something that many have shared.
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Originally Posted by 1Maverick So the head says ANHC, but the heart says Civic. That's when my genius dad-in-law opined that many a times he's taken wise decisions with his head and suppressed the heart, only to feel foolish later. I liked the sheer honesty and wisdom in that statement. |
I think it's not as simple as that. There are people I know who are comfortable with living for the money and reason everything with the total cost of ownership and utility you get vs. money you pay. I don't fault them or talk of that tendency in a derogatory manner (my father is just one such person I know).
It's more about which choice you're more comfortable making. You can listen to your head but you must have a really stout heart even in the future. And vice versa. Either way is easier said than done, of course, because both organs are equally important to the general well-being of any person.
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Originally Posted by 1Maverick Like will the joy of driving beat the frustration of 'clutching' first gear crawls? |
I think so. I think you're better served by an A/T if you don't particularly care about the whole "like stick shifts" thing. Your usage pattern seems to be predominantly city-based.
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Originally Posted by 1Maverick 2. There's a NHC (CityZX) in the family, the dimensions of which I'm completely at peace with to park and squeeze through Mumbai traffic. How much more of a driving & parking effort is the longer, wider, lower Civic? |
Not much at all. I didn't find the Indigo to be a problem after the M800, and I don't find the Civic to be a problem so far after either. Of course, there have been some *really* tight situations which I could manage easily with both the 800 and Indigo. I wouldn't even venture there with the Civic (I'm talking of known places here).
Let me say that if you can find a parking slot that takes the Civic, the physical process of parking it is a breeze.
The electrically-foldable ORVMs make it easy even in narrow lanes.
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Originally Posted by 1Maverick 3. And speaking of lower seating and GC, I've read and figured that Honda has stiffened the suspension, (thank God) but how much of a pain is the low seating posture in traffic (city and highway)? |
Can't comment much about this but I haven't been discomfited by 2+ hours at a stretch in the seat so far.
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Originally Posted by 1Maverick I mean is it claustrophobic to be sandwiched between say a truck and a Scorpio, to have people in a adjoining rickshaw look down at you, and to have every facing car's badly adjusted headlights in your eyes? |
The first part is subjective. However, oncoming headlights *are* a huge problem.
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Originally Posted by 1Maverick Also I've been wildly checking out Civics in flooded road and subway conditions, to see if the exhaust gets submerged under water, or if the water enters the cabin.
Any experiences from Mumbai's 26/7 floods in a Civic? (Sorry if i sound super pessimistic, I prefer calling it more of a pragmatic Mumbaite-ic.) |
Your concern is very valid. In a recent downpour in Hyderabad I was caught in waist-deep water in the Indigo. Navigating a pond is easy so long as you have no other vehicle in front of you (you don't have to take your foot off the accelerator). Even if the exhaust goes under water, as long as you keep your foot steady on the accelerator (no need to rev really high and slip the clutch - around 2.5k-3k rpm should do, I think; only the Civic is plenty fast at these revs even in 1st) you shouldn't have to worry. The bigger concern is water affecting the electricals and jamming the power windows or something. I wouldn't know much about that.
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Originally Posted by 1Maverick 4.
Given my upper middle class upbringing (captured well by the Maruti Suzuki yacht ad - kitna deti hai?); and the rising price of fuel - when the deregulated price of petrol inches towards 100 bucks a litre, will the ANHC make more sense than the Civic? (I'd calculated a 10,000 buck difference for my annual driving at current fuel prices, which is negligible compared to the joy of owning a Civic. But the future?) |
Trust the government to not let prices increase all of a sudden. Essentially, you'll have time to plan and if fuel really reaches that price level, there will be bigger problems to worry about, trust me. Hopefully your salary would also keep up to some extent with the price of fuel.
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Originally Posted by 1Maverick 5.
Point is if after buying the current Civic, in another 8 months if Honda launches a super cool new Civic, how silly would/should one feel? |
Life's like that. There's always something new around the corner. If you *need* the car today and can afford it at the current price, go for it. If it's not a need and just a *want* (especially an exploratory kind of thing), then you could wait for a few months until more information is forthcoming. Given the description of your upbringing, I can safely say that it's a *need* in your case, so just buy it now. They're running the "insurance free" scheme even in August. This could therefore be a good time to plump for the A/T without feeling too much pain.
Fortunately or otherwise, Honda doesn't do what Hyundai, Tata, MUL and Skoda have proven themselves adept at doing (i.e. maintain both old and new models and sell them under different names). So you should have that window of time when there's news that Honda plans to launch the newer model and stocks start to run out. You could rush out and buy one then. Who knows, you may even get a good deal on the older model as people hold off to buy the newer one.
The key is to keep a hawk's eye on the auto news and make some friends in the industry. For instance, the news of the Altis D-4D came from a TBHPian who knew someone at ARAI who had physically seen the car being tested. I'm talking that level of contacts. Anything less is worthless.
Regards,
spadix