[Gany]

I have voted for/booked Altis 1.8G. Civic's has great looking interior though! Having driven City for 3 years, wanted something with better GC and Civic also costs high for the features they provide!

[alankarm@sancha]

Originally Posted by ImmortalZ

Argh, missed the twenty minute window.

That OEM part code you posted, 7PK1960. This belt costs $60 in the US from Honda. Around $42 from a parts store. I did my research before I bought my car and found that parts prices in India are simply Honda US prices + 10%. I suddenly think you've been misinformed about the cost of the part in the first place.

Anyway, I'm trying to confirm from other sources.

I have posted a pic of the belt packing in another thread Rs.715/-. Now its Rs.4000+. Check it out, and do verify from the dealers too.

I've had a lot of issues with the Civic, as a car, and their dealers, so I try to get the maximum info. that I can. I have already changed the belt 2 times (in 20 days), so I HAVE to know the prices well. I am not talking theory. And these are the listed prices, not only a rip off by the dealer, but by HONDA also. Please do VERIFY.

That 7PK1960 is the belt code and not the part no. from Honda. This belt is made by only some manufacturers. Next time, if i have to pay, I will replace it with a belt from another manufacturer/non OEM.

[akj53]

I bought Altis Automatic in March after considering top models of Fabia, Linea, Fiesta, ANHC and Civic. I have driven over 2600 kms so far and am very much satisfied. The car is very comfortable, has great torque at low speeds so ideal for city driving, has better FE, more goodies, better suspension for our rough roads, better seating comfort, easier ingress and egress and best of all very nice ECT auto transmission and brakes. The acceleration and retardation are very smooth and seamless and drive is very very comfortable. I have only touched 120 kms so far without any complaints. I do not find our road conditions suitable for higher speeds so I am not much worried about the high speed stability issue. The dealer and service experience has also been very good.

I only wish that Toyota should have equipped the car with a 5 speed auto box which could have given even better FE and acceleration. The overall FE so far is 10.7 as per the trip computer which is fairly accurate. This is after only about 400 kms of pure highway and rest in NCR and small towns / villages of U.P. and Rajsthan.

I did a sum of Altis and Civic sales from Vasudeva's sales sheet, since Sept. 08 till June 09. Figures are as follows:-

Altis - 8924
Civic - 5008

So customers bought 3916 Altis more than Civic during the above period. This means a lead of over 78% for the Altis.

This is the real poll and customers have indicated their clear preference.

[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by akj53

I only wish that Toyota should have equipped the car with a 5 speed auto box which could have given even better FE and acceleration.

and paddle shift which the civic offers. i would prefer paddle shift over rear sun blinds & auto dimming mirrors. the civic's dash is a class apart & toyota's design is nowhere close.

i feel the civic is more for the youngsters or enthusiasts & the altis is for those who gives priority to practicality.

So customers bought 3916 Altis more than Civic during the above period. This means a lead of over 78% for the Altis.

This is the real poll and customers have indicated their clear preference.

i think you really love your car.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

paddle shift which the civic offers. i would prefer paddle shift over rear sun blinds & auto dimming mirrors. the civic's dash is a class apart & toyota's design is nowhere close.

You get bored of the Civic's paddles within one hour of driving. It's not as fun as using the paddles on a DSG box like the Jettas which is super quick to respond.

Also, the civic has paddles whereas the Altis has the tip-tronic +/- to change the gears manually. More or less same thing.

[raj_5004]

@ vid: buddy, i like the paddles as i dont have to move my hand from the steering to change gears. you know... a sporty touch! lol...
also, altis offers a 4 speeder whereas civic offers a 5 speeder. now now, i know the civic's throttle response is a bit slow when compared to the altis, but then thats what paddle shifts are for!

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by akj53

I did a sum of Altis and Civic sales from Vasudeva's sales sheet, since Sept. 08 till June 09. Figures are as follows:-

Altis - 8924
Civic - 5008

So customers bought 3916 Altis more than Civic during the above period. This means a lead of over 78% for the Altis.

This is the real poll and customers have indicated their clear preference.

Do consider that the current Civic has been in the market for 3 years and is due for a change in the next 12-18 months. What we are witnessing is the natural drop off in sales when the product moves towards the end of its lifecycle.

Originally Posted by raj_5004

and paddle shift which the civic offers. i would prefer paddle shift over rear sun blinds & auto dimming mirrors. the civic's dash is a class apart & toyota's design is nowhere close.

i feel the civic is more for the youngsters or enthusiasts & the altis is for those who gives priority to practicality.

i think you really love your car.

Obviously BLING sells in India. Call me old fashioned but digital speedos are like digital watches. Completely passe. The Civic's dashboard looks like a kid's toy. If it were that hot you'd see many more cars with digital speedos not the least of which would be Honda's flagship the Accord which comes with Optitron meters, the ones you find in the Altis. Can you imagine a current gen BMW, Merc, Rolls or a Ferrari with a digital speedo? A Rolex or an Omega digital watch? Yucks!!! Puhleeeeeeze!

Rgds,

[akj53]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

i think you really love your car.

Yes I do and I am no exception.

I think every body on this forum loves his car.

Men are a strange breed. They will allways admire other person's wife but love their own car fanatically.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by akj53

Yes I do and I am no exception.

I think every body on this forum loves his car.

Men are a strange breed. They will allways admire other person's wife but love their own car fanatically.

Well said. All on TBHP love their cars why else would we be here?

Rgds,

[akj53]

Originally Posted by R2D2

Do consider that the current Civic has been in the market for 3 years and is due for a change in the next 12-18 months. What we are witnessing is the natural drop off in sales when the product moves towards the end of its lifecycle.



Obviously BLING sells in India. Call me old fashioned but digital speedos are like digital watches. Completely passe. The Civic's dashboard looks like a kid's toy. If it were that hot you'd see many more cars with digital speedos not the least of which would be Honda's flagship the Accord which comes with Optitron meters, the ones you find in the Altis. Can you imagine a current gen BMW, Merc, Rolls or a Ferrari with a digital speedo? A Rolex or an Omega digital watch? Yucks!!! Puhleeeeeeze!

Rgds,

1. Yes I rejected Civic becuase the current model had become an end-of-life product. It did not offer goodies offered by competition and the sales person still had the arrogent attitude - Sir Honda is Honda and the name sells. Well I dont buy that line. When Merc's quality level dropped, I made my son in U.K. buy a BMW 5 series over a Merc.

2. Precisely, you said it all. I have said in my various earlier posts that apart from a fundu dashboard and a rev happy engine, I did not find any thing else exciting about the Civic. I like my car to be complete in all respects, not just 1 or 2 aspects. And Optitron meters of Altis are more than a match for Civic's digital speedo and are more practical also.

[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by R2D2

Obviously BLING sells in India. Call me old fashioned but digital speedos are like digital watches. Completely passe. The Civic's dashboard looks like a kid's toy. If it were that hot you'd see many more cars with digital speedos not the least of which would be Honda's flagship the Accord which comes with Optitron meters, the ones you find in the Altis. Can you imagine a current gen BMW, Merc, Rolls or a Ferrari with a digital speedo? A Rolex or an Omega digital watch? Yucks!!! Puhleeeeeeze!

Rgds,

buddy, when did i say that i love the civic because of its digital speedo?

i said i like the civic's dash & a speedo is only a SMALL part of the dash!

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

@ vid: buddy, i like the paddles as i dont have to move my hand from the steering to change gears. you know... a sporty touch! lol...
also, altis offers a 4 speeder whereas civic offers a 5 speeder. now now, i know the civic's throttle response is a bit slow when compared to the altis, but then thats what paddle shifts are for!

I agree the 5speed is better than the 4 speeder on the Altis. However the paddles do not increase the civic's throttle response.

You see unlike the ANHC the Civic uses an older version of the paddle shifts. So the paddles don't always work. You have to shift the gear lever to S mode which means taking your hands of the steering. After that pressing any of the paddles will engage them.

This is unlike the ANHC or the DSG in the Jetta. The minute you feel bogged down in the Jetta or ANHC just flick the paddles to downshift and scoot forward.

I found the Altis 4speeder to be good for sedate driving and the Civic 5speeder was overall better.

If I wanted an AT I would get the Jetta DSG in diesel.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

buddy, when did i say that i love the civic because of its digital speedo?

i said i like the civic's dash & a speedo is only a SMALL part of the dash!

My comments were on general reactions and feedback on the Civic. This is one of the 1st things people notice when they TD the car. Dude, people love the Civic's dashboard because of that speedo and the 'space age' instrument cluster.

Not saying you love the speedometer by itself but that instrument cluster is admittedly eye catching & those who love bling simply cannot get over it. To my eyes it looks boy racer-ish.

No matter what I say, Honda's got a thing going with that flashy cluster alright. Good for them but I've seen better.

Rgds,

[ImmortalZ]

You do realize that most high end car's dashes, especially Euro boxes, are all digital? They just draw an old fashioned meter to keep it retro.

Now, I'm in agreement that the digital dash went out with the Knight Rider era. But, for me, it is not the digital speedo readout that matters. The overall feel of the thing is somehow... exciting. The blue halo in the centrally placed rev counter... the whole thing feels like what's under the hood means business and dash is keeping it barely restrained behind it.

Now we'd all love a better, torquier engine, but y'know, it's the land of mileage kitna hai. For me, the purchase was made with the heart than the brain. I didn't turn off the brain completely or I woulda gone and booked a TPi. The Civic just appealed to me more than the Altis. And I'm someone who hates the ricer image. I do not want a spoiler or a body kit. I wanted the white paint, but was overruled by majority in the family. I will never put decals on my car. All go, no show for me.

OT : When I was waiting for my car to be delivered after it's fourth service, I saw this black Civic just about to be delivered with a vinyl on it, ruining the whole thing, to a proper ricer richkid. I went up to him and told him that he's ruining the car for the rest of us who own it and he's better off removing all the decals and the catastrophic vinyl. I pointedly asked him "Do you have brembo brakes? Do you have Pirelli tyres? Do you have a Garett turbo?"

I might have gotten punched in the nose, after all, it was his moment. But I saw the car later in the day at a local accessory shop getting the crap removed.

@viddy : Do you know how many more lakhs you need to spend to get a Jetta DSG? That too, a DSG box that is notorious the world over for being problematic, unreliable and expensive to fix. In our country, with the nearest VW service center being nearly 200KM away. We did consider it though. But we thought better and decided the money is better spent on petrol. And by we, I mean me.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by ImmortalZ

You do realize that most high end car's dashes, especially Euro boxes, are all digital? They just draw an old fashioned meter to keep it retro.

True....the digital bling on the Civic that I refer to is the read out not the tech behind it. Most modern cars use electronic speedos and tachos.

Dont get me wrong Immortalz (& other Civic owners), I like the Civic for what it is. High revving engines were a part of my life since the 1980s with that fantabulous Yamaha RD350LC liquid cooled 2 stroke, that generated 54 BHP in 1985-86, followed by the RX100 and Shogun. Worked in a specialist garage after my graduation for a few months before settling for a corporate career.

But as time passes by, when you buy a car for the family, you choose one that the family is comfy in and doesnt need red line RPMs to get it moving.

Rgds,