Team-BHP - Honda Civic : Official Review

Honda should switch the transmissions. Who on earth is at the variant management over the last 3 to 4 years must be fired!
The Civic diesel automatic would have been a good reliable choice for many. Manual diesels hardly sell in this segment. A petrol manual would have also reduced the starting price for the car.

The Skoda Octavia is cheaper and much better. Then there are cars like the Innova, Hector and Harrier now which offer more practicality for the same money.

Even the already overpriced Honda City ZX CVT offers 90% of the Civic at 60% its price.

Overall, its an overpriced car destined to flop. Honda will start discounting the car in a few months. The CRV has discounts of over 2Lakhs already!

CVT transmissions sap performance from any engine when you want to drive hard. :OT

As an owner of a 2018 Corolla CVT, I know how frustrating it is to press the throttle, hear a loud drone and go nowhere. But the efficiency gains are truly spectacular when driven sedately, I routinely get 10+ kmpl in mild traffic in Bangalore. In heavy traffic it falls to 7.5 kmpl (Silk Board, Bannerghatta Road), but highway mileage when driven constantly at 100-120kmph is a clear winner at 16kmpl.

Agree interiors are mediocre, ICE is terrible, but space & ride quality in any D1 sedan is much better than a City segment sedan. And the daily usage pocket penalty in running cost isn’t significant. And any Japanese D1 offering will outlast the owner, reliably.:Shockked:

Actually surprised more people who buy top-end Honda city or Verna, don’t end up upgrading!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enigmatic (Post 4621934)

Amazing review of an amazingly average car.

I own the 8th generation Civic and had my eyes on the 10th generation. Specially the one with the 1.5L turbo charged petrol engine. An upgrade made perfect sense, mostly because of the nostalgic factor and the 1.5L turbo charged petrol engine seems to be a cracker of an engine. What we do end up getting is, after a wait of no less than 6 years since being discontinued, the same commuter engine.

I just cannot understand where the Civic sits in today's market. Apart from the looks and peace of mind of owning a Honda (which in my personal experience has been deteriorating), what exactly does the new Civic offer?

If you want:
1. A fun to drive car, you'll pick the Octavia;
2. A car for back seat comfort, Corolla it is (recently had a ride in the Octavia and that too was impressive. Heck, the City (which my father drives) provides better backseat comfort than the Civic);
3. Complete peace of mind, you'll obviously pick the Corolla; and
4. A mix bag of everything with sufficient style thrown in, the new Elantra is one hell of a car.

And the funny part is that all of the vehicles mentioned above cost less than the new Civic.

The thing going for the 8th generation civic was that it was a fun to drive car and it stood out from the crowd. While this one does retain the style quotient, it loses out on everything else.

Completely agree! The Elantra seems like the most well-rounded package, especially at the price. I think the Civic will post the highest numbers on looks alone though. My GF's dad bought it in April and can't stop beaming when the parking attendants excitedly stare it every time!

Brilliant car with an excellent review to boot. Really sad that it didn't come with a petrol manual. Even the 1.8 litre engine was palatable, but no manual is a deal breaker.

Hope they launch the petrol manual in the near future. Will cut a cheque without thinking twice.

On a related note, anybody know anything about a prospective petrol manual?

Great review as always Kanad! Rating it 5 stars.

The car itself is confusing. Blingy looks, but without the required performance oriented engines. Doesn't match for the enthusiasts (more so without MT), nor the typical chauffeur driven executives (especially with the low seating).

My upgrade from the City (whenever it happens) won't be having the Civic in the shortlisted candidates. At least in its existing avatars.

So, when nobody wanted a hybrid, they offered one. Now, when the market is ripe for it, when people are talking about hybrids being a better current bet than electric, and when the Chinese and Koreans are beginning to flood the market with options, Honda chose to not offer one? Honda's decision to axe the hybrid models globally at a time when they're starting to become the norm is beyond me and is just one of my many frustrations with the Honda of today.

Recapping when we drove the car in February.

Chassis is pretty chuckable and sporty driving position. I never suffered any backache.
Our route was Taj Devanahalli - Nandi Hills, swap to the diesel at the top and back down again.

Petrol mooed a bit, it did not like hard cornering from the airport onto the Hyderabad Road. Uphill, all the power was invisible, engine was ballistic while the transmission was over-elastic. I could barely keep up with an averagely driven Baleno diesel. The other issue was the poor sense of control on engine braking through the CVT.

Switch to the lower powered diesel, it felt just right, the gears were slick and keep it in the powerband and it was good fun. Took it down and went back up the hill again. Not so nose heavy as expected. I was clocked going at least 5 seconds faster uphill.

Transmission aside, not a bad car. Those looking to keep and change every 10 years, might want to consider this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by venkyhere (Post 4622051)

- manual sunroof ? the whole point of a sunroof is to show it off like peacock feathers to guests in your car ; manual would mean the feathers have no colour.

I think what the reviewer meant was that the sunroof cover is manual and not that the sunroof is manual.
IF the sunroof is manual, it's a first that I have heard ofstupid:

A great review clap: Thanks for sharing!

A few observations from my side:
-The City gets a classier frameless auto dimming IRVM and LED rear HMSL which the Civic does not have! The Amaze has scuff plates too! Also, a folding rear seat would have been a welcome addition, as it has the smallest boot in its segment.
- May be it is just me, but the alloys just don’t cut it out for me. They look garish and IMHO, 17” is a pretty large tyre size for a sedan.
- The side marker lamps are useful at night. IIRC, the only other car to have this was the erstwhile Hyundai Elantra (first generation).
- The ORVM design looks very futuristic (like a concept car). I liked their design a lot!
- The interiors are good; what lets it down is part sharing with cheaper cousins (ORVM controls, push start stop button, wiper/headlight controls).
I am pretty sure that the City and Civic share the same LED headlamps and fog lamps too (perhaps to save costs?). Can anyone shed some “light” on this (Pun intended)?

Had a test drive of the Civic CVT 2 days back and this review could not have summed it better or come at a better time. A close friend of mine was looking at a sedan in the 25 lakh range and we had a long test drive of the civic.

The build quality and agile handling really stood out, even the interiors are very sporty, i had not expected the car to drive so good and be so nimble but it ended there. The biggest disappointment was the engine itself, the car really begs for the turbo charged engine, the cvt makes sense in small hatches but not in a car costing 25 big ones. Sedate drivers can manage but you have to work hard to extract performance out of this combo, sadly we shelved the plan to buy civic. Wish this car had a turbo charged petrol, with Honda's reliability and those looks, we would have booked this car.

Before anyone says Octavia, Skoda India does not really exist for us since he had a Rapid prior to this and we had a nice taste of the poor reliability and non existent support by parent company. The escalation matrix with VW/Skoda is such that all mails come back to dealer and you are at his mercy, on top of that they find reasons to reject warranty claims. The Octavia is a great car but its a pity it is sold by Skoda India, infact the day he sold off the Rapid, he had vowed he would never buy a VAG product till he is alive.lol:

Now, we are looking at pre owned 1-2 years old 3 series or C class and we are getting pretty great examples, let's see where the search ends.

Guys, I know that our "back pain" comment has raised a lot of questions, so thought I'd offer some more pointers.

1. The Civic is the only car I personally felt back pain in, after a 2+ hour drive. I have a strong back and as far as I can remember, no car I've driven in the last 5 years has caused me lower back discomfort.

2. Note: This was only in the MT, and not the AT. I'm guessing the dead pedal of the AT helps support the body / spine in a way, while the left leg is very busy in the MT.

3. I would attribute it to a combination of factors = the super low seat, soft cushion area behind the lower back and lack of adjustable lumbar support.

4. I was curious to know if others have complained about the same. Internationally too, several owners of the 10th-gen Civic have started threads on back pain (lots of forums & threads from the USA on this).

5. As you all know, I used to own the 8th-gen Civic. In that model too, lower back pain was a frequent owner complaint.

6. Lastly, Blackwasp experienced the back pain too. He is just 26 years old & hasn't had back discomfort in any other car.

It is a matter of surprise that one of our not so friendly neighboring country whose economy is not as strong as ours seems to get the 1.5 Turbo version while we do not. However I would prefer the 2.0 Litre NA engine which we are also not getting. It seems the earlier versions of the turbo Civic did had some issue which may have been sorted out by Honda.

What is the reason behind the un-Civic like performance from this version? The old 1.8 engine is a good engine and I owned the eight gen for a healthy 7 years and have driven it over 75k kms. Is it the CVT that kills the performance but wouldn't the sport mode have better acceleration?

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 4622768)

Guys, I know that our "back pain" comment has raised a lot of questions, so thought I'd offer some more pointers.

Surprisingly, the 2019 Honda City that I purchased earlier this year, has been pretty good in terms of lumbar support. I have suffered from back pain on and off and hence did multiple test drives before purchasing a new car, since driver seat comfort and support was of great importance for me. Have driven the City now for around 3000 kms, and I find the seat to be very comfortable and with good lower back support, including on long drives.

Honda cars, especially the Civic have had a reputation of having very low seats, and when I sat in the new Civic, it felt way lower than the City's seat, with ordinary lower back support. I am not surprised, therefore, at reports of back pain in this car. Absence of lumbar support at this price level is definitely unexpected.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 4622768)

1. The Civic is the only car I personally felt back pain in, after a 2+ hour drive. I have a strong back and as far as I can remember, no car I've driven in the last 5 years has caused me lower back discomfort.

5. As you all know, I used to own the 8th-gen Civic. In that model too, lower back pain was a frequent owner complaint.

I have the 2010 AT Civic and had the same complaint initially. After experimenting with the steering rake/reach and the seat at the highest level with the adjuster, it's been comfortable ever since.

Since the passenger seat does not have the height adjuster, without a memory seat cushion, its definitely uncomfortable within a short while.

Does the new Civic come with a height adjustable seat? If yes, did you guys try out various positions? If not, maybe someone could try it out and let us know if that helps.

Cheers