[sarathlal]

Very few things evoke so much passion in me than driving and love for cars is a hard to resist emotion. It was my grandfather, who used to bear the brunt of this passion, as I used to go on speaking to him about the various new cars that I see on road, the difference between an Amby and an 800 and so on. My mom, dad and my twin uncles were not spared either. Now, I consider myself the luckiest to have got my wife, who patiently sits through each of my such never ending lectures and shares an equal passion for my craze.

Bit of history
In the initial days, more than cars, it was buses that had my attention, and my 'career ambition' was to become a volvo driver. :P
It was the ad of Daewoo Cielo in 'The Hindu' (the car relaxing on the sea shore) that diverted my attention and love towards cars. Then it was the mighty Lancer, before I started drooling over the City and Civic.

Introduction to Honda
It was from my uncles, that I use to hear about a brand called Honda, and about its world famous, Honda Civic. (For some unknown reasons, I was never interested in super luxurious cars, though I wouldn't mind driving an Aventador if 'forced to' :P). The car with an airplane cockpit, those ads which shows the Civic zooming through the runway and the insanely stunning design, all these in one word, Pure Exhilaration!

The search
The choice was always between a brand new City and pre worshiped Civic. And I was very particular about the Civic being a 'pre worshiped' one and not a 'used' one (Blame GTO for that ).

For full three years, I was running across Kerala, in search of pre worshiped Civic’s with my uncle who painstakingly accompanied me for each of my journey. At home, me and my wife will do the classifieds hunt and finalize on set of ones to check out. Through these searches I found out that, Civic is one car, which is very difficult to buy as it is to sell off.
Most of the owners who were trying to sell the car are ignorant of the market value of the civic and will quote very high rate and are mostly very rude, on the pricing format. With this attitude, their cars won’t get the buyers and will eventually land up with the dealers after some frustrating period of time. Thus, they will lose some genuine buyers and the ones like me, some good cars.

I started off the process by seeing a 2006 Black VMT. Very well maintained car, and it was all gleaming, including the engine bay! No, they had not put it cleaned for selling, since I went and saw the car without much of a notice and at a place they least expected me. They came to attend a marriage which happened to be at a place close to where I stay, so asked whether I could check out from there. But had to let go, as I learned that the car had suffered from an accident.

There was one car from Ernakulam, which I had almost zeroed in (Got this from TBHP classified), a blue 2007 VMT model with 28k on board. Checked it out and was all good and really liked it. Told the owner that I will be back by Saturday, as the place was some distance from my hometown. But by Friday evening, the owner called up and said that another person had come and given the token. He was not really comfortable telling me this, but told that the person who came, had persuaded to sell him the car and he obliged as he was not sure whether I would indeed come back. The owner was an aged person and was really good in the dealings, so bid him good bye without leaving a sad tone, though I was terribly disappointed.

There were several other see-analyze-reject/negotiation fail cases also, but the other time, I came close was for a 2006 Black 32k on board VAT, with the second owner trying to sell the car. A business man, this was the first time, I came across an owner who was able to tell what an IVtech was. I liked this car as well, but he was very firm on the price, which was at least a lac more than what the value was, so had to walk off disappointed.

Meeting my Tiger!
On April 11th, at around 6 PM, was about to leave office, when I saw an online ad for the car. Seeing the location to be very near, I told my friend, and he was the one who pushed me to go and see the car then and there itself. Went and saw the car, liked it instantly. Had a small chat with the person and told we will come back, the next day, since I was not keen on inspecting the car in the dark. This was a single owner, WHITE, Dec 2010 VAT which had 15k on its odo, so was very skeptical on the price they would ask though.

The very next day, me armed with our PDI list and set of friends went to TD the car as promised. The beauty or rather the beast was so sparklingly beautiful that it was really hard to hide my emotion from the seller. Spent almost 20-30 minutes going back and forth and nitpicking on every possible detail visible. The car was very shabby, as it was not cleaned. But overall, apart from a small nick on the front bumper, and some scratches on the power window switch on the passenger side, couldn't find any signs of wear and tear or scratches.

We then took note of the VIN number on the door sill and also checked on the glass markings to ascertain on the car age and maintenance. After this, we took her out for the test drive. Ultra smooth and refined performance was the result and we all were pleased with the way the car performed. She was indeed the best Civic I had driven in all these three years. It appeared like I was the first person to check on the car after the ad was out. To prevent anyone else from abusing the car, even without talking on the price, gave a token amount and requested a day’s time for the final confirmation. They in turn promised, not to expose the car until I come back the next day. Big thanks to all my friends who took their time off to help me with their opinion.

This extra day was used to verify on the VIN number, and also went to the Honda showroom and requested for the vehicle history. With the seller’s consent over phone, they provided me the entire service history. It was all clean. Called up the insurance company and verified the claim details as well. This also came clean.

Now, went back home, discussed on all the aspects with family and returned back to the seller. My uncle also accompanied me and helped immensely with the negotiation. We sat together and the price was settled and the date fixed for the car delivery.

I take this opportunity to thank all those people who spread the word of hatred for Petrol and making this one Diesel loving nation. These kind of gems at this price would have been impossible otherwise.

The day the Tiger officially became mine.
April 18th, 11.30 AM was the time fixed for taking the delivery. We cleared all the financials at the said time and we were handed over the key. My wife, son, parents and uncle were there with me, savoring the moment I was dreaming all this while. Got my best buddy as well, to accompany me from office, and his expression on seeing the Civic for the first time was priceless (He was so used to hearing my, I bought a Civic' way too often earlier, so kept this as a surprise). I don’t know who gave the Civic its tagline of ‘Pure Exhilaration’, driving this is indeed, pure exhilaration!

Here's introducing my White Tiger,of whom I was talking about, to my T-BHP friends

This is on the day of delivery


Some random shots




Some experimental shots

[sarathlal]

Now, lets get little more on the ‘review’ part, though to be frank, since am in love with this machine, keeping it unbiased is gonna be tough, but I will try, here we go;

Let me start off with the car specifications;

• 2010 Dec Honda Civic VAT
• All parts are stock, including tires.
• 15500 Kms clocked
• Taffeta White
• Bought on April 18th 2012.
• Single owner, with full service history (1k, 5k and 10k done)
• Accessories; Reverse camera, satellite navigation, rear spoiler, Garware ICEcool

Service details;
Got the car on Wednesday, and we got her home after getting the Pooja done at temple. Had a temple run on the next day morning as well and these were our first ‘ice breaking’ session with our new one.

On Friday morning, fixed the appointment at our HASS and took the car in.
This was mainly for two purpose, to get the car thoroughly cleaned up and serviced before we start using it as our own. Secondly, the 15k service had to be done. Did the 3M interior cleaning as the extra stuff and the entire amount came to 5.5k including the oil change.

I utilized the opportunity to know more about the SA’s, technicians and the staff over there and found them to be extremely helpful. I didn’t get the User manual with the car, as the owner has misplaced it somewhere; it just had the warranty booklet. So ordered one new user manual for 250 Rs.

By evening, the car was good to go, all shiny after the washing and polishing, and an overall good first HASS experience.

Initial drive impressions;
As of today, the odometer reads 21230 Kms, that’s around 5730Kms in around 7 months. Scores of places we had seen that the car is a fun to drive car; it is indeed and purely additive. I bought the car purely out of passion and was intending to use it for long drives. But I was so addicted to it that, I began using it as my daily car and use it for office 3-4/5 days. And the baggage advantage of this was, on time presence at office daily, starting early to avoid the morning rush and enjoying the drive instead. The car behaves well for this 20 km a side daily drive.

Coming to the VAT part, Automatic is indeed a blessing in this age traffic, I started to appreciate it more and more once I started using this transmission. Like the recent Brio ad says, more time enjoying the drive rather than worrying about the drive is true for auto trannies. In another way, its kind of fun, where you tend to tell the car to slot up or down for that instance, and the car obliges as if we were tele connecting :P. Be it upshift/downshift, the Civic performs very closely to what we normally would have done. And if it gets naughty, we have the paddle shifters

Effortless overtaking is another activity that I could easily relate to, in terms of normal day to day drives. In an Alto, we have to calculate, re-calculate, get the right momentum set, before attempting to go ahead of a relatively speeding car. But in Civic, just press the throttle if you wanna go in front, irrespective of the vehicle type. (Grin in face while overtaking the Innova taxi’s who tries to step up when they see you overtaking). The car is ultra smooth and no unwanted outside noise peeps in.

The first long drive;
The first real exercise for the Tiger was given in the month of August, when we did a Tvm – Bangalore road trip via NH7. The 100 kmph 4 lane road is a drivers paradise, and with the Civic, savored the true potential of the car. The low stance and good ergonomic seating made sure that the drive was a pleasant and comfortable one. Me being a person who doesn’t like to test the car’s limits, (will feel a pinch if I feel the rpm is climbing :P), kept the speeds on cruise at 110 kmph most of the times. The only one instance when I stepped on was on a very long open stretch. Yes, if asked to, the beast will comply without blinking an eye.

Had couple of instances of mopeds crossing the road, out of nowhere, which prompted some hard braking. Could feel ABS kicking in, and the car didn’t show the slightest of difficulty in coming to complete halts from the > 100 kmph range. And the best part is, the passengers rarely notice the acceleration or deceleration if they are involved in chatting.

Though the drive was my first long drive, didn’t feel a bit tired even after a continuous 13 hour, 760 kms morning to evening drive (of course, breakfast, lunch, tea, small tea breaks were there ). That alone shows the build quality of the car, it’s at it’s happiest best on the long highways. Thanks to Civic, we had a really great time together as a family, crunching miles.

Oops, I had been writing and writing and this has gone bit too long, so let me summarize for the time being. Will keep updating as the journey continues.

The stuffs that I liked are;

• The looks, Beauty and Beast at the same time: It’s a 6 year old design, but still a stunning one to look at.
• White color: Amazing to photo-shoot.
• However hard one may try, its very difficult to get a car of this caliber at this price. Boon of present day diesel mania.
• Super refined R18A1: Had only read about it, but open up the bonnet and start the engine and feel, Goosebumps!
• The driving feedback, is pure bliss: Rightly weighted steering, one can literally feel the 'spaceship' moving around responding to our commands with the wheel.
• Interior quality: Squeak free, materials used are of great quality, and liked the dash texture.
• Mighty minor things like, driver seat adjust, the small blue courtesy light illuminating the gear knob area.
• Cruise control is a breeze to use. I use it liberally, not only for cruising, but also whenever i want to stretch my right foot, cruise on, relax a bit, and then back.
• Amazing stability at cruising speeds, feel very safe and planted.
• Last but not least, the VTech growl!

What I miss in this car;

• Could have had some bells and whistles, like steering mounted audio controls, Bluetooth, an additional aux point.
• Little wide for narrow or city roads.
• Boot space is not that great with respect to the car dimension.
• Ingress/Egress is a concern at the rear for older people.
• The fear of scraping on low quality roads.
• Poor rear visibility, especially, can’t see the curbs without engaging the camera.

[GTO]

Beautiful purchase, congrats on your pre-worshipped Civic! I saw the pictures before the text and thought you'd gotten yourself a new car .

The Civic is unbeatable as a used buy. My car is now marching toward it's 6 year (2.5 years of ownership with me) and there hasn't been a single niggle or problem. Since the time I bought her, she's only visited Honda for scheduled maintenance. The lovely engine, steering, space, quality & reliability are her endearing features. Best part is, the car is very mod-friendly (mechanicals & aesthetics).

Drive safe.

[girishglg]

Congrats on your gleaming and mint Civic. This is indeed one of the best picks in the pre owned market and one would hardly go wrong if taken care while puchasing. This car (current version) will be on our roads for many many years to come and still be contemporary.

By the way how much did your white beauty cost and what was the differential from the initial quote (as you mentioned sellers quoting high)?

[Nicky]

congrats for the purchase of your dream car and peaceful ownership time ahead.
surely it will put smile on your face everytime you sit inside. your addiction shows as you have made this car your daily commute already.
Honda used car prices are really high in market and it's really difficult to find one which fits in budget, logic and car condition altogether.
some interior pics would be great. can you share your purchase price please?

[rr_zen]

Congratulations on your wonderful buy ! The Civic is no doubt a terrific car and will give you miles and miles of unparalled pleasure. All the best and drive safe !

[arup.misra]

Congratulations on your Civic. There's a lot of passion in your hunt and I'm glad you found an absolute gem. This is one of the best enthusiast car to drive and to own a good piece is something.

Hope she serves you for a long long time with a smile. Drive safe and take good care of her.

[sarathlal]

Thanks all for the wishes. Am glad that you liked the car.

@girishglg, Nicky, I will soon post the financial details as well.

Since there isn't much done as extra on the inside, i thought I will skip the interiors initially, but will surely post couple of those as well.

Yes Arup, the search was indeed a long one, but to be frank I enjoyed every bit of it as I chose to do the waiting game. But all said, the one that I bought, the entire deal got completed in 4-5 days

[Accius]

Hey Sarathlal, I would love to see the interior pics of your car. Please do upload them. The pics you have uploaded are quite nice and different.

[VishnuNarayanan]

Congrats on your Civic !
I think you are another aspirant who got benefited from GTO's thread on lateral upgrading.
Glad to see another TeamBhpian from Trivandrum.
Wishing you a Happy ownership throughout
Drive Safe

[tacho9000]

Achtung baby. You've got one hell of a deal car. Many many congratulations on your new pre-worshipped car. It is indeed an exhilarating experience to own and drive. Keep us updated as you clock the miles and yes do keep a track of your expenses on fuel bill. That'll allow a lot of people to understand that a fun-to-drive automatic sedan can be very economical if driven correctly. Many many Congratulations once again.

Cheers,
Subhra

Didn't notice,you should put in a couple of pics of the interior.

[sarathlal]

Thanks all for the wishes.

Since there is chance that people would like to know of why a pre-worshiped Civic, I thought of putting in my thought here;

Before I go into detail, a quick note.
Buy the Civic if you really want this car for what it is. It is a high performance D1 segment car designed for spirited driving.
This neither means that you have to redline to get the smile on your face, nor does it imply that it will not give mileage. As the specs say, R18A1 engine will give you the performance of a 2.0L engine, while achieving the mileage of a 1.7L.

I bought it, because it was my dream, my passion. My friends started hearing about Honda City and Civic for more than a decade now

Now, the points that I could infer from experience:

Why you should buy a pre-worshipped Civic?

• Amazing value for money.
A new Civic's OTR will be around 16 lacs. Such is the market condition today for Petrol AT's, that within a year, the value depreciates by 30-40% or even more. So, there is a high chance for one to get a year old car for around 10-11 lacs, and a two year car for 8-9 lacs! Believe me, this car is indeed worth the 16 lacs, and just because of the market attitude, we are getting this value. At this price, a ~25k run beast with 130 plus horses at your command is a dream indeed.

• IVtec
Yes, the entire money goes to this mechanical marvel. Not even a single percentage of exaggeration when I say this. Open up the bonnet, fire the engine and hear that sound. Hear it to believe it! Pack up, get in, and push the accelerator, no need to redline it, but anything above 3500 RPM, and that growl, its mesmerizing.

It indeed takes a whole lot of 'self control' to keep the car in sane limits, as the engine is all ready for the go, the moment you let it go.

• Peace of mind ownership.
True to Japanese heritage, the Civic is a no-nonsense and reliable car. Treat her with dignity, and you will find her following you even after a decade. While searching for the car, I found many an owners, who had absolutely no complains on their cars. Am not sure of the number, but at least 8 of them told me exactly the same thing. 'Honda will keep calling for service, but ignore, you need to take her for service once every year, that's it. Our car is so and so years (mostly 2006 and 2007 models), we had been following this, and no problem till date'.

To give you another example, once I went to evaluate a 2002 Accord which I was planning to sell, along with the buyer. The Firestone guy just peeped outside the window and asked, 'Is that the accord you are talking about, with 80k miles?'. On nodding an yes, he told, it’s a Honda, Civic's and Accord's need to be worried about, after crossing a minimum of 150k miles!

• No unwanted niggles.
Civic is a CKD, assembled in India. Like Jazz, this is a global car, and the standard shows. Each of the parts used exudes quality, be it the leather material, dashboard, steering wheel, or the rubber beading's.
Everything you touch will have the quality associated. The doors shut with a neat sound, next only to the German's and the interiors are squeak free and elegantly placed.

• Very comfortable highway journeys
The low slung shape is a disadvantage for ingress and egress, but once you are in, you will be at your comfortable best. The front seats are nothing to brag too much about, but they are decent in offering the comfort, and with height adjust, tilt and telescope steering, finding the best driving position is fairly easy affair.
The interiors are very roomy, and 5 people can make the journey very comfortably. As I mentioned earlier, a straight 13 hr drive in the car was never a strain and was a delightful experience. The car's aerodynamic design helps in cutting through wind and the body roll is negligible.

• Automatic.
Play with the machine, is all what I could think of the VAT. Civic has got one of the best Automatic transmission in this range. The drive by wire throttle system has something built into it, which is outside my scope of understanding, so I will tell its practical behavior. Apply the throttle normally, you will never realize the gear shifts from 1-5, apart from the very minute gear jerks. The moment you press the accelerator or brake, the car downshifts liberally. No rubber band effect visible. Glide down a slope, the gear downshifts to offer you adequate engine braking by holding onto the RPM.
Now, most of the times, I am able to make out when my tiger will up shift or downshift. And it’s the play we have between us Use the Paddle shift if the beast tends to ignore your mind. Paddle shifts are active both in S and D.

• Cruise control.
Ah! The most useful feature, in terms of creature comfort. I use it quite liberally, whether it is for cruising, or for resting my right foot. Normally, on long journeys, at times one tends to relax the right foot; we tend to let the accelerator go for some time and coast. With cruise control, simply engage it, relax, and then get the control back.

One thing to notice is, if you are engaging the cruise control and for some reason you brake and thereby cancels the cruise, make sure you build up some speed, before clicking the 'resume cruise'. I once braked from cruise speed of 110, and clicked on resume at around 45kmph. The car simply rocketed from 45 to 110 in no time. The entire occupants pinned to their seats, literally.



Now, why you shouldn't buy a pre worshipped Civic?

• The real tag value of D1 segment car.
Even though one might get a decent Civic in the range of 5-10 lac rupees, it still is a 16 lac car at heart. So, be ready for some heavy bills on stuff like insurance, parts etc. Regular service isn't scary, but if you touch on the parts, it is going to be a completely different ball game.

• Boot space.
The boot space doesn't complement the car size. Packing in of luggage would require some neat planning and placement. If you place a decent ICE, then the space shrinks much more. So, have this in mind, if travelling with lot of luggage is a thing of need for you.

• Cannot go 'anywhere' in a Civic.
The first thing that I check before taking the Civic is on the road condition, including the width of lanes, parking convenience etc. This is THE biggest disadvantage that I see with my car. I also miss taking lot of short cut roads, which my Alto utilizes, thereby having to hit the normal road traffic.

• Rear visibility without parking aids.
Due to its size, backing up without the audio aid is kind of impossible. It maybe a personal problem, but I find it very difficult. I use the wing mirrors and the parking sonar extensively for reverses. And at times, the camera also is engaged.

• Ingress/Egress.
Well, this is the price you pay for a low slung sedan. With such a low entry/exit area, it is really difficult for people to get in and out of the car. And this also causes the door sills to have foot marks always.

• Depreciation factor.
Civic is a petrol, performance car. And our market doesn't favor anything that isn't diesel and without 15+ mileage, so the Civic after sales will take a beating. So buy it, only if you intend to keep it.

• Gizmos are missing.
Honda takes your cash for their engines, and will give you that and nothing more. So, with this amount of money, you tend to miss some additional stuff, which you could have got from other brands.


These are my personal takes on the Civic. Please feel free to add your comments as well.

[sumeethaldankar]

The car looks amazing buddy.Congrats on the same.Wish you thousands of happy miles with it.Rated this thread 5 star just going by the pics.Where exactly was the last pic shot ? ie in a basement or someplace else?

[sarathlal]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

The car looks amazing buddy.Congrats on the same.Wish you thousands of happy miles with it.Rated this thread 5 star just going by the pics.Where exactly was the last pic shot ? ie in a basement or someplace else?

Glad you liked it.
Yes, the last picture was shot in our office parking lot. My best pal, who is a photo freak, is always on the lookout for some good place and when we find, we go around with the Civic shooting. The first and the last pictures that I posted were his contributions

And nah, he is not always clean. See this one, soon after one highway trip. He is white and loves to play in dirt

[sarathlal]

Originally Posted by GTO

Beautiful purchase, congrats on your pre-worshipped Civic! I saw the pictures before the text and thought you'd gotten yourself a new car .
Drive safe.

Thanks GTO for the wishes and also for all the help during this thread compilation. As in to add more on a review perspective, I added one post which could be referred while deciding on a pre worshiped Civic as well, based on user experience.

Originally Posted by girishglg

Congrats on your gleaming and mint Civic.

Thanks girishglg. I will keep updating the details and experience.

Originally Posted by Nicky

congrats for the purchase of your dream car and peaceful ownership time ahead.
some interior pics would be great.

Thanks Nicky, adding couple of pictures I have as of now.

Originally Posted by rr_zen

Congratulations on your wonderful buy ! The Civic is no doubt a terrific car and will give you miles and miles of unparalled pleasure. All the best and drive safe !

Thanks rr_zen, As I love anything and everything cars, your views on the Civic on various threads were extremely useful at various stages.

Originally Posted by arup.misra

Congratulations on your Civic. There's a lot of passion in your hunt and I'm glad you found an absolute gem. This is one of the best enthusiast car to drive and to own a good piece is something.
Hope she serves you for a long long time with a smile. Drive safe and take good care of her.

Thanks arup, Yes indeed and I will be giving my maximum to take care of The Tiger.

Originally Posted by Accius

Hey Sarathlal, I would love to see the interior pics of your car. Please do upload them. The pics you have uploaded are quite nice and different.

Thanks Accius, adding couple of pictures I have as of now.

Originally Posted by VishnuNarayanan

Congrats on your Civic !
I think you are another aspirant who got benefited from GTO's thread on lateral upgrading.
Glad to see another TeamBhpian from Trivandrum.

Yes indeed Vishnu. Will try to catch up during the next TBHP meet.

Originally Posted by tacho9000

Achtung baby. You've got one hell of a deal car.
Didn't notice,you should put in a couple of pics of the interior.

Thanks tacho. adding couple of pictures I have as of now. Will keep shooting and will update as well, I have one photo crazy friend as well, whose favorite model is my Tiger

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

The car looks amazing buddy.Congrats on the same.Wish you thousands of happy miles with it.Rated this thread 5 star just going by the pics.Where exactly was the last pic shot ? ie in a basement or someplace else?

Thanks sumeethaldankar, and thanks to all those wonderful information that you share on Civic as well.
Thanks for the rating, it is indeed a joy to share the experience with you all.

Now some more pictures of the White Tiger.

Wide perspective interior shot



Close up on the dash controls



The tiger resting under the shades, in between its highway rounds



All ready to get a spa treatment



As much as he loves dirt, bathing is equally savored. On one such relaxed bathing session



The 'H'



The two tags, which means a lot



Casual chit chat with his younger sibling. My Alto enjoying the big brother's company.



Thanks for reading, this is my 200th post as well