I was in the pub with some friends the other night, discussing ambitions. As a student, my ambitions are limited - have enough money to feed and water myself, and turn up to enough classes to get a degree. But it got me thinking - what could I be? I've always figured I'm young, free, and will be rich just as soon as I get a job, and my ambitions will spring from there.
Then I realised, that, despite my 19 young years, I've been privileged to drive a decent number of cars. And they weren't all Fiesta's either. VWs, Mercs, Audis, Porsches. I've done pretty well for myself. That was in Switzerland, where real money is used to play Monopoly and the classy way to buy things is with gold bullion. A recent move to the UK brought the shutters down on my dream life.
All of which was a very long way of saying I needed a new car. And for "me" to get a new car, I needed to convince my mother that she really wanted to buy the car I wanted. So as much as a Subaru Impreza would
have been nice, chances are it was going to be a Golf. But then we ran into a Honda. Not literally, of course, but I had never really given Hondas a second thought - I knew, vaguely, they made a couple of sporty things like the NSX and the Type R. Not really Mum material.
The Civic, on the other hand, is perfect Mum material. On first impressions, you get a lot for your money - fake-leather seats, a reassuringly tactile steering wheel, big dials just on the demure side of happy, the gear stick in a rather novel position on the dash. Sitting in the car, you think, "this must have cost a lot more than £9,995" - well originally it did.
Sitting in our drive is a 2001 model with 3000 miles on the clock. Brand new, a 1.6 VTEC SE auto will set you back a nifty £12,255, with bottom feeder 1.4 E manual leaving you £2,860 richer at £9,395 and the rip-roaring 2.0 i-VTEC Type R is defintely only for those that can afford the £15,340 price tag and the subsequent oversize novelty cheque from the insurance boys.
So 1.6 is safely middle of the road, and that pretty much sums up this car. I like cars to have a bit of grunt, and whilst the engine isn't that big, it certaily has grunt. Yes, putting your foot down creates a huge amount of noise and absolutely nothing happens. But if you wait, and wait, and wait a bit longer, you suddenly find yourself eyeballing the car behind and your neck three inches longer than it used to be. It's like turbo-lag, only without the turbo. In fact the first few times this happened, I had to check behind me to make sure I hadn't been rear-ended.
Fortunately, whilst the car does 0-30 pretty neatly, beyond that it puffs itself out and demands a break before continuing on to 40 and a comfortable cruising speed of 100mph, as reported by my Mum. I simply refuse to believe this - the comfort zone of this little Civic should be 75mphs max - beyond that, the light steering means a sneeze at the wheel could launch you across a half dozen lanes.
And whilst it's alright in a straight line, I wouldn't recommend this as a car for taking up a mountain - sharp bends at any sort of speed tend to give it the frights. The steering feels like it's only half-heatedly directing the wheels, the suspension goes down, but hasn't figured out how to come up again, and the chassis has all the rigidity as the man in Boots buying that pack of viagra. I'm sure the sport-spec Type R has none of these problems, and Honda was hardly expecting a young hoodlum like myself to be let loose at the wheel of their "SE" models - and normally I wouldn't even complain, except for one thing.
The Civic suffers from the princess-and-the-pea syndrome. Should some thoughtless council worker leave some road paint - or worse, a cats-eye - on the road, the Honda will launch itself into the air in surprise as it runs over it. This is a car that for the most part feels more expensive than it really is, but they must have designed the suspension after spending all the money on the seats.
But I'll forgive it that - the harder ride compensates for the dreary steering, and I've a new-found skill in avoiding cats eyes, dead animals, pebbles...anything that may scare this poor thing.
I could forgive it a lot more too, simply because of the looks. Not stunning, certainly, nor a future classic, but the front end isn't something you'd want to mess with, and the three door version certainly has at some stage inheireted some coupe DNA. In a market where hatches are getting uglier - the new Golf being the pinnacle of evolutionary bad ideas - the Civic is up there with the Peugeot 307 as the best lookers - sharp, angry, shapely.
The boring stuff - it's cheap to run and returns pretty mileage per gallon. Comes with a three year warranty, and Honda's are famously reliable anyway. We have had no experience of the Honda dealerships so far, and touch wood, won't do in the near future beyond standard checks. No major depreciation issues, NCAP rating of four stars front and side, and even three out of four for pedestrian safety. Nifty double-locking feature, as well as an alarm fitted to the SE models, but it wouldn't hurt to have an immobiliser fitted if only to lower insurance premiums. ABS, central locking, a sprinkling of airbags (front and side), traction control.
The verdict is simple: This is the Ronseal car - does exactly what it says on the tin. It's well equipped without being luxurious, it's nippy without being sport, it's practical without being an estate. If you're in the market for a new hatch, this has certainly got to be a good contender.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Great review! Your lucky to of had the chance to drive those sports cars. Unfortunately im only 19 myself and I am a bit of a girl racer, so the handling and set-off speed is majorly important to me, I can't sort the looks out myself. Thanks for the tips. Shell x
JulietHarvey 20.11.2004 16:27
Try to new 2004 version. It is heaps better and has all the bits and bobs you long for!
Modena 13.08.2004 00:41
A very useful and detailed review. I think you are seriously privelidged to have the driven the cars you listed!
Aug 12th, 2004
very helpful by (86%):
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