God damn honda ... bloomin japanese companies ruining the british industry ...? not so - honda have a massive investment in the UK with a huge car plant down in swindon turning out loads of civics! My civic is a 94L 4 door VTI, not a particularly common VTI - most tended to be 3 door hatches rather than 4 door saloons. Just goes to show how wrong you can be ... having driven both I can tell you that the slightly longer wheelbase and better weight distribution makes this car a dream to drive. The 1.6 engine was the first to get over 100bhp per litre in a production car - yup, thats 168bhp off a 1.6! Normally the car runs in a more economical mode but when the revs hit the 5700 VTEC point the engine changes into a raging BEAST with an enourmous roar and powers off down the road. Gear changes come thick and fast and if you use all of the VTEC range from 5700 to the 8000 redline you'll find that each gear will only knock the revs back to just over the 5700 limit keeping you in the high power band. The plus side to this is that i get over 30mpg of this little beast of a car through country roads every day to and from work - theres no motorway crusing to keep my economy up its slow roads and town work all the way.
My friend asked me about honda's when he was looking at the new S2000 and i told him then that this is a car that you drive with a smile on your face, you cant help it - you dont have to go mad, it just makes you smile. He brought his S2000 and told me the other day that i was right, not a days gone by without a big beaming smile on his face whenever hes in his car.
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I was in one of these a few months ago and it was un-bloody-believable when it hit the VTEC zone. The damn thing turned from being a kitten into a big grizzly bear. The one I was in had been fine tuned and I have yet to hear a car (apart from a Ferrari 355) that sounds more glorious.
Advantages: Quite spacious, modern interior for its year. Small compact car good for around town. Disadvantages: Did not like the feel of the steering system.
madnesnz 25.02.2009 (25.02.2009)
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Review of Honda Civic 1.6 VTEC
Sep 19th, 2000
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