Honda Civic 1.8 i-VTEC Sport i-SHIFT

...The current, space age looking, Honda Civic is now becoming a familiar sight on our roads. Indeed, I think even Honda have been taken by surprise by its popularity.

At 4250mm in length it is a refreshingly compact competitor in the ever expanding family hatchback market, indeed it is a few mm shorter than its immediate predecessor, which was less roomy inside. The tardis trick has been partially pulled off by Honda abandoning their ...
...thanks to this change, the Honda would no longer be good to drive, would not ride well and generally would not live up to its sleek appearance.

From Honda's point of view this car is something of a milestone design. Previously butt of many jokes about producing pensioner's cars, the Civic did indeed sell in considerable numbers to those of advancing years all over the world. Large numbers of those were, naturally enough, ordered with ... more

WHAT IS IT?

The current, space age looking, Honda Civic is now becoming a familiar sight on our roads. Indeed, I think even Honda have been taken by surprise by its popularity.

At 4250mm in length it is a refreshingly compact competitor in the ever expanding family hatchback market, indeed it is a few mm shorter than its immediate predecessor, which was less roomy inside. The tardis trick has been partially pulled off by Honda abandoning their much praised fully independent rear suspension system, in favour of a much cheaper, lighter and more space efficient torsion beam arrangement.

That technical detail will mean little to the majority reading this, the press however were highly critical that, thanks to this change, the Honda would no longer be good to drive, would not ride well and generally would not live up to its sleek appearance.

From Honda's point of view this car is something of a milestone design. Previously butt of many jokes about producing pensioner's cars, the Civic did indeed sell in considerable numbers to those of advancing years all over the world. Large numbers of those were, naturally enough, ordered with the automatic gearbox option, a simple, plonk it in drive and go type of automatic, so very familiar to most of us born in the last millennia.

That was the old Civic. The boxy, reliable "safe choice" - breadvan styling and with a blue rinser behind the wheel. This is the new Civic, cutting edge design, appealing to the iPod generation of the twenty first century. Put a plain ordinary self-shifting gearbox in it? Oh no, not this time - Honda have come up with a new type of transmission, one that they would like you to think is as modern and advanced as their new car. They have christened it "i-SHIFT".

WHICH SPECIFIC MODEL?

The car that I am reviewing here is the 1.8 i-VTEC Sport i-SHIFT, which sits in the middle, in terms of price and specification, of the current five door Honda Civic hatchback range.

There is now the option of a three door Civic, the 1.8 petrol versions of which are also available with the i-SHIFT transmission. The three door version is a firmer riding, more sporty option, only available with the 1.8 petrol and 2.2 diesel engines. You are also able to specify the much less powerful 1.4 Civic with an i-SHIFT gearbox, presumably a model aimed at the more 'traditional' Honda driver.

The very popular 2.2 litre diesel cannot be ordered with an i-SHIFT transmission.

WHAT IS AN i-SHIFT TRANSMISSION?

In Honda's own words "i-SHIFT is a brand new 6-speed automated-manual transmission (AMT) that lets you choose between a sporty manual gearbox or easy to use automatic transmission". Well that is some claim and, if it actually proves to be true, this could be just the transmission that I have been dreaming of using for years.

The hardware of this system amounts to a surprisingly conventional looking manual gearlever, paddle change (+ to change up a gear, - to change down) switches mounted on the steering wheel and two, rather than three, foot pedals. Take a second look at that manual gearlever and its' movements are different to any other gear selector that I have used. Neutral and reverse are on the right hand side, pull back from neutral to go into reverse. In the normal central, i.e. conventional neutral, position there is sequential gear change mode, very simple push forwards (+) to go up a gear, pull back (-) to come down. Finally to go to into fully automatic mode, you flick the gear lever to the left.

This, theoretically, offers three entirely different driving modes. Next to the digital speedometer is an LCD display telling you which of the six gears you are in, or showing an A, N or R if automatic, neutral or reverse are selected.

IN WHAT CAPACITY AM I REVIEWING THIS CAR?

To cut a rather long and slightly sad story short, we were loaned this car whilst our own Honda Accord was in Chiswick Honda's body shop after an altercation with the insurance company over a previous partial repair following a hit and run incident in the church car park before Christmas.

During the first repair we were loaned an excellent Honda Jazz, equipped with the superb CVT-7 constantly variable automatic transmission. That is truly a car for the traditional Honda pensioner - simplicity itself to drive, smooth and quiet too. However, after a week in the Jazz, my wife, rather cheekily asked the body shop manager if there was "any chance" of borrowing a Civic.

"Like to try our new i-SHIFT?" was the reply.

Five minutes later we were sitting in his pride and joy, a 1000 mile, two month old mid-metallic grey Civic Sport.

Whilst the new Civic and its controls are entirely familiar to me, having driven both a petrol and diesel previously, the i-SHIFT gearbox was an entirely unknown quantity.

In some senses, what follows is a review of a new transmission rather than the Honda Civic itself, although as I was to discover, the transmission affects the Civic radically.

More than is the case with any car that I have ever driven, if you like the sound of i-SHIFT then, I recommend, at the very least, a "long weekend" test drive. It is very much an acquired driving experience.

COSTS

Honda are keen to point out that due to this not being a conventional automatic gearbox, there are, once the £700 initial outlay is paid, no long term increases in running costs.

Indeed, studying Honda's own statistics, theoretically you should actually be marginally in pocket with the i-SHIFT, it has a slightly lower CO2 emissions figure of 153 (against a still brilliant - for a 1.8 petrol - 156) and consumes marginally less fuel - 43.5mpg instead of 42.8mpg on average. Even if those figures can be replicated on the road, it would take you a VERY long time to recoup that initial £700!

In cold running cost terms, over a three year, 36,000 mile ownership period the Civic is going to cost you 40.5 pence per mile. That compares with some of its competitors:
Audi A3 1.6 - 35.9, BMW 118i - 42.1, Ford Focus 1.8 Ghia - 37.1, Mercedes A170 - 42.9, Renault Megane 39.0, Vauxhall Astra - 42.5, VW Golf 39.7.

The group 9 insurance rating is class average for a 1.8 litre petrol engine hatchback.

PURCHASE COST 9 / 10

At £16,250 the Civic, in Sports, trim looks something of a bargain. OK, there are omissions in equipment to pare the price down to £16,250 for this i-SHIFT model, but you are getting a lot of style and technology for that.

In no way does the sport feel a "poverty specification" model, coming as standard with such items as air conditioning, single slot CD player and very handsome alloy wheels.

THE OPTIONS GAME: 8 / 10 or "How much do I need to spend to make it habitable?"

You get what you pay for here. If you want a better equipped Civic then it makes more sense to head further up the range to an ES or EX. However, for whatever reason on this garage (Chiswick Honda) car, the full house integrated GPS, Bluetooth and voice command system had been fitted - more on this later - but at £1400 that is one expensive option to find on this mid-specification car.

Honda do offer an unusually comprehensive range of options on the Civic and you can just about order any specification on this car, various levels of stereo upgrades, interior lighting packs etc, see their excellent website for pricing details.

As always, a warning here, however desirable you may think these options are on your new car, please be aware that when you come to sell it, your lavishly optioned Civic will be worth very little more than a standard one. Most options depreciate by 100% after three years. After all you can now buy a very good portable GPS system for well under £400, making Honda's (superb) built in system look expensive.

DEPRECIATION 7 / 10 - Always the biggest running cost.

You will discover in a minute why, but I have a feeling that this i-SHIFT version of the new civic is going to be VERY hard to shift on (sorry!) second hand.

The used car market is always wary of innovative technology; it will not be the Civic's style that puts them off, but the gearbox. Consequently I am predicting that this semi-automatic will actually be cheaper second hand than an identical mileage manual version of the same car. In truth though, it is rather early to quantify that prediction.

At a predicted 48% retained value after three years and 36,000 miles use, the Civic will be worth about 10% less than its similarly priced (new) German competitors, but a good 10% MORE than its mainstream, nominally British ones manufactured by Ford and Vauxhall.

Incidentally, the Civic is entirely manufactured in Honda's plant here in Britain, whilst none of its competitors, unless you count the BMW Mini, are.

FUEL ECONOMY 9 / 10

I was both surprised and impressed by the real world fuel consumption of this car. OK it uses more petrol than my bigger, heavier, Accord uses diesel, but for a high revving 1.8 litre petrol engine my overall consumption figure of 38.3mpg was impressive.

That figure was produced over approximately 300 miles of very mixed motoring, one journey through central London was included in that as well as high speed (85mph) motorway cruising and driving around town here in traffic choked Brighton.

From previous experience all automatics in my hands have proven to be gas guzzlers. I get good fuel consumption generally from a manual gearbox car, but have never managed the same in an automatic.

In terms of fuel consumption, it looks as though there may be some justification in Honda's claims for the i-SHIFT transmission here.

SERVICE & MAINTENANCE COSTS 7 / 10: are you going to make the dealer rich?

No you probably are not, but from my own experiences with Honda servicing (every 12,500 miles or annually) they do cost more to service than a similarly priced Ford or Vauxhall.

However, unlike the majority of Ford and Vauxhall dealers, Honda garages have a good reputation and are popular with their customers. Included in every service is a supposedly free car wash, although I always maintain that I am paying for it in the £50 or £60 more expensive service!

Let the "fun" begin! You want to know what this car is like to live with and to drive and be driven in…….

THE EXTERIOR:

STYLING 8 /10: A very subjective category here.

Initially very much a "love it or hate it" design; the Civic is now appearing in sufficient numbers on the road for all of us to have become accustomed to it. As a fan of the Civic's styling - at least from an exterior aesthetic point of view I always liked it.

In Sport specification the Civic has a set of attractive 17 inch alloy wheels, which on "our" mid metallic grey car looked very smart indeed. However, it is strange how a couple of plastic blanking plates in lieu of front fog lights can visually down grade a car as being an "economy" model!

One point of note here, that if like me, you actually enjoy keeping your car looking its best and wash it regularly, thanks to its very smoothly styled rounded edges, the Civic is the quickest and easiest car that I have washed - partly thanks to that perspex panel across the front where you usually find water trapping grilles and louvers.

OVERALL BUILD QUALITY AND FINISH 9 / 10 Does it look as though it was slung together?

This, and all other new Honda Civics that I have seen and driven, should be a source of pride to the workers who build them in the vast Honda factory at Swindon.

The gaps between the body panels are tiny and all panels and fittings on this car aligned perfectly. It is notably better built than my own, Japanese produced, Accord diesel saloon.

SAFETY 5 /10 If it comes to the worst, how well are you and your family going to come out of it?

This is a bang up to date design and is therefore equipped with all the safety features that you would expect to find. It has an NCAP 5 Star Safety rating - which is the maximum score.

Take it out and about in the real world and it feels like a massively strong little car, it gives both driver and passengers the secure impression of riding in a much larger car.

There is though, a HOWEVER! Not to labour the point here - it is dealt with below - but rear and rear three quarter visibility is SO compromised that from the pedestrian safety point of view I have reduced the score here by one point.

Another two points fall by the wayside thanks to the poor car control offered the driver by the i-SHIFT transmission, there will be far more of these coming to grief, especially at low speeds than their manual gearbox counterparts.

THE INTERIOR:

ERGONOMICS 4 / 10 Before I can start the engine and drive away I need to feel at home in the "working environment". The relationship between the controls and how I, the driver, am able to instinctively operate those controls is, all important. This for me is make or break, before I drive a car, if it does not instinctively "feel" right in this department then I will never like it or ultimately buy it.

RICHADA is defeated! And by a Honda - of all cars! This car proved the ultimate test, and failed miserably.

OK the main challenge was posed by the car not coming with an instruction book.

This is not a car that you could ever master without such a document. A car with good ergonomics can almost be driven blindfolded, with Mrs R's assistance, after five days I had still failed to master some interior functions on this Civic.

Whilst the dashboard is an absolute masterpiece in design, I love both its sweeping style and multiplicity of digital read outs - far more Star Ship Enterprise than Blake's 7 here, but there are just SO many buttons and knobs controlling the functions.

Great, this one is fitted with the "ultimate convenience" - voice command, by which you are able to control everything from the climate control, through the stereo to the simply brilliant DVD satellite navigation system. With the instruction book, no doubt we would have been able to do that! As it was we both shouted at it, pleaded with it, whispered sweetly to it….ORDERED it - nothing!

Whilst the voice command and Bluetooth functions remained totally inoperable without the use of a manual, fortunately the Honda Navigation system can be manually controlled and was a piece of cake to input destinations. Furthermore, the map display screen at seven inches is fabulously clear and easy to read even when driving. The simple, well spoken voice directions are clear and unambiguous too. There is no doubt about it, were I to choose a Civic I would want the EX version which comes as standard with this superb system.

VISIBILITY: 5 / 10

You will never become fully acclimatised to the Civics' appallingly restricted rear visibility, a nightmare when reversing in the rain - this car had neither (optional) reverse camera nor parking assist radar, nor even a rear wash wipe system for the rear window.

Ordinary parking manoeuvres are almost impossible in this particular car - the i-SHIFT transmissions jerky and unpredictable progress making the visibility handicap ten times worse.

However, I did find one surprising benefit to the spoiler mounted across the centre of rear window. The new Civic is an extremely restful car to drive at night. That same visibility stealing spoiler is mounted at exactly the right height to stop completely the glare from following car headlights.

Forward and side vision is very good, particular praise should be applied to the "clap hands" windscreen wipers, which once you have get over the novelty of using; you will find clear almost all of the vast windscreen area of rain.

SPACE: 8 / 10: (And how to discover that sometimes a huge boot comes at a price!)

This does not look a big car on the outside. Inside it is incredibly spacious for four, even five passengers at a pinch only rear shoulder room for five appeared any less generous than in our larger Accord

The boot is square and very deep, complete with a false floor, provided at the expense of a spare wheel……

……the logic of which being along the lines of when did you last have a flat tyre?

RICHADA beaten by THIS Honda again!

The last time that I had a flat tyre and had to change a wheel was about five years ago….until this Honda turned up! Having been told by a colleague that "my" car was sitting on the car park with a flat rear tyre, I obviously had to do something about it. In a compartment in the boot was a can of tyre sealant and a compressor…….

……but in the car - NO INSTRUCTION BOOK!

There was no way that I was taking a chance playing with compressor and mousse, when the tyre would have to be repaired anyway. Call made to Chiswick Honda, my next was to Honda's impressive Roadside Assist service. I know how efficient these people can be - they recovered my stranded Accord from Poland last year following my breaking an ankle. It took them a couple of days to lay that on - they had this Civic back on the road in under an hour!

The AA man who came to my aid was not slow to criticise Honda and any other manufacturer who failed to provide any form of spare wheel in their car. It took him about twenty minutes to jack up the car and temporarily plug the hole left by a three inch screw which had gone through the tread. "Would you fancy having to do this on the side of the M25 on a wet Friday night rush hour?" was his passing shot - no, I'd really rather not contemplate that one!

STYLE 8 / 10:

If anything, the more of them that I drive, the more the Civics' interior style appeals to me. I am sure that the dashboard and sweeping interior curves are selling this car to many, and the good news is that when you actually live with one, day in day out, it proves not to be purely style over function as I first expected it to be.

I also like the Honda Civics' interior because it is so totally different to all the others, you could never mistake this for an Audi / Skoda or Ford / Vauxhall.

MATERIALS, FIT & FINISH 8 / 10: Aspreys or Ratners?

The interior materials are generally of very high quality, although the vulnerable lower plastic door panels on this car felt a little brittle and prone to scratching. The soft, warm seat fabric feels of particularly good quality and some of the dashboard plastics, particularly surrounding the stereo, appeared to be moulded in superior plastics to the original cars driven.

AUDIO & CLIMATE CONTROL SYSTEMS 7 / 10: Strange grouping?

The actual systems themselves are very impressive. Less impressive are the multiplicity of small and complicated controls. As already mentioned, the voice command system is supposed to get you around this problem, but without an instruction book, or previous experience, I defy anyone to make it work.

The steering wheel controls for the stereo should have been simple enough, but with the voice control comes Bluetooth - every time I pressed a steering wheel control I blacked out the navigation screen and silenced the radio.

ON THE ROAD……..

……Time to start it up and to offer you a driving assessment.

NOISE, VIBRATION & HARSHNESS 4 / 10 Silk purse or sow's ear?

Starting it too is unconventional. The gear lever has to be in neutral and your foot planted firmly on the foot brake before you can press the red start button and bring the Civic to life.

Before going any further, I am a fan of this particular petrol engine in the manual gearbox Civic. The criticisms that follow have to be purely due to the transmission and its installation here, this car feels every inch an unfinished prototype, let loose on the public far too early.

The rest of this, usually, refined car does its' very best to mask the inadequacies of the transmission, but fails IN SPECTACULAR FASHION. This is an impossible car to drive smoothly. There is a mechanical harshness totally missing in the manual car, the jerky take up of power at town speeds leads to the most uncomfortable drive that I have had in any car.

PERFORMANCE 3 / 10 Sh*t off a shovel or a constipated tortoise?

Very much following on from the last category, this is not a car lacking in performance. Honda do claim that it is around a second and a half slower getting to sixty miles per hour than the 1.8 manual, although at 10.4 seconds to 60, this car is by no means slow.

However, in this car, I discovered that there is so much more to performance than actual speed. The "quality of performance" here is frankly abysmal.

I tried driving it in every mode, desperately seeking one that would provide us with at least a smooth and relatively peaceful drive;

1) Automatic.

It is NOT an automatic gearbox, there is no torque converter to smooth the changes here, therefore however you attempt to lift the accelerator, or keep your foot planted, it never changes gear smoothly. The jerks between changes are truly awful, most learner drivers after a couple of lessons could do better than this with a gearbox and clutch. To my discomfort I also found it almost impossible to predict when the car was going to change down, lunging forward, sometimes just when I did not want it to.

2) Paddle shift control.

Taking manual control via the steering wheel paddles provides a more predictable drive in that you can bring about the changes when you want to. Still however the six speed gearbox jerks its way from one gear to the next, your head surging forward or backwards depending on an up or downchange.

3) Sequential gear lever control.

Pretty much the same as the paddle shift, except that the gear lever seemed to work in delayed reaction - rather like a 1950's "pre-selector" box. In the end I found that this was the method that I was using to drive the car, switching over to automatic once on the motorway, the only place indeed that this car felt at all at ease with itself.

The lower the speed, parking especially, or heavy town traffic, the more of a handicap I found this car to have. Parking between cars, especially on a hill - we have many here in Brighton - was a terrifyingly hit or miss experience, literally. Eventually I fell into the habit of lurching the car inch by inch backwards and forwards using the brake and accelerator at the same time.

In fact this is a car that you end up driving covering the brake pedal at all times, you can never relax with it.

In the hands of some of the elderly Honda drivers we have in this area, I am afraid to say that this car simply is not safe.

RIDE & HANDLING 8 / 10

Possibly the saving grace, jerky progress apart, the Civic Sport i-SHIFT rode and handled very well indeed. It is a firm, but not entirely sporting ride, the steering is direct and full of feel, unusually so in a modern car. Gearbox apart, this is a great car for most drivers in most moods on all types of road.

CONCLUSION - Would I buy one myself and would we want to drive it to Poland in a day?

Not in a million years! I am sorry Honda, but as a satisfied Accord owner and great fan of the latest Civic, I think I am within my rights to say that this new transmission of yours needs to go back to the drawing board.

Worse than that, I honestly believe that in MOST hands this transmission is actually DANGEROUS. There were times, particularly at low speeds, when I felt that I had little or no control over the movements of the car, being forced to use both brake and accelerator at the same time is a potentially lethal combination.

We were just lucky that there was no snow or ice on the ground whilst we had this car - had been the case, I would have simply refused to drive the Civic i-SHIFT.

The appalling jerks between gear changes are both annoying and uncomfortable, the very idea of carrying out a 1200 mile journey in this particular car makes my neck and back ache just thinking about it.

FINAL SCORE: 117 / 170 - 68.8%

To be honest, that is a highly flattering score for this car. It is only thanks to the Civic being such a good car in the first place and scoring well in some areas that it does not sink without trace here. This is made all the more perplexing when Honda have engineered a superb CVT automatic for the smaller Jazz model.

The Honda Civic i-SHIFT is the last car on earth that I would wish to own, or to recommend to you - thanks to the dreadful transmission.

Putting that score into perspective are the following cars based on identical scoring criteria:

ALFA ROMEO 147 1.9JTD Lusso (5 Dr) - 67.8%
FIAT PUNTO GRANDE SPORTING 130 Mjet - 75.9%
HONDA ACCORD i-CTDi Saloon - 80.0%
HONDA CIVIC 1.8i VTEC SE - 78.2%
HONDA JAZZ 1.4 SE CVT-7 (Automatic) - 74.7%
SAAB 9-3 TiD Vector - 68.2%
SAAB 9-3 TiD Linear CONVERTIBLE (2007 Mondel) - 74.1%
VAUXHALL ASTRA TWINTOP 1.9 CDTi DESIGN - 78.8%
VAUXHALL MONARO VXR - 71.1%
VW PASSAT TDi 140 S ESTATE - 71.7%
VOLVO S60 D5 SE - 70.6%
 

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