Honda, as usual has made the Civic a delightful car to drive. The manually adjustable seats are easy to adjust and I can get comfortable in about 30 seconds of fiddling with the controls. Passenger adjustments are the same as for the driver and I have to admit that the passenger seat is just as nice to be in.
Those relegated to the rear would find space a bit limited if I were driving. The gap between the front and rear seats is a bit on the small side if I drive and my 187 cm tall son sits behind me. When he sits behind his shorter and more accommodating mother, he has a decent amount of space. My regular sized son can sit behind be in good comfort. Long, tall and skinny even has a comfortable amount of headroom while the short lineman finds hip and shoulder room to be decent.
Being domesticated with a Civic is pretty easy since Honda puts a bit of performance into every vehicle. In fact, Honda tends to showcase all of its new technologies on basic and entry level cars. There are no major changes this year, just some fine tuning of the Civic package. All 140 horsepower comes from a SOHC, 1.8 litre, i-VTEC inline four with 16 valves. Transmission choices consist of a buttery smooth, boy racer five-speed manual or a five-speed electronically controlled automatic with grade logic, that is nearly as much fun as the manual gear box.
A very non-grocery-getter suspension keeps the Civic comfortable on the straights and in the corners. Up front Honda uses a MacPherson strut suspension with a control link as well as a stabilizer bar. Making sure the rear stays where it belongs is the job of a double-wishbone, reactive link suspension and a stabilizer bar.
Some purists think that double wishbone suspensions should be used on everything, but Honda claims that only in extreme conditions is the double wishbone set up better than a MacPherson strut. The MacPherson strut is a tidier package and leaves more space under the hood for motor.
All I can tell you is that zipping from place to place, dodging the holes and broken pavement was fun. The suspension wasn’t too harsh for those times I miscalculated and actually hit one of those craters. Going in and out of parking spaces was as easy as making a lane change. All the corners of the car are discernable and the electric power assist on the steering kept wheel effort low.
In grins-per-kilometer, the Civic is still high on the list of cars to drive!
photo:Charles Renny
Those relegated to the rear would find space a bit limited if I were driving. The gap between the front and rear seats is a bit on the small side if I drive and my 187 cm tall son sits behind me. When he sits behind his shorter and more accommodating mother, he has a decent amount of space. My regular sized son can sit behind be in good comfort. Long, tall and skinny even has a comfortable amount of headroom while the short lineman finds hip and shoulder room to be decent.
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| All 140 horsepower comes from a SOHC, 1.8 litre, i-VTEC inline four with 16 valves. |
Being domesticated with a Civic is pretty easy since Honda puts a bit of performance into every vehicle. In fact, Honda tends to showcase all of its new technologies on basic and entry level cars. There are no major changes this year, just some fine tuning of the Civic package. All 140 horsepower comes from a SOHC, 1.8 litre, i-VTEC inline four with 16 valves. Transmission choices consist of a buttery smooth, boy racer five-speed manual or a five-speed electronically controlled automatic with grade logic, that is nearly as much fun as the manual gear box.
A very non-grocery-getter suspension keeps the Civic comfortable on the straights and in the corners. Up front Honda uses a MacPherson strut suspension with a control link as well as a stabilizer bar. Making sure the rear stays where it belongs is the job of a double-wishbone, reactive link suspension and a stabilizer bar.
Some purists think that double wishbone suspensions should be used on everything, but Honda claims that only in extreme conditions is the double wishbone set up better than a MacPherson strut. The MacPherson strut is a tidier package and leaves more space under the hood for motor.
All I can tell you is that zipping from place to place, dodging the holes and broken pavement was fun. The suspension wasn’t too harsh for those times I miscalculated and actually hit one of those craters. Going in and out of parking spaces was as easy as making a lane change. All the corners of the car are discernable and the electric power assist on the steering kept wheel effort low.
In grins-per-kilometer, the Civic is still high on the list of cars to drive!
photo:Charles Renny
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