New thread because this is the place to talk about cars that you’ve driven or sat in that aren’t your ride. Maybe you wished they were. Maybe you wished they weren’t. Either way, you have a strong enough opinion on them to talk about them, or something interesting about them. In fact you definitely do, this is a gearhead forum!
My car in question:
#10th Generation Honda Civic
What’s the deal with this car? Honda kind of dropped the ball with its lineup throughout the noughties. Anaemic engines, with irrelevant ageing valvetrain, making fun of sporting legends by insisting they remain overpriced, underpowered and then giving them a facelift as if that was the problem. As a brand, they’re struggling pretty hard in Australia, buoyed only by the fact they have excellent customer retention, but their market share is being snapped up by Mazda, Toyota and more recently, Hyundai and Kia. Especially Ford is making strides into the compact car market, with their excellent packages in the Fiesta and Focus across the range.
It’s no secret that Honda decided it was going to get its mojo back with a few things: 1) 2015 Civic Type R 2) 2015 NSX 3) 2016 10th Gen Civic. And after a prolonged period of boring and lackluster, it was going to take a lot to turn the haters around.
That’s to say that a lot of it hinges on how the 10th Gen Civic does. In a world where when one mentions Civic, people automatically say “why???” that’s an uphill battle. Honda responded accordingly, but this be the ticket?
###Open disclosure: I looked at, sat in, and test drove the 10th Gen Civic while my 9th Gen Civic VTi-S Hatch was in for servicing. Given that Honda’s retention rates are 60-70%, I am about that much biased. Then again, I actually drove the thing, so I’m also that qualified.
The 9th Gen Civic’s styling was controversial to say in the least. The 10th Gen references some more classic swoopy European coupe lines, but its fascia and rear are no less edgy. It’ll turn many off. It’ll turn many on. Personally, I think it’s great, but then again I’m an edgy person. People who don’t care about that will probably think “this looks a bit bigger than previous Civics”. They’re not wrong. Everything gets larger, it seems, on subsequent design cycles. But in this generation Civic, that’s very deliberate. There’s tons of leg room. And much more headroom than before, where it was honestly a bit of a joke. Obviously the hatch will retain the magic folding seats, but the sedan makes huge strides with a very roomy boot: 511L! Flat bottom. Still holds a spare.
Fortunately the chassis is all new, too, so the structural points are better placed, as a result rigidity is improved but the weight hasn’t gone up at all. The base model comes in at ~1260kg. The VTi-L upwards is 1330kg, the same as the previous hatch. Why the difference? That’s the interesting part: it’s all in the drivetrain.
Powering the lower tier models, is the outgoing R18A2 (I think), and the old automatic transmission. It seems that reviewers have somehow changed their tune to saying that this is “adequate”, when they were complaining before, but that’s just silly talk. This immediately strikes those trims out for me, because I’m much more interested in this newfangled setup that Honda is trying: a 1.5L turbo mated to a CVT with optional fixed ratio sequential.
Now that part caught my attention. Once again, it seems to polarise both Honda fans and haters alike: why are you putting together two bits of hardware that will cause maximum lag when your old powerplant and transmission was causing such crappy throttle response in the first place??? This is where driving the car matters: it blows away these misconceptions fairly rapidly and suddenly everything makes a lot more sense.
Sitting behind the driver’s seat, I’m a little sad Honda got rid of the two tiered dash, but apparently it was unpopular and they streamlined it. Now there’s zero redundancy in the instrumentation (unlike my own Civic, where every button seems to come in triplicate), funky digital readouts and a digital boost pressure gauge (my favourite). Too bad it doesn’t have any numbers, I’d love to know how many Bar this thing runs. I asked the salesman guy and judging by the numbers he was throwing around, he was pulling it out of his ass, but then again I guess they weren’t exactly expecting such questions because the Civic is now apparently deep in “not an enthusiast” land.
That’s a shame, because the car handles beautifully. They FINALLY got rid of the stupid Mac and Torsion setup so now it’s all independent coils. There’s no understeer. There’s hardly any roll. The electric steering is much better weighted and now conveys ample road feedback. The salesman actively encouraged me to throw it into the corners, around the roundabouts, oh, no you can definitely go a lot harder than that. And the damper rebound is tuned just right (for Australian roads, which can vary from silky smooth to rougher than a mud brick shithouse from street to street).
But the biggest question is, how’s the drivetrain? Now, where I’m biased, is because I’m coming from the 9th Gen Civic which has one of the deadest pedals in the world history of cars ever. Sure, it goes, eventually, but you do have to give it a righteous prodding. Not so the 10th Gen. Turbos spool up at 1700rpm, and give you free rein over 210Nm torque until 5500rpm. Max power is 170hp, a significant improvement, that will see 0-100km/h in anywhere from slightly over, to slightly under 7s. This I find… adequate. And not bad considering that on a mixed cycle the car should return 6L/100km (but of course manufacturer claims… they claimed 6.1 for my current Civic, and really after 44000km that’s more like 6.9, with a fair bit of highway driving, and 7.3 with a more balanced mix. And I’m no leadfoot.)
Back to the new Civic. It’s just a moment on the throttle and then along comes this big hand to give you shove, certainly a new feeling for a Honda. Turbo lag? Hardly any. What about the CVT? Some people find they get unnerved by the difference in the drivetrain behaviour, particularly the feel and the sound and not knowing where they are in relation to the ratios. Yes, it is new, but consider that many slushboxes are such these days that you don’t know what the hell your torque converter is doing anyway. And don’t get me started on hybrid electrics. Conceptually, the CVT’s advantage is that it puts you where your power ought to be, and keeps it there where you want it until you back off. It’s bad if they suck, and are too rubber bandy, but Honda did its homework and delivers a responsive, tight unit. There is some lag, naturally, but it’s no more than a quarter of a second at worst. That’s probably unforgiveable in enthusiast land, but for everything else in civilian driving land, this does tick a lot of boxes. And if that’s not your thing, then switch to sequential mode where the gearbox has seven preselected ratios you can flick between. Unlike the 9th gen where it felt like an afterthought, this is now an involving process and you can seamlessly switch in and out of modes where you want to gear brake, tackle a sudden change in incline, preempt an overtake…etc.
What’s the overall verdict on the experience then? Honda has responded to criticisms not only by addressing very valid criticisms of previous models, but also innovated in many ways to deliver a car that is more intuitive to drive and live with. I haven’t mentioned the digital interface, or the safety features, but they too have been treated the same way.
Likes:
- Not everybody is, but I’m a fan of the styling
- A good turbo + CVT makes a lot of sense if you’re open-minded enough to try it
- Steering feel is now not only present but good. 2 rotations lock to lock is convenient
- Handling is now class leading. Better watch out Mazda3!
- Leg room is now also class leading, alongside Ford Focus
- Boot space is class leading by a significant margin, holy shit
- Visibility is no longer quite as shitty as it used to be
- And where it is, passenger-side lane changes come with camera assist
Dislikes:
- Why only turbo in the mid to high range trims? Boo!
- Honda Australia said a big NOPE to manuals ever, this isn’t a huge concern for me because I like the CVT, but cue angry hand and foot shufflers…
- Complete bevy of advanced safety features only available to the top end model which, in Australia, is priced at 39K AUD, like, hell no 40k for a Civic I’m not that fanboy
- There’s this trim called the RS. It’s basically a VTi-L with a bodykit. And different coloured trim. And a rear spoiler that does sweet fuck all. And leather seats. That will set you back an extra 4k. Sure, it looks good and all (in a slightly douchey way), but who pays for that!?
- Also lol Honda y u call it RS when we know real RS cars mean Ford RS and Audi RS. Now I know for Honda, Type R is where it’s at and the Type R is a proper shake-em-up car, but you could have named it something other than RS…
- I’m going to miss the lever handbrake. I didn’t have the heart to tell the Honda sales guy that I like doing handbrake turns…
Overall: 8/10. A big step forward for Honda, but some of their bad marketing habits prove difficult to break and may turn off potential buyers. It offers some things that other cars don’t have, but at the same time, other cars still offer some things it doesn’t have:
Mazda3: better throttle response, NA engine built out of voodoo and witchcraft, apparently. But also horrendous leg room and literally class worst boot space effectively rule this out for me. I put a lot of shit in my boot, a lot of the time.
Ford Focus Trend: cheaper more comprehensive package. Better warranty. Safety package still optional but at least available for reasonable price. Bigger LCD screen, if that’s important (not for me it isn’t). But execution still has several rough edges.
Hyundai i30: does everything a little more cheaply, a little less well. You could avoid the Euro gouge and go for the Elantra, which is cheaper still, but my brother has one of these and the trim is literally falling apart, and that’s throwing me off.
VW Golf… uhh… 92 Trendline? I guess? I don’t know why people keep buying this thing anymore. I could never. Too damn boring. And underpowered. And some rave on about how the DSG is amazing and shit but it’s still notchy as hell in peak hour. And you pay more for it because it’s popular. I’d spring for a GTi, but goddamn, the price hike.
Toyota Corolla Ascent: Australia’s top selling car, apparently it’s good value. I wouldn’t know, the Toyota dealership was a ghost house, which was weird.
So what I’d do is probably wait a couple of years and hope that it doesn’t prove quite competitive enough, so Honda extend all the cool stuff to the lower models. Then I could consider not spending upwards of 30 grand on one. But frankly it does hold a number of big drawcards for me in a good combination, so it’s a strong contender for when I decide to trade in my current car, which is to say, probably another 2-3 years or so, before I have to replace too many pads and rotors thanks to the quirks of my car’s setup.
