If you can afford 15grand & insurance gr.9, 1.8L is certainly better than 1.4L.
I once test drove Civic 1.4(14grand+ins gr.4) and Jazz 1.4(12grand+ins gr.4), stability & confort on motorway was so much better on Civic 1.4.
In the end, I went for 1.8 Civic, though.
