Road Trip

[sallytraffic]

When I signed up here in January and was planning to change my Accord for a Spaceship I promised to give a review of how I found the change. I have posted a number of comments so far, all of which had one 'rider' which was how I would find the comfort element on a long journey. Today I can give that report because I spent somewhere between eleven and twelve hours at the wheel of the Civic yesterday and covered 430 miles !!

Route was : Manchester-> London City Centre-> New Cross -> Wimbledon-> Hayes-> Manchester.

And the news is : Fantastic !! I had thought that I would not be able to manage a trip of that duration with the harder ride and the possibility of backache as the Accord seats are without doubt the most comfortable I have experienced.

The Civic seat did the job very well, a little backache occasionally but nothing that could not be relieved by a 15 min break and use of the cruise control.

The 'cruise' was essential to the comfort of the day. I used it to great effect, being blessed by constant speed traffic all the way from Manchester to the outskirts of London. I travelled mostly at between 65 mph and 70 mph and after about 43 miles the 'current' mpg reading was 49.4 as photographed by my passenger. By the time I got to the end of the M1 at London it was still around 48 mpg. A very long and slow trip through the centre of London to New Cross did not dent the figure as much as I would have expected, a lot of it was crawling along but by New Cross it was still on about 42. Then to Wimbledon with little change and back via Heathrow, M40 and M6. A total of 430 miles and a final mpg reading of 44.4 which will probably translate to 39 or 40 in reality.

The M40 was difficult because of the gritting in progress and I wanted to keep well away from the gritters. I did that but other cars passed me as I had had to slow to about 45 mph and some of them cut in in front of me throwing up the inevitable spray of salt and grit . In the end I pulled off the motorway and waited 5 mins before carrying on.

This morning I was dreading what I would find on cleaning the salt off. I was very happy to see a minimum of tiny dots of chips, nothing that needs immediate attention, very small but visible on close inspection because of the white undercoat on the NHB. There were 4 or 5 tiny marks, and that was all. Considering the rattling of the showers I got on a few occasions it was much less that I had feared. The second photo shows how well it 'scrubbed up' this morning with just a jetwash of suds and rinse, followed by a toweling dry and once over with a microfiber cloth.

Final comments:

1. Comfort:

I can't say it was *quite* as comfortable as the Accord but it was certainly very close and far closer than I had imagined it would be. I am not so sure it would have been so without 'cruise' which made a big difference. 15 min breaks every 2 hours also helped a great deal and is a good idea for safety too.

2. Fuel Consumption: (1.8 ES)

Well, I did once get 36 mpg (real) from the Accord but this is clearly better and again, I think 'cruise' helped here too. It is noticeable from the real time display that 'cruise' does better than even a very careful right foot. I probably could have got home on the one tank but wasn't going to take chances so added another 10 litres at 385 miles on the trip computer. I have to admit that I did accelerate hard in second when rejoining the motorways after a stop and got the rev lights coming on You cant help it can you ?

3. Stone Chips:

Not as bad as feared, if you are aware of the potential problems you can drive 'defensively' to some extent. Had I driven the way a lot of other drivers were doing I would have a lot of touching up to do today !

Overall impressions:

Wonderful !! All that time in the car and no problem at all. I did prepare mp3 cds and enjoyed music I had not listened to in years (Pentangle mostly )

And finally: Just to prove I had still not had enough, I got back at about 12.35 am and offered to take the wife for a run down the motorway to see the spectacular snow falling and the night time 'winter wonderland'. So off out for another 10 miles. That probably says it all

Fantastic. VERY pleased

PS. One other 'feature' comparing with the Accord was that the Civic is a lot easier to 'nip' into the right lane if you find you are in the wrong one ! That happened a few times at various lights in heavy London traffic !!

[sallytraffic]

Ooops, should this be with 'User Reviews' ? Sorry.

[HappyMan]

Excellent review ST. I have posted a very similar story ( in the 'user review' section ).

I am glad you enjoyed your journey and we come to the same conclusion that the car is fantastic for the longer journey.

In the summer I am planning to driver for about 12 hours so it will be interesting to see who that pans out.

Good Review, Good Car.

[sallytraffic]

Originally Posted by HappyMan

Excellent review ST. I have posted a very similar story ( in the 'user review' section ).

HM 1 ST 0.

[HappyMan]

Sorry ST, couldn't resist

[l-noel]

Very nice review.
I've the same feelings with my car, plusI think the confort coming from the diesel engine (less rev noise) on a motorway trip. In town I think the petrol is nicer... and the Hybrid even better.

[sallytraffic]

Originally Posted by l-noel

Very nice review.
I've the same feelings with my car, plusI think the confort coming from the diesel engine (less rev noise) on a motorway trip. In town I think the petrol is nicer... and the Hybrid even better.

Yes, I-noel, I was surprised that the higher revs than I was used to didn't disturb me but I guess I had my mp3s playing loudly

[HappyMan]

Originally Posted by sallytraffic

Yes, I-noel, I was surprised that the higher revs than I was used to didn't disturb me but I guess I had my mp3s playing loudly

Yea but the sound when you rev is great and I love it!

[gm1980]

When giong at higher speeds engine noice is amaizing... no bothering at all

[morten]

With the quite noisy michelins i can't say I notice higher revs in the engine. Great review by the way! I'll try to sum up my experience too after travelling 3500 miles with my wife and/as... luggage through europe in june this summer