Farewell to my Civic

[amronno]

Originally Posted by rhodgreen

You'll hopefully see a drop in your petrol bills in that case! - I suspect another flaw in Honda's marketing campaign when we bought our cars...."1.8 - the performance of a 2.0 with the economy of a 1.6" - don't know which 1.6 they were referring to! Do they still state this?

NOPE! Not 'another' flaw in Honda's marketing campaign.
What kind of nonsense is this.
You may keep moaning against Honda, but I don't think you will get much symphaty moaning about their engines.
Actually it says the economy of an 1.5 liter and the performance of a 2.0 liter.
Oh yes, it delivers what promised in both aspects, no doubt. It has fulfilled my dreams. It has even better performance figures than for instance Mazda 3 hatcback 2.0 - 150 hp. 0 - 100 km/h. 9.1 sec. - top speed 202 km/h vs Honda civic 1.8 i-vtec 140 hp. 0 - 100 km/h 8.9 sec. - top speed 205 km/h. Show me an engine with better performance for a non-turbo feeded 1.8 liter and lower fuel consumtion when cruising than the R18A engine from (probably) the best motor makers in the world. If you ever find one it is probably another Honda engine.
Actually I'm impressed over its low consumtion compared to my previous Nissan Almera 1.6. Not to mention the performance. Despite more than 200 kg's heavier car, the civic uses less petrol than the Nissan, which tells me that a great job has been done conserning the fuel economy. (and environmental thinking.)
Both cars has a fuel capasity of 50 liter, and after the compulsory comparison route (home - Sweden - home) between the two, (a distance of approx. 750km one way) the space ship won, despite the weight difference and all the electronic devices in the latter. The Almera had nothing, ( exeption for double air bag) not even ABS brakes. Surprised? Not me.
The tank is always topped up and refueled at the same petrol stations.
Both cars managed the whole trip (one way, of course) on one fuel tank.
The surprising part was the fact that the Nissan just barely made it every time, (had it 8 years) when the civic' fuel tank had just triggered the warning light for the spare tank. So far same result two times for the civic.
On my first of these trips with the Honda I was really amazed by this, as it wasn't even runned in by then. I tried continiously to mantain the same driving pattern in both cars pursuant to get the best possible basis for comparison. Of course, this is not to be taken as an official survey or measurement, it is just some of the interesting aspects I discovered between the '98 Mk1 Almera 1.6 100hp - and the Civic '07 1.8i-vtec 140hp.
I'll recommend you to see these links;
http://asia.vtec.net/Engines/R18A/index.html
2006 Honda Civic 1.8 SOHC i-VTEC engine

[GHGH]

Amoronno is right imo.
The 1.8 civic may not be as frugal as promised, but cars seldom are.
My civic beats my two last cars clearly - Citroen 1.8 ZX and 1.6 BX. After a year the overall consumption is 7.1 l/100km (40 MPG), while my ZX has 7.6 l/100km (37 MPG) and my late BX had 8.0l/100km (35 MPG).
And the civic is slightly heavier and performs way better.

The problems TC (and others with bad karma ) experienced are horrendous however, and it puzzles me that the car manufacturers let such issues pass. It's very bad press - spread widely.

[Maldax]

Originally Posted by rhodgreen

You'll hopefully see a drop in your petrol bills in that case! - I suspect another flaw in Honda's marketing campaign when we bought our cars...."1.8 - the performance of a 2.0 with the economy of a 1.6" - don't know which 1.6 they were referring to! Do they still state this?

I think that is true! you do get the performance on a 2.0 and the economy of a 1.6! Just not at the same time!

[rhodgreen]

You might get the good economy on long motorway runs - but a 6 mile trip to work in 2nd gear for about 30min lowers the MPG to less than 30!!!
My wife's 2003 Audi TT does better MPG in the same circumstances!
Anyway - not the point of this thread!!

[GHGH]

Maybe yes - if you insist on using 2nd gear.
My experience is the opposite - it is in urban driving the i-VTEC saves most fuel compared to my other cars - not on extra urban driving.

[rhodgreen]

Originally Posted by GHGH

Maybe yes - if you insist on using 2nd gear.
My experience is the opposite - it is in urban driving the i-VTEC saves most fuel compared to my other cars - not on extra urban driving.

Well - if I used 1st gear my MPG would be even worse, and if I went up to 3rd the car would either cough or go slam into the car in front - neither of which would look good! A full tank (of Shell) gets me less than 250 miles when I only commute to and from work in rush hour, whereas going eco on the motorway I can almost get 400 miles. Still nowhere near the 600 miles I could push out of my old Megane - but that was an oil burner!!

[Charles_Harding]

Originally Posted by GHGH

Amoronno is right imo.
The 1.8 civic may not be as frugal as promised, but cars seldom are.
My civic beats my two last cars clearly - Citroen 1.8 ZX and 1.6 BX. After a year the overall consumption is 7.1 l/100km (40 MPG), while my ZX has 7.6 l/100km (37 MPG) and my late BX had 8.0l/100km (35 MPG).
And the civic is slightly heavier and performs way better.

The problems TC (and others with bad karma ) experienced are horrendous however, and it puzzles me that the car manufacturers let such issues pass. It's very bad press - spread widely.

All this chat about fuel economy!

If you want fuel economy you can get a Fait 500!

If you want style AND pace you get a space ship.

Fuel economy was certainly part of my attraction to Millie, but the overall package was, and still is, the best on the road!

"A guy with a gun walks into a Chinese Restaurant and says 'Hand me all your money'
The proprietor says 'To take away'?"

[Honcho]

It will be really fascinating to see what Honda do with the forthcoming Civic MMC.

I'm sure it will seem more of an FMC, at least under the skin. It certainly needs to be.

Well within the next two years there'll be a Focus FMC (the current model is only an MMC), a Golf Mk V1, an Audi A3 FMC and heaven knows what else.

Perhaps Ross Brawn could be prevailed upon to lend a hand!

[jazzman]

Originally Posted by Charles_Harding

All this chat about fuel economy!

If you want fuel economy you can get a Fait 500!

If you want style AND pace you get a space ship.

Fuel economy was certainly part of my attraction to Millie, but the overall package was, and still is, the best on the road!

"A guy with a gun walks into a Chinese Restaurant and says 'Hand me all your money'
The proprietor says 'To take away'?"

Well said again Charles, do you sometimes feel that we are driving different spaceships to some of the others

[HappyMan]

At present the civic is outperforming our 1.4 fabia in the city where we live. So I can't complain

Taking the same journey the civic is returning 8.6-9l/100km and the fabia 10.5l/100km ( my wife seems to have a heavy right foot!)

[rhodgreen]

Originally Posted by jazzman

Well said again Charles, do you sometimes feel that we are driving different spaceships to some of the others

Count yourself lucky you are!! I feel sorry for whoever will buy TC's old Civic or mine in due course!

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by rhodgreen

Count yourself lucky you are!! I feel sorry for whoever will buy TC's old Civic or mine in due course!

So do I

Thats why I couldnt sell privately as I couldnt lie if certain questions were asked.

Then again I am sure our cars will not be the only two for sale with problems, there are enough of them second hand some with quite low mileage makes you wonder why.

[GHGH]

Originally Posted by Charles_Harding

All this chat about fuel economy!

You have to admit -it IS fun

[l-noel]

Hello TC,

Just to say I'm happy you're still with us and to know how things are after some time spend with your new car ?