Greetings from Finland

[Skaven252]

Hello everyone,

I'm getting a Civic 5D Executive. I ordered it back in March, but I'll have to wait until October to get mine. There's quite a queue, it's been selling like hotcakes over here. I heard that about 1000 Civics have been sold in Finland so far. I got mine in Nighthawk black, and added the footwell lighting, Bass Works and reverse camera options.

The new Civic is just astounding. It's not just the looks. It's how much you're getting for your money. Over here we have four model choices available: Comfort, Sport, Sport AT and Executive. The Executive comes with an amazing number of accessories as standard. If I got a Mercedes-Benz A with the same accessories, it woulda cost a fortune.

The only thing I'm kind of missing is automatic transmission. It's available in the Sport model, but not in Executive, which has many other goodies & doodads I wanted (such as the glass roof and xenon headlights). I wondered why AT was not available in Ex, and the salesman spoke something about market segments. Well, I also heard that the robotic transmission is actually pretty bad, constantly switching between gears, so I'm not missing it much. I'm also wondering a bit... Honda Jazz has a great CVT transmission available. They took the Magic Seats from the Jazz. Why not the transmission? Is Civic's engine not suitable for CVT transmission? This is one reason that made me consider the A-Mercedes, because I really appreciate the comfort of automatic transmission in general, and a continuously variable one just feels like such a cool idea.

[Pottsy]

Skaven - welcome to the site. Some of us here too have arrived at the EX using the same logic - to get a similar car from VW or other german manufacturers, you have to pay a lot more. And the Civic looks more modern, will be more reilable and so on....

I have a feeling that the CVT transmission cannot cope with the torque of the engine and the extra weight of the Civic. By all accounts the i-shift is worth avoiding (though the 6 speed manual is a delight).

Glad I didn't have to wait as long as you do though - October - that's ages away!

[elfa7]

Welcome Skaven252. We seem to attract people from Finland to this Forum, which is very nice. Its going to be a long wait for you. But we've all been there !!

[Copycat]

Tervetuloa! (That's "Welcome!" for those of you who didn't already figure it out)

Four of us Finns so far.

Mine is only two more months away. I'm assuming your getting the 1.8 as well? Unless of course you drive a lot...
The EX does have a lot of gadgets, I agree, but in the end it wasn't worth the extra money for me.
And judging by the general consensus you won't be missing the iShift as much as you might think.

[Skaven252]

Originally Posted by Pottsy

Glad I didn't have to wait as long as you do though - October - that's ages away!

And you know what? If I had accepted Cosmic Grey as the color, I would have gotten the car this month (there was one cancelled Ex order available). But my (now ex) girlfriend was there and insisted I'd take it in either red or black. I would have preferred metallic red over the Milano Red, but since metallic red was not available, I went for black. So I have to wait.

Thinking about it afterwards, I regret my decision a bit. Grey would have been an easier color since it doesn't matter much if it gets dirty - you just don't see it - and black gets terribly hot in the sun. But to compensate, I'm going to have the back windows darkened with solar protective film. And that looks better in a black car.

While I don't own an actual house, so that I could have my own garage and a pressure washer, I'm not worried about washing. There's a place nearby that allows me to wash my car with their pressure washer (with built in detergent and car wax) for a very reasonable price.

Welcome Skaven252. We seem to attract people from Finland to this Forum, which is very nice.

Thanks! The Finn Invasion must be partly because the Civic was recently reviewed in a Finnish car TV show, and someone posted a link here in show's net discussion forum. At least that's how I found my way here. I've already learned a lot of useful stuff from hree, so thanks to everyone. Especially Pottsy for your very informative photos.

[Copycat]

Originally Posted by Skaven252

Thanks! The Finn Invasion must be partly because the Civic was recently reviewed in a Finnish car TV show, and someone posted a link here in show's net discussion forum. At least that's how I found my way here.

Hmm... I wonder who might have done that...

[Skaven252]

They now have '07 Civic 5Ds available for sale already. They cost about 2000 euros more than the '06 model. I wondered about this and asked the salesman. He said the '06 and '07 models are identical, the '06 just had an introductory offer. Well, thank goodness I ordered mine in time.

[Copycat]

Wow, € 2000? That's just crazy. Unless of course they can get 2000 more for the cars.

I know the price went up by € 500 just after I ordered mine but I hadn't heard of any more raises.

Did the same happen in the UK?

[basegreen]

There were some price increases, yes. Basically if they think the market can stand an increase, then they will do it.

[pikkumies]

Welcome to the site, ordered my 1.8 galaxy grey in december and got my sexy civic a week ago.. it's really a superb car

[Skaven252]

Oh, you may - or may not - have noticed that many Finns seem to prefer petrol cars despite the superior economy, power, cleanliness and lifetime of diesel engines? You see, in Finland we have this wonderful thing called diesel tax. If you own a diesel car, you must pay €550 extra per year in tax just for that, whether you drive the car or not. This only applies to cars, not vans, so some people circumvent the tax with cars that have the rear seats removed and a heightened roof, thus getting it classified as a van (like that popular Citroën BX model).

The tax dates back for decades... I don't really know the exact reasoning behind this tax. Maybe it is to separate professional drivers (like taxi drivers) from commuters, since the tax makes owning diesel a viable option only if you do a lot of driving per year. The most obvious reason is of course fattening the government's purse, but it's a rather annoying taxation law, that should be - and I think it actually will be - changed in the near future. Especially since Finland is an EU member, and eco-diesel is becoming a more common option and diesel cars in general are very common in Europe.

You can't go all eco-diesel though, I hear. Someone had calculated that if all the cars in London were replaced with 100% vegetable oil diesel cars, all the crop fields in the entire U.K. would have to switch to growing turnip rape. Just for London. Oh dear. It kind of shows how much energy mankind is consuming, how much more than Earth really could support without taking "credit" from fossil fuels.

[Copycat]

Originally Posted by Skaven252

Oh, you may - or may not - have noticed that many Finns seem to prefer petrol cars despite the superior economy, power, cleanliness and lifetime of diesel engines? You see, in Finland we have this wonderful thing called diesel tax. If you own a diesel car, you must pay €550 per year in tax just for that, whether you drive the car or not. This only applies to cars, not vans, so some people circumvent the tax with cars that have the rear seats removed and a heightened roof, thus getting it classified as a van (like that popular Citroën BX model).

The tax dates back for decades... I don't really know the exact reasoning behind this tax. Maybe it is to separate professional drivers (like taxi drivers) from commuters, since the tax makes owning diesel a viable option only if you do a lot of driving per year. The most obvious reason is of course fattening the government's purse, but it's a rather annoying taxation law, that should be - and I think it actually will be - changed in the near future. Especially since Finland is an EU member, and eco-diesel is becoming a more common option and diesel cars in general are very common in Europe.

x2

I would have bought the 2.2 diesel version had it not been for this stupidity that is known as diesel tax.

Citroën BX Ridiculous looking things, but I guess it just goes to show how much Finns are willing to sacrifice for a few euro.