I bought my 1.8 SE Civic a few months ago now and I guess I'll share my thoughts on it 
Bought the car as I didn't want to sell my beloved but now ancient Alfa Romeo, needed something cheap to run the family around in and put commuter miles on.
After long and hard trawling of eBay, Autotrader, Parkers, Honest John, YouTube etc I narrowed down my choices to the Fiat Bravo, Civic mk8 and Toyota Auris.
Civic won and the 1.8 won the engine battle as it seems to have far less complaints about the drive train & general reliability vs the 2.2 Diesel. The chain driven engine was a bonus too with the Civic as well as the car seeming more exciting than my other choices. Plus there's been Hondas in the family over the years and they've never proven anything less than rock solid reliable even when treated badly.
Now I'm used to the car I think it's a bit unresolved, I'm not entirely sure what the Civic thinks it is.
On one hand it's supremely spacious and practical for the footprint it has on the road. It eats ÂŁ200+ of shopping in the boot with east for instance.
![314935]( "314935")
But on the other hand it's fairly harsh to drive but that may improve slightly when I refresh the suspension and get decent tyres. But even without that, the steering and the way the car is set up is sporty even for a non S-Type car so it can be a bit quirky to drive. Like the engine for instance, it's certainly powerful enough when you're in the power zones but it's either the really tall 2nd gear or the low torque figure but I find I need to hold 1st longer than any other car in order to move off smoothly, needs a fair bit of gas to stop the car bogging down off the move too.
Do love the driving position and the dash lay out even if it's strange as hell still, start button feels somewhat silly when the key needs to be turned anyway.
Over all it's like the Civic is trying to be a bit of everything, sporting, practical, interesting, economical etc and doesn't excel at any of these things. They also clash sometimes when you just want to relax but the razor sharp steering and the need to stir the gearbox means you can't just chill out.
Even having said all that, I'd buy the car again for my situation. A VW Golf of a similar price does the comfortable cruising thing far, far better and it's a better place to sit in but it were my only car it would drive me insane via boredom whereas the Civic can still be an interesting prospect to own.
Also having owned the 1.8 I could see an FN2 CTR being a very exciting prospect as a more focused hot hatch.
Not much else to do to my car except for maintain it and improve the sound system at some stage. May it continue to do it's job for many more years...
![314936]( "314936")
Think I'm being too harsh on the car?
Bought the car as I didn't want to sell my beloved but now ancient Alfa Romeo, needed something cheap to run the family around in and put commuter miles on.
After long and hard trawling of eBay, Autotrader, Parkers, Honest John, YouTube etc I narrowed down my choices to the Fiat Bravo, Civic mk8 and Toyota Auris.
Civic won and the 1.8 won the engine battle as it seems to have far less complaints about the drive train & general reliability vs the 2.2 Diesel. The chain driven engine was a bonus too with the Civic as well as the car seeming more exciting than my other choices. Plus there's been Hondas in the family over the years and they've never proven anything less than rock solid reliable even when treated badly.
Now I'm used to the car I think it's a bit unresolved, I'm not entirely sure what the Civic thinks it is.
On one hand it's supremely spacious and practical for the footprint it has on the road. It eats ÂŁ200+ of shopping in the boot with east for instance.
But on the other hand it's fairly harsh to drive but that may improve slightly when I refresh the suspension and get decent tyres. But even without that, the steering and the way the car is set up is sporty even for a non S-Type car so it can be a bit quirky to drive. Like the engine for instance, it's certainly powerful enough when you're in the power zones but it's either the really tall 2nd gear or the low torque figure but I find I need to hold 1st longer than any other car in order to move off smoothly, needs a fair bit of gas to stop the car bogging down off the move too.
Do love the driving position and the dash lay out even if it's strange as hell still, start button feels somewhat silly when the key needs to be turned anyway.
Over all it's like the Civic is trying to be a bit of everything, sporting, practical, interesting, economical etc and doesn't excel at any of these things. They also clash sometimes when you just want to relax but the razor sharp steering and the need to stir the gearbox means you can't just chill out.
Even having said all that, I'd buy the car again for my situation. A VW Golf of a similar price does the comfortable cruising thing far, far better and it's a better place to sit in but it were my only car it would drive me insane via boredom whereas the Civic can still be an interesting prospect to own.
Also having owned the 1.8 I could see an FN2 CTR being a very exciting prospect as a more focused hot hatch.
Not much else to do to my car except for maintain it and improve the sound system at some stage. May it continue to do it's job for many more years...
Think I'm being too harsh on the car?
