Vehicle review - 2017 Honda Civic LX

[Formula413]

I bought a new car last year and figured I would add a review here for anyone considering one.

The car: 2017 Honda Civic LX. 2.0 liter four cylinder naturally aspirated, six speed manual transmission. Color: Aegean Blue, black interior.

I'll cover non fuel efficiency aspects first. This is the first time I bought a brand new car. I had no intention of doing so but I stumbled on a great deal on a leftover 2017 and it was so superior to the used cars I was considering that it was a no brainer. My previous car was a 2003 Civic Hybrid. This car is immensely more refined, powerful, and just all around satisfying, as well as being quite a bit nicer looking (there's a pic in my garage page). It has 158 horsepower to the hybrid's 98 (with a full IMA battery), while being larger and better equipped. It has many nice standard features like bluetooth audio, one touch up/down front windows, steering wheel mounted audio and cruise control buttons, and a brake hold function which is very handy on hills with the manual transmission. The six speed manual transmission is borrowed from the Civic SI and has nice short, crisp movements and makes the car a lot of fun to drive, as well as producing nice tall highway gearing (top gear RPM is very similar to that of the hybrid, which had massively tall gearing that increased MPG at the expense of low speed performance). The engine's performance is fantastic, it has plenty of usable power at lower RPMs but really wakes up at around 4,000, and makes great power all the way to the 6,700 RPM redline. The handling and road feel of the car is excellent, which is one of the main things that attracts me to Hondas, they feel much more like a driver's car than some of their mushy, soulless contemporaries. The interior looks very sleek and modern with quality materials throughout. It has LED daytime running lights and LED taillights. The backup camera has three different views, which can come in very handy.

As for the fuel economy, a welcome surprise with this car has been just how little fuel economy I had to sacrifice by giving up a hybrid. The car is rated at 28 city/40 highway, and has no trouble hitting those numbers. With the arrival of warm weather I am regularly getting into the low 40s in mixed driving. My driving style is efficiency minded but I'm not an aggressive hypermiler. Driving 60-65 on the highway with the AC on will yield mid 40s, and back roads will see the car approach 50 mpg. I have no doubt it could clear 50 under ideal conditions. One of my favorite pastimes is cross country road trips. Much of these trips is done at higher speeds (70-75 mph) with the AC on. Previous trips in the hybrid had yielded a fairly consistent 44 mpg. After this car's first road trip I was amazed to see it come in at 42.4 mpg. To have a larger, much more powerful car with so little fuel penalty is a real game changer for these trips. With the hybrid I was constantly fighting loss of power due to high elevations and/or a depleted IMA battery from long climbs, which made the car extremely difficult to drive at times. This car never feels like it is hurting for power, and handled everything I could throw at it with ease.

Edit: One fuel efficiency related detail I forgot to mention when I first wrote this review is intelligent alternator control. If there is no significant electrical load and the voltage is sufficient the alternator doesn't charge. However if the throttle is lifted and the car is in gear it immediately starts charging. As soon as throttle is re-applied or the clutch is disengaged it returns to resting voltage.

There really isn't much to complain about thus far. The only mechanical issue I have had is with the capless fuel filler system. In the winter some water got in there and the filler froze shut, leaving me unable to fuel the car. After complaining to Honda and repeatedly hounding them about it over several months they finally told me that they had come up with a fix (a shroud that attaches to the inside of the fuel door to cover the filler neck). It's a sound fix but apparently they are not informing owners of this new part and instead waiting for them to show up complaining of a frozen fuel filler before installing the part. There are minor details that could be better. The cup holder placement is not ideal for a stick shifted car. One thing that I found unforgivably cheap was the fact that it has single speed intermittent windshield wipers. Even the cheapest cars I have owned all had variable intermittent wipers.

Comments/questions? Happy to try to assist anyone considering purchasing one.

Also, I believe this is the most appropriate forum for a car review, any mods feel free to chime in.