On first acquaintance, we brashly described our Honda’s hatch as “wedgy, edgy, futuristic fun”.
Six months on and little’s changed. However, growing numbers of other new Civic on the road means some of the novelty factor’s waning, meaning our Honda hatch has had to get down to the business of earning its keep.
This month the Civic has been ferrying our ad team around the country to help launch the BusinessCar magazine and website, and it has generated praise from everyone who’s driven it.
Our ad team love it for its versatile interior [1], huge boot [2], refined engine and surefooted handling, yet living with the Honda has unearthed a few niggling flaws.
Our account manager Neil Boyle found that visibility when reversing into carpark spaces is hampered by thick rear c-pillars that obscure potential hazards. Only familiarity avoided scraping the Civic’s pert rear on one local supermarket’s unseen concrete pillars.
Personally, I have a visibility problem of my own. Choosing to sit as low as possible, with the steering wheel steeply raked, causes the top of the steering wheel to hide the digital speedo completely.
Other drivers seem to be struggling to see our poor Civic too. It has developed a few new grazes from cars parking too close, which is infuriating since one such scrape occurred just days after a visit from a smart repairer.
More miles in the Civic have also disproved Honda’s insistence that the car doesn’t need a rear wash wipe. An aerodynamic effect at speed is supposed to clear the screen of water droplets, but living in a congested city we never work up enough speed and even when we do, the film of grime accumulated from city life remains.
What Honda can’t be blamed for is embarrassing one member of our team. Despite driving the Civic many times, he hadn’t realised it was a 5-door – a credit to those hidden rear door handles [3], highlighting perhaps the irrelevance of the Japanese manufacturer’s decision to actually make a three door with the same body shape (see Test Drive, page 34).
Despite the extra motorway action, this month saw fuel consumption rise to 39.1mpg – still a fine effort for a punchy 2.2-litre engine. Problems aside, the Honda remains a sensible and tax-efficient way to invest your company’s money, and despite familiarity, it still feels special.
