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| 2006 Honda Civic Review | |||
| Whether you're about to spend $40K on a brand new car, or half that on a used car, it is always important to learn as much as you can about the used car. Read these car reviews to learn about all aspects of the vehicle. Each of the usedcar reviews cover interior and exterior features, options, road tests, and more. | |||
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Introduction
| Road Test
| Inside & Out
| Other Thoughts
| Last Word
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| Inside & Out | |||
Anyone see a little Toyota Prius influence here? What a coincidence; so do we!You'll see more in the futuristic cockpit. Obviously, the first items to catch the eye are the instruments, which now stand divided on two sides of a horizontal strip. Note the word "horizontal," for it's the key reason why Honda's approach proves to not be the screwup it is in all those Toyotas. Instead of having to turn your head and look somewhere far off from your line of sight, you simply look up and down, as usual. Better yet, checking speed has you looking down to a lesser degree and less often - maybe not at all since the digits are big enough to read in the corner of your eyes - and the separation of speedometer and tachometer in both placement (north/south) and format (digital/analog) makes them easier to process mentally. Freaky foreigners who use the evil metric system can also switch from MPH to KPH at the press of a button. Maybe this is getting too analytical, but Honda just reinvented the dashboard for the better, so maybe it's not. On a final note, it lights up intriguingly in the dark of night. It could've been perfect, but Honda had to spoil it with an ugly two-spoke steering wheel whose push-buttons are lined up in a row and identical in feel; it's all too easy to confuse those channel and volume adjusters. For better or worse, many drivers also took immediate notice of the wheel's shrunken diameter. Show's over, on to the boring stuff. Seating? Still comfortable as ever, and now more accommodating. Now that they finally fixed the too-reclined seatback problem (actually, they fixed it in 2001), we long-legged drivers can actually buy a Civic now. Better yet, the Civic just became the fourth entry in this class to feature a steering wheel that adjusts for reach (following the Volkswagens, Ford's Focus, and Mazda's 3) and all models also have height adjusters. I wouldn't mind losing the daytime running lights or the door locks that imprison you automatically, and is it our bad timing with dry weather, or do the Civic's cloth seats generate a disproportionately high amount of static electricity? Every new Civic seems to mandate dimensional increases, so the sedan's length, width, height, and wheelbase of 176.7, 68.9, 56.5, and 106.3 inches are 1.3, 1.4, 0.2, and 3.2 inches longer than last year. Passenger room barely changed at all, so the Civic still has a back seat that's best suited for two average-sized people. The seat is a little too low and reclined, but the flat floor greatly helps passengers maintain their sense of personal space in times of crowding. Everyone rides more safely this year with standard curtain air bags, active head restraints, and 3-point belts in all positions. Front-row ergonomics are no less than great, with just enough color and imaginative shapes to keep things interesting without giving up the least bit of functionality. The Civic features big, sturdy cupholders, a big glovebox and console, useful map pockets, two power outlets, and minor cubbies and compartments all around. Honda has undergone a radical overnight shift in its attitude about low-end audio. Before, even EX model Civics came with skimpy head units and two-digit wattage numbers, while today even the LX claims 160 watts, speed-sensitive volume control, and MP3/WMA playback capability. If that's not enough, EX models bump speaker count from four to six and add an auxiliary input jack for iPods. Sound quality might impress. . . for the price. Despite all the wattage and welcome new features, I still wasn't ecstatic with how radio stations or my personal music collection sounded through those speakers. Also, the disc reader irritatingly skips the first half-second of every track, depriving every song of its intro beat. Personal experience with Hondas tells me that swapping out the head unit for a better one would fix everything, but that would ruin the Civic's masterfully planned dashboard. Nothing disappoints us Generation Y kids than having to settle for a factory stereo. Honda, don't you know your audience by now? |
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