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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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| Road Test | |||
Of course, predictability is one of the Civic's key selling points. Many customers order Civics because they know what to expect, and those who do will mostly still find it. Not long after you crank the key and shift to D, you notice the predicable tracking, a modestly-powered engine that's silk-smooth, and machinery that gives trusty outputs for any given input.If you own an older model, you'll first notice the much more rapid response. Civics used to have a steering wheel that could be twirled around 3.6 times; that number has fallen sharply to 2.7. I found it pleasantly quick in the city, a little twitchy on the freeway. If you think faster is better and see nothing wrong with a Civic having a faster rack than an Acura NSX, Honda's got your ride. The chassis got handling upgrades to support this. Along with a revised version of the previous strut front, double-wishbone rear suspension (sorry, tuners, the front wishbones have not returned), stabilizer bars now keep both ends of the body level in turns. Civics have been accused of being "under-tired" before, but new 16-inch wheels have boosted roadholding abilities to the point that gunning the throttle on a freeway on-ramp hardly even breaks traction, and provoking understeer takes a determined act of un-civic behavior. The ride is about the same as always - kind of stiff, maybe at the trailing end of comfortable - but outside noises seem a bit better squelched than before. Anyone who looks closely should sense a bit of extra go-power from a new 4-cylinder engine that's still a 16-valve, SOHC, aluminum unit (chain-driven), but after inching up from 1.7 to 1.8 liters, no longer carries the smallest volume in the class. Thanks to an i-VTEC system (whose operation is no longer dependent on just RPM) that works hard to save fuel via reduced pumping losses in low-load situations and give more power up top, this little mill produces 140 horsepower - 16 more than the Corolla or Sentra's 1.8-liter - which passes for adequate pep for the majority of driving. It's a smooth operator that's completely unstressed at redline and quiet enough at idle to pass for a hybrid, and a new drive-by-wire throttle keeps its power delivery linear. Improved numbers notwithstanding, speed can still be an issue. Passing is a gradual process, hill climbing always takes a few downshifts, and there are those moments when you excitedly think "I'm gonna floor it!" only to discover that you already did. But even with the bigger engine, those who buy Civics to conserve have at least as much to celebrate as before, for the EPA's gas mileage numbers for a Civic EX automatic have crept up from 31/38 to 30/40. In fact, our amazing average of 33 set a record high in our ever-growing fuel economy database. Only one conventional gas-powered car could theoretically get better mileage than the Civic - the Scion xA - and this is a theory our experience does not support. Experience also proved that the Civic can break through 100 MPH on mountain stretches where the slower Scion caps out at 80. Honda claims the power of a 2.0-liter engine and the mileage of a 1.5, and that actually sounds about right. More power and more freeway mileage? We can partially thank the new automatic transmission, the only one in the class with five forward gears (unless the Jetta counts). With a numerically higher bottom gear (2.66) helping low-end punch and a numerically lower top gear (0.53) keeping RPM down on cruises, it should take the mystery out of these seemingly contradictory improvements. Like pretty much every Civic built within the past 33 years, it still has the annoying habits of overeager downshifting (plus a lever that physically slides straight to the gas-wasting D3 slot), but it's now infrequent enough to tolerate, and the shifts are prompt. The greatest news: these traits apply to all Civics, all to the same degree. Every year prior, the highest-volume-seller LX model got short shrift with no rear stabilizer bar, wimpy 14-or-smaller-inch tires, and a depowered non-VTEC engine that coughed up less horsepower. Now the LX (and even the bottom-rung DX) gets all the same good stuff as the EX except for rear disc brakes, which have returned for the first time since 1995. Honda Civics are moving up, and moving together. |
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