Honda Civic is User-Driven

The new boy-racer look for the red hot Hinda CivicSo apparently even on vacation I can't stop thinking like a product manager. I snapped these pics of the new Honda Civic in the parking lot of the Skylon Tower in Niagara Falls. At first it was just because I like cars and I thought the new model was hot. Then my brain started in.

I remembered how the Civic was the cheap, reliable and easy to modify car the young tuner crowd had chosen in great numbers as the basis for their craft. I also remembered that recent models of the Civic had struck me as very dowdy and econo-box in design. (I owned a snappy '88 Civic that I thought looked better.)

Rounded tail and factory spoiler complete the lookApparently, though, Honda paid attention to what their customers were doing with the car and, without altering the basic formula of an affordable, easy to modify car with excellent handling out of the box and rock solid reliability, they pointed the look of the car in the direction its market was already going.

User-driven might seem like a bad pun here, but it sure does apply. Makes me want to drive one again.

Comments

[Barry Coleman]

I test drove the Civic in my recent car search. My criteria were (in no particular order): look good, active driving feel, spacious, affordable (<$350 per month on lease).

The Civic 2-door does look good. A nice ground effects kit and some sweet rims and it fits the bill. Your picture is the Si model which has that. Unfortunately, I needed a 4-door which doesn't look as cool.

The ride was ok. Nothing special to write home about, but then no car in this category matches up to my previous 2-seater sports car that, unfortunately, had to go ... babies change your life a lot! The acceleration on the Si is good, the Hybrid is pretty nippy too.

The kicker on the Civic though is that there is no option for leather (or even leatherette). Cloth interiors are nasty, and leather/leatherette is easier to clean with kids. This turned out to be a huge deal for me.

The Civic was high on my list ... especially as the Hybrid qualifies for the HOV lane here in California.

I'll agree though that Honda really took note of the market segment they were going after. It's nice looking, handles well, is priced ok, and all models get great gas mileage (in fact the only reason to get the Hybrid is the HOV lane access - the non-Hybrid gets about 40mpg).

[Bob Corrigan]

I drove a Civic for nearly a decade, and while bits and parts of it failed over that period, it was a surprisingly reliable car. These days, Civics are the ride of choice for modders - so while Civics don't deliver everything out of the box, they are "mod-friendly" and, by association, user-friendly. Good post.

[Bruce McCarthy]

I drive my '88 for 12 years and 135k miles. Great car.