2004 Honda Civic EX 1.7 VTEC from North America

Summary:

This car is a stylish and smart choice

Faults:

Nothing. It's still new.

General Comments:

This car is a joy to drive and the exterior body styling is simply art. The seats fit your body like a glove. There are a few things I wish were better. This car lacks torque or pickup. If you are used to powerful cars such as a turbo, you may be frustrated trying to getup and go especially with an automatic.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 1st June, 2004

2004 Honda Civic DX - G 1.7L 16v from North America

Summary:

Excellent cheap transportation and MORE!

Faults:

Nothing AT ALL!

General Comments:

Every inch of this car is clean, and very well designed.

For the price it is well worth it..

Seats are slightly stiff, but what can one expect after a week right off the lot..?

Steering is perfect. Hard winds do make the handling a little tricky.

Engine noise is very limited.. quieter than my olds Cutlass supreme SL international Ed.

Manual trans is too fast backing up.. you have to give it a lot of gas or else it stalls.

Well built car, made in Aliston Ontario Canada..

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 4th May, 2004

6th Jan 2006, 23:32

Year and a half later, car still looks good and runs good, I now have 43,000KM on it. Nothing wrong yet, Gets driven 31K to work each day, and right now... in many inches of snow. Good in the snow!

Maintnance is easy and timeless Honda dealers are amazing and take care of me and my car. Only thing I have installed so far is new wipers.. LOL not bad at 43K!. get one of these they are awsome!

2004 Honda Civic Type-R 2.0 litre from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Spend another £5k and get an RX-8!!!

Faults:

NOISY AS HELL... The road noise is so loud that I tend to find myself shouting to talk to who's sitting next to me in the passenger seat - Heaven forbid should you put the stereo on too. I understand that a factor of this IS the road surface, but I've owned/driven a lot of cars, and only my Kawasaki Ninja competes with the noise.

YOU MUST PAY THE EXTRA FOR AIR-CON!!!

All three back windows steam up SO much to the point that you can't see out of them. I expect that in the morning or in the cold, then all windows are likely to steam up to some degree, but after the car's warmed up, they SHOULD clear, I emphasis 'should'. The front three are fine clear as you'd expect, but the rear three... well after 1 hour and 45 minutes of driving, I parked up and they were STILL steamed up - so much you couldn't see through them.

I took the car back to the dealers for an inspection, and they continuously reassured me, "We've never had this problem before", that doesn't help me much. Their solution... they cleaned the windows... CLEANED THE WINDOWS!!! Imagine my disgust when he told me "You couldn't see out of the window because it was dirty", How dirty can the inside of a 'solid' (non-moving) rear window get??? So I explained that I'd spent the extra money on their sponsored cleaning products on buying the car, which included a 'Window cleaner' product that, all be it, makes the windows lovely and clean, but it sure as hell didn't solve my problem. So I'm STILL stuck with rear windows that I can't see out of, but summers here soon (so I'm told) and there should not be a problem, but I look forward to winter driving.

If anyone else has the same problem please write it in a 'Review Comment', as I'd been told NO-ONE has this problem. EVEN better if you've had it and solved it!

The doors... This may be a silly thing, but... some-times no matter how hard you slam the darn things, they stay ajar, and no there's nothing blocking it.

And the stereos CRA... rubbish! But this may be biased as I had my old car fully fitted with BOSE...

AND FINALLY; The titanium gear know looks good I agree, but is FREEZING at 6-7 in the morning, so bad it burns your hand!

SO, all in all I am quite disappointed in the car, and wouldn't recommend one until at least SOME of these faults are sorted.

"Quit with the negative vibes man..." (Kelly's Hero's)

General Comments:

"RIGHT, think happy.."

Beautifully comfortable. The seats hold and support you perfectly, short journey or long, you won't be clasping your lower back as you get out.

The suspension is great. It lets you feel what you're doing without jarring you as some others do.

And performance... pretty good considering she only cost £17,000 or something in that region with air-con. A nightmare in the 20mph zones... she doesn't stay at 20. And over-taking is a breeze, flick her down a gear and go. Flick her down TWO gears, zing the rev counter up a few thousand, dump the clutch and you'll leave this place FAR FAR AWAY. Scared the hell out of me the first time I did it. I went from 40 to over 100 in next to no time, a quick glance in the mirror and that 125 was out of sight!

The boot-space is pretty good too. I can fit a full grown Japanese Akita (bigger than a German Sheppard) in the boot and she's got plenty of room to spare. As for the back seats... you can actually fit an adult in them WITH leg space. My old F.T.O. didn't have enough leg-room for and 'Umpa-Lumpa' (Green guys from Charlie and the chocolate Factory).

The fuel economy is excellent. She takes £26 in just over a week. (Don't ask, but every time I've filled her up she's took £26... FREAKY!) As expected, if you red-line every time you sit behind the wheel, then expect dearer running costs. But considering the V-Tec 'bits' open up at about 4000 revs, and you can't not go over 4000 really, she's pretty darn reasonable on fuel.

After writing this, I'm really not sure if the positive out weigh the negatives or not. Make your own judgment, just after spending this much on a brand new car I didn't expect, nor want, this many faults.

BUT - one mans meat is another mans poison - or something like that. Test-drive one MORE than once on all different road surfaces, and make your own call.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 30th April, 2004

2nd May 2004, 01:40

Umpa-Lumpas are orange not green, it's the hair that's green. Should have bought an Alfa 147 GTA, more performance and miles more quality.

10th May 2004, 06:18

More quality from an Alfa? Honda build quality, reliability and in-service fault rates are vastly superior to any Alfa Romeo, including the 147/156 GTA. I'm a '04 Civic Type-R owner, and I find much of the criticism in this review trivial.

This is a hot hatch, not a Lexus; to complain about the level of road noise suggests you've bought entirely the wrong car (besides which, it's really not bad unless you're traversing old concrete motorway surfaces).

The gearknob is cold on cold mornings? Diddums! I've had no problems with the interior misting up, whether I use the aircon or not. Neither has any other CTR owner I know of. Yup, the CD stereo is fairly basic, but adequate. Again, I'd point out that this is a stripped-down hot hatch which offers one of the best NA 4-cyl engines / gearbox combos in the world, and 60mph in 6.4 seconds / 146mph top, for £16k. It is an unmatched bargain at that price; how much luxury do you expect exactly?

My advice would be to sell and buy something softer and more cosseting - the CTR is aimed primarily at driving enthusiasts.