1999 Honda Civic VTi Aerodeck from UK and Ireland - Comments

So far nothing has gone wrong with the Honda – it is of course ‘only’ four years old and given Honda’s reputation I would expect nothing less.

Just two slight niggles: firstly, it is sometimes a little difficult to start on cold damp mornings (but then, aren’t we all).

Also, when driving at speed it has a couple of small rattles from one of the doors on the passenger side – but nothing too annoying and certainly nothing the stereo can’t cover up.

Niggles? That’s exactly what they are. If I were really trying to take points off, then the (passenger) electric window switches are difficult to get to, some of the plastics are slightly low-quality (after all, new, this was a £17,000 car) and quite a few of the switches are exactly the same parts as were fitted to my previous 1992 Rover 416.

To be honest, driving this car is a strange experience.

On one hand, there’s the utterly mental performance – 167bhp, 0-60mph in (depending on who you listen to) 8.0 – 8.5 seconds, 140mph max – really, on the road you can’t use the full rev range in 1st or 2nd gear. It is front wheel drive and has no traction control or limited-slip differential so it torque steers (twitches) … quite a lot… when the power gets going. For those not in the know – the VTEC system changes the way the valves open, so at 4000rpm the engine’s just getting going, and at 5500rpm… you’re going too fast to be watching the revcounter.

(Disclaimer: Remember, children, speed kills. Don’t do this with your mother in law in the car, on a road that you don’t know, or if you’re tired, drunk, the road’s wet or in fact at all if you’re going to blame me for anything that happens to you. I’m just giving a picture of the car.) The first time you come off a roundabout onto an empty dual carriageway in the countryside in second, floor it to maybe 5000 (40-50mph). Flick up into third, all the way to 8000rpm which is, well, quite enough to be going on with (nearly 90). Then there’s fourth… if you have any petrol in your veins you’ll be grinning and loving the musical howl that the engine is singing to your right foot.

I live near Exmoor, and taking it up there for some fun was exactly that – fun. It’s not the best handling car in the world; it hasn’t enough grip or traction at the front end, and the seats don’t hold you quite tight enough. That said, if you behave, drive properly, slow in fast out, you can have a great time. (And stay within the speed limit, remember…)

However… on the other hand, it’s a comfortable, quiet, and very spacious family car, fully loaded with leather, electric windows, roof, mirrors, air-conditioning, ABS… A lot of owners – the sort of people who still buy Hondas for their reliability and have just had a nice flat cap and pair of slippers for Christmas – probably never use the performance and it’s quite driveable without ever going over 4000rpm – on the motorway 70mph is about 4000rpm in fifth gear, with 90mph about 5000rpm.

Driven like this you might even get it to be reasonably economical (35mpg?). Personally the most I’ve seen in three months is 32mpg, mostly because half of my commute to work is on a usually empty dual carriageway (at 6am…)

When I bought this car, I was looking for something that would put a smile on my face. Nothing else I drove this side of a Nissan 200SX did that, and certainly nothing else was as fast. It’s coming skiing with me to the French Alps next month…

All noise no power unless you put all your savings in the car,nothing, but a rice burner, I had a Honda and a Toyota and they both sucked big lemons.

I don't know why you bought a VTi. It sounds like you are afraid to "drive" it hard.

How cute, you think a FWD car with 167 hp is fast. I know gas prices and road tax are ridiculous in Europe, but V8's are worth it.

I no all three of you are a bunch of straight liners get on some back roads flat out.

In Europe & Japan a 1.6 167 hp Car CAN be fast, as we know how to engineer buddy!

I think they call it Brains over Brawn.

Nah, 167 hp is not a lot at all. But the thing V8's have over the dinky ricers is torque. Sorry, but this is what gets you off the line and makes you look fast.

Brains over Brawn? haha is that a joke? Id much rather have a V8 or even a V6 over a 1.6L any day, BUDDY.

Mate your talking rubbish. I love V6's V8's & V12's as much as the next school boy, but the fact is you can make piddly little 4pot cars go like stink, you just can! Its called power to weight ratio. I take it your no engineer.

And I never said 167 is a lot, but it is enough to take a Honda estate car to 60 in a little over 7 seconds, that's not bad in anyones book, and it doesn't use up an oil field in the process.

167 is more that enough for a car of that weight. The people who rant about V8 should be honest with themselves, you don't use that power 99% of the time. Especially with the very low speed limits and the number of police in North America. Not to mention most "racers" around here get lame automatics with their huge engines and the only thing they know how to do is floor it in straight lines. The 106 hp Civic I have is more than enough for North American roads. I'm so sick of people here buying gas hogs and never doing anything with them. I'm a European immigrant in North America so I know how things look on both sides of the pond. People in Europe actually know how to use the power on their cars and they have where to do it. They certainly look a lot smarter for driving faster while using less gas.

By the way...one of the cars I had in Europe was a 60hp '88 Mazda 323 that could do 160km/h. I took the Civic to almost 200km without a problem here before I had to slow down. I wonder how many drivers in North America have even been to such speeds with their big, pointless V8? And then they complain about the cost of gas.

First off, it is a matter of opinion whether you like drive fast in a straight line or weaving around corners, which would dictate your choice of car (unless you are inherently rich and can rock a Porsche 911 or something.) I drive an Acura Vigor and my brother a Lexus ES300 (inline 5 (debatable, but close to 200hp) and V6 (225 hp) respectively) while my father has an 05 Civic. I was not a Civic fan whatsoever until driving it. Although less peppy than the Acura and the Lexus (obviously), it was more agile and honestly almost more fun to drive on Vermont roads. With a 5 speed and sunroof, you can't go wrong. For long drives it is a little uncomfortable, but worth it for the money you save is gas.

Overall performance is good however it seemed that the 1.6 Vti engine is now consuming an average of 5.0 liter km in city drive and 7.0 liter on highways after 6 years.

Hi folks, Just got a Vti for the misses and kids, not that quick, but cheap to run and can overtake with it, how ever I have a esi, single cam, 3 door civic with 75Bhp nitrous, de-cat, electric turbo, k&n filter and a Vtec controller, and that moves quickly, somewhere in the low 6's for 0-60, also got a 7.5ltr, ford V8 350 Bhp, and all that grunt does nothing more than cost the planet to feed and keep it going, I have to say Hat off to the yellow fellows, top cars, top economy and engineering, V8's are going towards museums these days...

"it is sometimes a little difficult to start on cold damp mornings (but then, aren't we all)."

I'm not hard to start, and neither is my 2005 Nissan Altima 3.5 SL. 5 speed, 250 HP, 250 lb/ft of torque. This 3.5 engine puts out well over 300 HP in the new Infinitys and 350z. Imagine if I actually riced it out and modified it.

So your VTEC has 1.6 Liters? My Pepsi bottle has 2.0 Liters. What's your point?

All 1.8 VTi Civics come with a Torsen LSD as standard.

Bugatti Veyron is faster then your 2005 Nissan Altima 3.5 SL.

What's your point?

The Honda civic, vti is only a 1.8.

So talk about cars in that class.

And for 1800 putting out 167 bhp.

(Threes,not Marney, 1800 what do.

2005 Nissan Altima 3.5 SL. 155 mph 308 bhp lol.

Pick on some one your own size.

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