2006 Honda Civic LX review from North America

- None so far, it's a Honda...shouldn't have anything wrong.

One would expect Honda and Toyota to be the benchmark cars in reliability. The praise for both manufacturers is well deserved after all since finding 1989 cars for either manufacturer on the road is very easy and they still sell even as used cars.

This 2006 Civic is Honda's attempt to appeal to the younger generation and from there I can see why many would love this car just for looks. It definitely is a lot more sporty than Toyota's Corolla. Inside it has a lot of digital equipment like the speedometer, placed in an excellent position. The interior is pretty cool. There's a few oddities in the placement of certain buttons, but that part is really a matter of getting used to since they aren't in truly bizarre places although you may not know where some buttons are like hazard lights since they get blocked by the rather big steering wheel.

As for the drive itself. This is a very cheap car to maintain, I don't have any doubt that it will be a reliable car. Its driving it where I start finding problems. The rear window first off is pretty darn small, visibility isn't as good. The steering is way too sensitive. I couldn't stand the steering, its just terrible, I never get the sense its steering. The gas pedal is way too light, its too easy to rev the engine with a simple touch. Even the brakes are way too sensitive giving a not so smooth ride unless your foot is featherweight. There are even more sensitive things about the Civic which annoyed me. The Civic is also a noisy car, I've been in old Toyotas and they aren't noisy like this, Honda needs to fix that. As a car to drive, due to its sensitive controls you could very well be driving aggressively yet not know it.

As for true speed... you can accelerate quite fast with little effort... but going to highway speeds is something this car starts struggling. 0-70 or 80 km/h is easy, going to 100 is less so.

The Civic is not a good beginner's car. Its sensitivity will give a new driver more problems than its worth. This car doesn't relax, that's what irks me the most as you cannot enjoy driving it. You'll be too worried going over the limit, stopping too quickly, turning too hard, cutting off people, the lot. The noise from the engine always intruding doesn't help. As soon as you jump into another car the controls of that car will be more tame than this Civic.

Buy a Toyota Corolla it may be slower, but its less of an animal or buy a Mazda 3 since that's very easy to drive. The Civic needs to work on driver friendliness, it may look better than its rivals, but it doesn't drive very well. That said I'll be looking for an old Toyota to replace this car which I can't live with anymore.