2006 Honda Civic mini-review

Andrew Szafran · 2005-12-18T17:48:24+00:00

I looked at a new Civic yesterday, more out of curiosity then anything else since my 88 Volvo is still running nicely at 195k miles.Engine compartment(!):Cramped, cramped, cramped. In its quest for an additional 0.25 mpg, Honda has seen fit to move the front edge of the windshield over most of the rear engine accessories (PS pump, throttle body, et al). Looks like you can only get to them from the bottom, or may even have to pull the engine (unless the engine rolls forward like in some GMs).What good is an additional 0.25MPG if the economical service life of the car is reduced? Remember that more than 50% of the energy expended by a car is spend building it.No electric power steering on anything but the Si and hybrid. Sigh.Gauges:The digital gauges are neat. However, there does seem to be a lot of wasted space on the bottom cluster around the tach. Why not put gauge blanks for optional gauges there (or an optional NAV screen in front of the driver's eyes)? True, there are warning lights and an auto trans shift quadrant beside the tach, but there's still wasted space there.Trunk:Pleasantly huge for a car of that size. The rear seat folds 60/40. Unfortunately, the folding mechanism seems to be only in the trunk - I'd prefer to be able to fold the seat from the *INSIDE* of the car!Si/Hatchback:What happened? The Si is now a coupe. I loved the little square hatchbacks made from the 80s to the 90s. Good mileage, practical, and a bit different from everything on the road. I guess Honda has a "sporty" image to maintain in the US and hatches just don't fit into that mold.Honda, give us a new CRX please. I wonder if building a sporty version of the Insight with better tires, suspension, and gearing at the expense of a few MPG could be justified. Call it the first sports hybrid. Maybe even make it AWD using a 15hp pancake motor driving the rear axle. (The new Lexus RWD hybrid sedan is more of a luxury touring car.)I guess if you want cargo room, you have to...

Dec 18, 2005 26 Replies

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Daniel J. Stern 20 years ago

Hyundai mostly uses world-compliant rear lamp clusters. Subaru *was* doing the same, until the new-design Legacy sedan came out with red rear signals. BMW has gone on a red-signal kick lately, as have VW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Audi's been bouncing back and forth between red and amber for years as a styling gimmick for model year differentiation, and so has Ford. GM and Chrysler use mostly red, with the occasional amber styling gimmick.

There was a 5er station wagon some time ago that had red rear signals in the US 'cause the rest-of-world signals were all of 2mm(!) too small to meet the US minimum-illuminated-area requirement. This wasn't an actual shortcoming so much as it was a difference between the US and rest-of-world methods of measuring surface area.

Current Golf, Jetta and Passat models all have red in North America.

And the current MINI has red.

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Daniel J. Stern 20 years ago

Looks like the new sedan is NAFTA-only. Europe and Australia get a hatchback design and, in some countries, the previous-design sedan. Maybe next year?

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Daniel J. Stern 20 years ago

The Japanese brands are much worse, lately.

Once in the mid-'90s (5er station wagon, their first red rear signals since the 1968 model 2002). And now again with the new 3er. I initially suspected they did this so the new 3er's rear lamps wouldn't look quite so much like those on the '95-'98 Nissan Maxima, but on a trip to Europe a few months ago I noticed that the rear lamps on rest-of-world current 3ers look virtually identical to the US model, it's just the signals produce amber light instead of red (there are several different ways to achieve this "looks red until it lights up amber" appearance).

I donno, that sort of depends on how we define "worst". I'd put Honda closer to the top of the Taillamp Hall of Shame.

It cost less to throw a cap over the center compartment that was to have been the amber blinker and simply flash all or part of the brake lamp instead -- that is directly from one of the engineers on VW's regulatory compliance team.

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Timothy J. Lee 20 years ago

Volvo is part of Ford, so I was not considering it a separate company.

But as far as lighting is concerned, I have seen some newer Volvos with high beam daytime running lamps (older Volvos with daytime running lamps used non-annoying low beams).

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Timothy J. Lee 20 years ago

Does Mexico allow red rear turn signals any more? (since you mention NAFTA)

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Daniel J. Stern 20 years ago

Nope, no high-beam DRLs on Volvos -- they're actually a functionally-dedicated daytime running lamp mounted inboard of the BiXenon high/low beam headlamp.

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Daniel J. Stern 20 years ago

Yes.

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