[ssenhyd]

Originally Posted by Breathe2drive

Congratulations on you beautiful red Civic. It looks amazing.

My MT City gives a fuel efficiency of 10-11 km in the city in moderate traffic conditions, and around 12-13 in mixed driving of city and highway. Would like to know how you are managing the same mileage with Civic AT. Am I missing something here?

Wish you have a great journey with Toby.

I too get 12+ kmpl in city and 17+ kmpl on the highway on my petrol Civic CVT..

I am a sedate light footed driver who does not accelerate aggressively and keeps a decent braking distance from the car ahead in city driving so that I do not need to brake aggressively, instead most of the time just letting my foot off the gas pedal and a gentle touch on the brake works.

I drive with the eco mode on all the time

[ssenhyd]

Originally Posted by andafunda

Noted. Will try to follow this schedule. I had also read your earlier posts in the thread about how you maintain your car. Appreciable!

Please refer to page 557 of your Honda Civic owners manual that describes what severe driving condition is..

Cheers!

[Senna_sempre]

Congratulations of your new ride and its a very good choice
The Civic looks drop dead gorgeous on roads. The coupe like sloping roof and the subtle curves accentuates its style quotient.
Wish you a many more happy miles ahead and keep revving.

[Alisiddiqui]

Awesome choice bro. I was in similar situation with a preference for sedans and having kept VWs for nearly a decade, but was clear that didn’t want a VAG anymore since want long term reliability and not the push to replace car once warranty is over. Civic was the one shirt listed. Guess what, got news of our second child and immediately the requirement list changed to something more spacious. In came the Innova crysta petrol auto. Been over an year. Very pleased with the car. Enjoy your drive man. I also felt the quality of interiors, space and dynamics were spot on. And could live with the CVT drag. Cheers

[RJK]

Originally Posted by andafunda

After a few months of research and lots of deliberations, calculations and considerations, I ended up taking the delivery of a Honda Civic ZX Petrol on 22nd October 2020. Here's how I got there.

At a hill resort, enjoying the sunset after a hard day's drive:

Attachment 2100759

Congrats on your new car
This image brought back memories from 10yrs ago, when I had clicked my then new 2009 Civic at the exact same spot!

Cheers

[andafunda]

Originally Posted by RJK

Congrats on your new car
This image brought back memories from 10yrs ago, when I had clicked my then new 2009 Civic at the exact same spot!

Cheers

That is fantastic! Please post a pic if you still have it. Will keep it in my records.

You'll be happy to note that while the whole of Lavasa has gone down the drain, Ekaant (the resort) is still doing well. Recently got a fresh coat of paint!

[RJK]

Originally Posted by andafunda

That is fantastic! Please post a pic if you still have it. Will keep it in my records.

You'll be happy to note that while the whole of Lavasa has gone down the train, Ekaant (the resort) is still doing well. Recently got a fresh coat of paint!

I tried to find the image but can't get my hands on it..I'll have to look harder.
Yes, Ekaant & Lavasa used to be very vibrant back then - I made a trip around there in 2014-15 when it had begun to look like a ghost town.. sad story. Last I heard Ekaant was taken over by Taj & the rates were jacked up!

[kauphylover]

It's almost exactly a year since I brought home the 10th generation Honda Civic VX CVT (which has now sadly been discontinued). Say Hello!

The morning after the car came home:



The car has done a whisker over 7000km in just under a year which is about 3-5k km less than I had planned thanks to COVID. Below is a brief summary of my experience with it. I will avoid going into some of the details that have been covered in extreme detail in the official review (Honda Civic : Official Review). I will take a moment to thank team-bhp for that review as well as all reviews and discussions of the other cars listed above. They helped me a lot in making my decision.

What I like:

• Comfortable driving position. I'm 6ft tall and unlike most might expect of Civic drivers, I have my seat adjusted to the maximum height!
• Spot-on ergonomics. Everything is where you expect it to be (except maybe the ECON button)
• Ample space for the passengers (front and rear)
• Good build quality and safety rating
• The ride quality is not too firm to be uncomfortable but firm enough that the handling is not compromised. It also has a multi-link rear suspension. Overall, I am very impressed with how well the suspension is tuned.
• The way it corners! There are a couple of really nice corners on my TD route that are safe to take at speed (not a lot, 50-60kmph or so) and these were what I used to compare the handling of the Civic with the Octavia and Elantra. I thought the Civic felt noticeably better.
• The steering feel. It makes me feel really connected to the car. It's responsive and well-weighted at speeds.
• High-speed stability. I've touched 180 once and 160 a few times on my recent BLR-HYD-BLR trips and it always felt surefooted and within its limits.
• Really good braking and brake feel. There were a couple of times when I had to brake hard and I really appreciated the presence of strong brakes. I also appreciated the emergency stop signal feature in those situations.
• Smooth CVT. While it won't thrill you with its accelerating abilities (it isn't as bad as it's made out to be I feel), it's smooth, efficient, and has proven to be reliable.
• Spare wheel is a full-sized alloy
• Pretty good noise isolation at legal speeds but tyre noise does creep in above 120 kmph. The VX variant comes with 16" Hankooks. I'm happy with their ride quality. I look forward to upgrading to the quieter and comfier Michelin Primacy P4STs when these wear out.
• Nice, informative digital instrument cluster. It's clean and simple to follow.
• Very good economy on the highways when driven with a soft foot. I get about 15-18kmpl when driving in D mode. It drops to about 12-15kmpl when driving in S and depending on how aggressive you are. In the city, I get about 8-12kmpl depending on the traffic situations which IMO is not too shabby.
• Annual service schedule
• Electronic parking brake. Keeps the cockpit clean and gives us a bit more storage space.
• Brake Hold. I usually have this turned off but turn it on at signals and in traffic situations where I know I'll be stationary for long periods.
• The autolock feature. No need to remember to lock the car!
• The A/C. Even on pretty hot days, it cools the cabin in a couple of minutes of turning it on. With the ECON mode ON, the A/C can be a little lazy but once you turn ECON off, the A/C is a chiller.

What could have been better:

• Honda should have offered at least the 2.0L engine if not the 1.5L turbo. However, the 1.8 gets the job done for me as I don't drive with a heavy foot often. From an acceleration point of view, the Civic loses out to pretty much all the other options above but guess what, it's very rare that I want crazy acceleration. I do miss the acceleration sometimes but I bought this car knowing full well what its limits were.
• Boot space. In comparison, the Octavia's is huge. Even the City's is larger I believe.
• The audio quality is par for the course. Initially, I thought it was pretty decent but of late, I've been spoiled by an audiophile-grade stereo system at home which is making everything else sound bad!
• The BIG turning radius. Every U-turn needs a little bit of planning. But it's not so often that you take U-turns - so although it looks bad on paper, in reality, it is a small inconvenience.
• I wish there were request sensors on the rear door handles as well.
• The remote start feature is a hit or miss. I find that it doesn't always work consistently. It's something I will get checked during the upcoming annual service. I wonder if any other Civic owners experienced this as well.

What I dislike:

• No height adjustability for the front passenger seat. Let alone electronic adjustability. Come on, Honda!
• Difficult ingress and egress rear passengers. I find it acceptable but it's definitely a challenge for elders.
• No auto-locking of doors! To be honest, I find this to be a big mistake. I hope Honda fixes this via a software update.
• Scrapes its belly occasionally when fully loaded. There's no escaping it. With BLR's infamous speed breakers and with a full load, you will scrape the underside now and then. But when I'm alone or with just one passenger, it happens only on the worst of the bad speed breakers. But in my test drives, I found that the Civic was way better than the 8th gen Civic (which I have some driving experience with) and also better than the Octavia in this regard.
• The hump on the rear floor. I know it's because of the low stance of the car and because of the multi-link rear suspension but it's still something I dislike.
• No TPMS. I had one puncture which was a slow leak and I only noticed it when I was filling air.

The Decision Making Process
Obviously, this is a segment that is dying in a hurry and it is not lightly that you make a decision of buying a D-segment sedan in today's SUV/CSUV crazy world. So how did I come to the decision?

Before I get to that, a bit of background. Prior to the Civic, I drove my dad's 2001 Honda City (1.3 Exi). Although he was the owner on paper, I took over the reins in 2015. From when the car was new to when I took over, the only big difference was that the car was a little less sprightful. There was also the occasional creak and squeak. It was beginning to show its age a bit but it was still very reliable.



Needless to say, I really loved that car. It was a car I grew up with and the first car I drove that I considered fast. I wasn't allowed to drive the car until my father thought I was ready and more importantly mature enough - which was almost 2 years after I turned 18 and after proving myself on an Alto, hehe
The thought of upgrading from that car started sometime around late 2018. However, it was difficult to find an upgrade for that car without spending some serious money. So I kept an eye on the market and continued to drive that car. There were a few reasons for my wanting to upgrade: [*]The need for an automatic in the infamous BLR traffic. My drive is about 10km/45 mins one-way and about 30mins would be in slow-moving traffic.[*]I was driving an AP-registered car in KA with a small constant fear of being caught and fined. I didn't want to go through the hassle of paying road tax or re-registering in KA, getting road tax refunded in Telangana for an 18-year-old car which I wasn't sure we would keep for much longer.[*]I wanted a safer car - something with some modern safety tech as well as something that is rock solid on highways at speed[*]The upcoming 20-year milestone when I would need to get the RC renewed a second time.

I started looking at some used options - primarily used Corolla CVTs (2014 and newer). I was ready to pull the trigger if I found a solid example. I did go and check out a couple of them and almost pulled the trigger on two of them. But I lost out to higher bidders apparently. It's crazy how Toyotas hold their value. I also started doing test drives of the new cars on the market and these are the following I considered. My budget was 20L but was willing to stretch my budget if needed.

Skoda Octavia 1.8 TSI
If you're shopping for a D-segment sedan, you obviously can't ignore this. This takes the cake fun-wise but I also knew that it was not as reliable as some of the other options. I test drove the L&K version. The drive was fantastic, the DSG's response to acceleration was superb. I had two options - the Onyx version (23.5L on-road) and the L&K (about 27L on-road). The heart wanted L&K but the head said Onyx. If I'd decided on the Octavia, I'd have bought the Red onyx. I also window shopped a few used options but I didn't find any examples with the constraints I had (less than 3 years old and less than 30K on the odo)

Kia Seltos
I wasn't really keen on buying a CSUV - I never really understood why they were so popular (still don't). But you just couldn't ignore the Seltos. I test drove the GTX DCT as well as the manual diesel. While I liked both, I'd have gone with the HTX+ Diesel AT if I'd decided on the Seltos. The deal-breakers for me were the space in the rear and the mediocre build quality.

Corolla Altis
I knew this was going to be discontinued and there were only a few pieces of the Brown colour available. I'd have set me back 23.5L (on-road). I liked how the Altis drove but I liked the drive of the Civic better. The Civic was cheaper too (VX) and felt a bit more modern.

Hyundai Elantra
I test drove the BS6 petrol SX(O) AT variant. While I really liked it, the price was high (about 25L), and felt the Civic was a better deal. I also liked the ride quality of the Civic better.

I also flirted with the idea of getting the following:

Honda CRV
I have a thing for the CRV - so I was willing to ignore the budget at least until it was shortlisted as a potential purchase. There was no test drive car available. And I wasn't going to buy one without a TD. So that was that.

Hyundai Tucson
Test drove the top-end diesel AT. Loved the drive but even a diesel GL AT was going to cost 27L. Given that there was a facelift coming soon, I hesitantly decided to pass on it.

VW Tiguan
I saw some posts on the forum where people in BLR got it for 30L on-road. I tried a couple of dealers and the best I got was 32L. Decided it was way out of my budget anyway and dropped it but I might have been tempted at 30L.

Jeep Compass
I checked out the Jeep Compass and was only interested in the Diesel AT which at the time wasn't available. It was only available as part of the trailhawk variant which was well out of my budget. So that was curtains.

Toyota Innova
To be honest, I never seriously considered it because I didn't need a 7-seater. The only variant I would have been interested in would have been the 2.8 ZX AT which was out of my budget.

And finally,

The 10th Generation Honda Civic

I didn't really fall in love with the looks (unlike the 8th gen which I think is still one of the best looking cars around) and didn't really consider it until I heard there were some serious discounts possible. I'm especially not a fan of the chrome bar of a grill. I intend to wrap it black like some of the international variants. It will improve the looks significantly and I imagine it'll look even better on the white Civic.

Choosing the variant
My first preference was to go for the ZX variant (even though it was pushing my original budget of 20L) but I noticed that the VX variant was well equipped too. So I was open to VX too. I was going to buy whichever felt more VFM.

Petrol or Diesel?
It was mid-December and the stocks of the Civics were beginning to vanish. So I had to decide quickly. ZX CVT was sold out but a few pieces of the VX CVT in White were available.

I've always liked turbo diesels and have always wanted one but there wasn't an automatic option on offer (the EU market has the same ZF AT on the Civic that the CRV has). I went through a lot of European reviews of this engine and they were all positive. So I asked for a TD. I quite enjoyed the test drive on the diesel. The clutch was pretty light and the shifts were smooth and easy. The fact that the diesel had bigger discounts coupled with the availability of the ZX variant in multiple colours only added to the confusion.

In the end, I decided to go for the petrol variant since my wife and dad will also drive the car in the future and it would add significantly to the convenience while driving in the city. I really wish Honda offered the AT variant in India. If they had, that was what I'd be driving today.

The Dealership Experience
Honda dealerships are nothing to write home about nowadays. They've become almost "sarkari". I got the car from Dakshin Honda because they offered the best price. All my TDs were from Magnum Honda, Kanakapura Road. I felt bad buying from a different dealer but I gave them multiple chances to match the price (the price difference was about 1L) and they finally said they couldn't. I finally paid 21.2L on-road which was a healthy 3.5L discount. This included an extended warranty for the 4th and 5th years. I thought given the market situation and what you were getting for 20L nowadays, this was a good deal. It was an April 2019 manufactured car and would be shipped to the dealer from the Honda factory upon my confirming and paying an advance. I paid 50K as the booking amount and it took a couple of weeks for the car to arrive. They were happy for me do a PDI and once I OK'ed it, they went ahead with the rest of the formalities. I would've gotten the brown or the grey colour but they weren't in stock - so I ended up getting the Pearl White. I wasn't too fussy about the colour - so it wasn't something I was disappointed about.

Usage so far
I got the car on the 8th of Jan, 2020. So far, I've done about 7200km which is about 3-5k km less than I had planned. Thank you, COVID. Nevertheless, I did trips to Ooty, Chikkamagaluru, Mysuru, and Hyderabad. The rest of the usage was within the city.

How it drives
I covered most of my driving impressions in the likes and dislikes section above but I'll add a few points I left out.

I know I'm repeating myself but the car really is at home on the highways. The steering and suspension are tuned perfectly. Coupled with the solid chassis and excellent braking, the drive is really confidence-inspiring. If I feel the need to drive enthusiastically, I switch to the "Sport" mode. The RPMs are elevated and as a result, the engine is closer to the meat of its powerband which definitely makes it more responsive to throttle input. The price you pay is efficiency, obviously. I use it on the highways occasionally when I have the itch to drive fast. Within the city, it's always D (with ECON mostly ON). With the ECON off, you do notice a small jump in throttle response. You can also have the ECON mode ON while in Sport mode. I really don't know if it makes a difference in terms of the throttle response (I couldn't find any). My guess is that it only dulls the A/C a bit. I've played around with the paddle shifters a bit while in S and they make the drive more engaging for sure. The electronics don't let you rev into the reds, however. So you don't really get to experience the VTEC peak. I wonder if one can tweak those limits.

Steering Controls
I was used to having zero buttons on the steering but it was easy to get used to all the buttons. The fact that I could use all of them without reading the manual is a testament to them being simple to understand and use (I'm bad with interfaces!).

Visibility
I have no complaints in this regard. The A-pillars don't obstruct visibility too much and the rear window, although small, is adequate. I wasn't used to using the rear camera while reversing (I was only used to the old school way of doing it!) and it took me a couple of days to get comfortable with it. The rearview camera display on the ICE is also adequate. No complaints with the ORVMs and the IRVM either.

Seating Comfort
I've spent 100% of the time in the driver's seat so far. I can attest to it being very comfortable to sit long hours in. One thing that could have been better is the thigh support although I suspect people with average Indian build will be fine. I'm told the rear seats are comfy too. Even for long periods. My experience with the rear seat has been when the car is stationary and I find it quite comfortable. Because of the low seat, you will sit up in a slight knees-up position. As pointed out in the official review, I also felt the thigh support could be better. But again, I think "regular-sized" Indians will find it alright.

Services
The car completed 2 of 3 free services (cosmetic) and will go for its third (and first real) service next week. I'll post an update after that about the costs and quality of service. I intend to stick with the same service center as the first two (Dakshin Honda, Magrath Road).

Here are a couple of pictures taken while on the way to Ooty (just after Mudumalai):



Taken in Ooty on a bright sunny morning!



Taken on its 1 year anniversary:



Issues
The car has been a champ so far and I hope it continues to be one. A couple of minor issues:
- When I slowly release the brake to get the car into motion (forward or reverse), there is a little bit of noise from the brakes (I think) until I fully release it. It wasn't something I've noticed on other cars I have driven. I asked the service folks but they said it was normal with automatics. I somehow wasn't convinced. So here I am asking you all - have you experienced that sound? is that normal?
- As I mentioned above the remote start feature works intermittently

Upgrdes Planned
- Audio (now that I'm spoiled by good sound!)
- Headlights. While they are OK, they could have been more powerful. I intend to upgrade them to slightly more powerful lights. Any recommendations? I'm a newbie wrt. headlight upgrades! I only intend to upgrade the low-beam projector ones. The high-beam ones are alright I think.
- Tyres whenever the current set wears out and that means not any time soon!

Trips planned
I dream of doing a BLR-HYD-Nagpur-MP-Rajasthan-GJ-MH-BLR trip late this year (between Oct-Dec). It will be at least a month long! I hope things return to some kind of normal by then.

Well, that's pretty much all I had to say about the first year of ownership. Given that the car has now been discontinued, I'm not really sure about the value-add this thread will have but it's something I wanted to write and share. Thank you for reading!

[kamilharis]

Originally Posted by kauphylover

It's almost exactly a year since I brought home the 10th generation Honda Civic VX CVT

Congrats kauphylover for owning this beauty. Excellently summed up review which explains all the things related to this beauty


We would like a dedicated ownership thread with more pictures of your car. Anyway, even this Civic will end up being a unique item as the previous-gen.

[DriverNo.420]

Congratulations on the first birthday Honda Civic! The rear-quarter look of this car makes me go weak on my knees! Looks like nothing else on the road. The presence is unmatched. This is also due to the fact that not many people bought it.

Such a shame Honda knowingly killed this model in India by not providing customers the option to choose their desired powertrain. This has been discussed many times already but had Honda mated an automatic to the diesel, the civic wouldn't have flopped so royally.

[alphahere]

Originally Posted by kauphylover

It's almost exactly a year since I brought home the 10th generation Honda Civic VX CVT (which has now sadly been discontinued). Say Hello!

Issues
The car has been a champ so far and I hope it continues to be one. A couple of minor issues:
- When I slowly release the brake to get the car into motion (forward or reverse), there is a little bit of noise from the brakes (I think) until I fully release it. It wasn't something I've noticed on other cars I have driven. I asked the service folks but they said it was normal with automatics. I somehow wasn't convinced. So here I am asking you all - have you experienced that sound? is that normal?
- As I mentioned above the remote start feature works intermittently

Upgrdes Planned
- Headlights. While they are OK, they could have been more powerful. I intend to upgrade them to slightly more powerful lights. Any recommendations? I'm a newbie wrt. headlight upgrades! I only intend to upgrade the low-beam projector ones. The high-beam ones are alright I think.

For once in the history of mankind I believe the service centre has said the truth about the brake noise issue being okay and exists on all cars. If I understand the noise being described, it should happen when the car actually starts moving from a standstill. This is because while in D or R most clutchless gearboxes like CVT or conventional autos the power is always being applied to the wheels even though the vehicle is being stopped with the brakes. So when the brakes are released by the driver there is that point where the brake pads are just about to lift off the disc but not fully off the disc yet but the vehicle starts moving. This causes the disc to rub against the pad for a few milliseconds before it fully releases; causing that 'groaning' sound. We never hear this on a manual as the vehicle starts moving only after the brake is fully released because we have only 2 legs and can't apply the brake and accelerator at the same time Want to replicate this on a manual, you could try holding the car on a steep slope and releasing the brake slowly; it will make the same sound. Even DCT/AMT are good at hiding this noise because the transmission is disengaged from the wheels when the brakes are engaged. Not so with the (most) CVT or conventional autos.

That being said, the sound depends on the material of the pad/disc, the condition of the pad/disc and the temperature. Some pad materials like ceramic do not cause this sound but they have lower braking power at low temperatures too. If the brakes are overheated and glazed over that also could enhance this sound but we would also notice the brakes being less effective. So I would say, if the brakes are working as they should, this sound is absolutely normal. My BMW X1 makes this sound to no end.

The remote start system, please check the user guide. They usually have a set of preconditions that need to be satisfied before it will work. For example the car must be in P and the handbrake engaged, etc. It could be possible that one of them is not being met sometimes which is why it does not respond.

For the headlights I would suggest not go over the stock wattage. This upgrade used to be common back in the days but not advisable anymore. At least until the warranty has run its course and the worth of the car has been realised. Till then something like Philips XV (or whatever they call it now) and the likes should be trouble free with a slightly better light output.

[Mountainman21]

Originally Posted by kauphylover

It's almost exactly a year since I brought home the 10th generation Honda Civic VX CVT (which has now sadly been discontinued).

Congratulations of completing hassle free first year and wish that each subsequent year is as good or better than this!

[SgtRepeat]

Originally Posted by kauphylover

What I like:

• The autolock feature. No need to remember to lock the car!

What I dislike:

• No auto-locking of doors! To be honest, I find this to be a big mistake. I hope Honda fixes this via a software update.

You've listed auto-locking as both a like and dislike. If this isn't a typo, could you please elaborate?

[akp666]

Originally Posted by kauphylover

Issues
The car has been a champ so far and I hope it continues to be one. A couple of minor issues:
- When I slowly release the brake to get the car into motion (forward or reverse), there is a little bit of noise from the brakes (I think) until I fully release it. It wasn't something I've noticed on other cars I have driven. I asked the service folks but they said it was normal with automatics. I somehow wasn't convinced. So here I am asking you all - have you experienced that sound? is that normal?

Congrats on the car man! The issue you mention, is the noise like a heavy but dull grinding noise Like drrrr, drrrrr? (Trying my best to replicate it in words lol)

Yes I have observed it in my dad's automatic CRV and in my automatic ecosport. It's normal.

[Sk8r]

Originally Posted by SgtRepeat

You've listed auto-locking as both a like and dislike. If this isn't a typo, could you please elaborate?

The auto-lock under likes is when you walk away from your car, it auto locks !

The auto-lock under dislikes is whilst driving, cars usually have an auto-lock mechanism at 20 kmph, where all the doors are locked