General Comments:

My first car was a 1991 Civic. It was nice, nice handling, and quite comfortable.

This 2015 Civic is a car I work with at my job. It has low miles and automatic transmission.

The first thing I noticed, is how cheap the interior materials have got over the years in the Civic. The dashboard under the windshield is so cheap, it looks like some plastic item from a dollar store. It is horrible, can't remember seeing this for a good 20-30 years in any car. It is even so poorly molded, they didn't even smooth the plastic edge that runs above the instrument panel. A toy from Toys "R" Us is better produced than this large piece of plastic.

Now, that may be just a big plastic piece, and not the whole car.

The rest of the interior has quite a bit of hard plastics; clearly worse than a Corolla or a Mazda 3. I also drive a Nissan Versa, and be shocked or not, the interior is more nicely done and finished in the Versa.

But the worst part I found to be the engine along with the transmission. This is the base engine, and it is weak, slow to react, and the transmission seems to be on a coffee break. I do not drive fast, I'm just talking about normal city traffic acceleration. Yes, if the gas pedal is floored, the engine wakes up and pulls, but in normal driving no one does that. There is also an Economy button, God forbid if you dare use it, the car transforms into an electric car from the amusement park.

The seats are OK, and surprisingly not too close to the floor. Entry and exit are reasonably easy. A pleasant surprise, there is enough leg room for a 6ft driver, allowing feet to rest on the pedals in a comfortable position. But not more than 6ft tall, as the roof is too low.

There is excellent visibility all around, except in the rear where it's not bad, but not great either. Great large rear view mirrors.

Steering wheel: here's some bad news. The Civic got such a numb steering wheel, it puts to shame some Nissan steering wheels. I would rather drive a bicycle than enjoy the steering wheel in the Civic. Absolutely feeling-less.

One more thing. I do not understand the use of the tachometer in this car. Not only it's an automatic, but the tachometer is large, poorly placed, and totally useless. Not to mention it stays most of the time at 2000RPM. It's not even funny to see it. Honda should just remove it from there, and leave just the top display which is already more than enough. Just cut the costs.

Faults:

Nothing at all, the reliability you expect from Honda. The car feels extremely well-screwed together. Of course, it only has 8000 miles so you wouldn't expect too many issues.

General Comments:

I bought this car new and have been driving it for the past 8 months. There are things I really like about it, but a couple of major flaws that keep me from truly loving the car, as much as I want to. For contrast, I previously bought and continue to own a 2006 Mazda MX-5 with a 6-speed.

Likes:

The 2.4 NA engine is really a gem, smooth and zingy and gets great fuel mileage.

- Despite being a bit boy-racerish, I think the car looks really good, especially in Dyno Blue Pearl.

- The ride quality is excellent, especially considering the 18 inch wheels and 40-series tires.

- The clutch and shifter are very intuitive and easy to operate, particularly in traffic.

- The sound system is very good as well, and the controls are laid out well despite some people not liking the double-tier dashboard in Civics of this vintage.

- The car feels very solid and well-built, as most any Honda does. Not extremely quiet, but much more so than the Miata, and it eats up highway miles nicely.

Dislikes:

I have 2 major problems with the car:

1. The steering - the steering is utterly numb, lifeless and devoid of any road feedback. It is also extremely light and, frustratingly, does not firm up appreciably at speed like most steering racks. I've noticed these tendencies in many new electric-power-steering setups in newer cars, but the Civic might be the worst of those I've driven. It contributes to a wandering, vague feeling on the highway and saps confidence when turning. Jumping into the Miata and feeling the lively, quick steering telegraphing every nuance of the road is a massive revelation. Even my mom's 2006 Accord has great steering. I don't know where Honda went wrong here, but maybe most people just don't care about good steering as much as I do...

2. The seating position - everyone's opinion will differ, but I have yet to find a seating position that is truly comfortable, even after trying every variation of height, angle and cushion positioning. I either feel too far from the clutch or too close to the gas pedal and brake. Even at the lowest position, I feel like I'm sitting way too high up. For something I drive regularly, this is a problem.

Other than my major gripes I have a few others. Like I said, the ride is great (IMO) but the suspension tuning allows too much lateral motion. On a rough road at low speeds, there is an overabundance of side-to-side rocking motion that makes the car feel not buttoned down.

The car is also FWD and feels every bit like a FWD car. Even with the LSD working, accelerating into turns is not a comfortable experience. Decently hard braking at speed will upset the chassis and give the feeling of the car being thrown forward more than I feel it should, especially for a barely-3000 pound car which should have the inherent tossability and balance that comes with light weight.

The clutch and shifter are easy to use, but I think I've been spoiled by the extremely short-throw, positive gearbox in the Miata. To me, the throws feel a bit too long, and for all the talk of Honda's shifters, frequently more notchy than I would like. Maybe there's something wrong with the car, because some shifts have that nice "buttery" feeling everyone talks about, but others, particularly 1-2 (which is an important shift), are notchy enough to hold me up for a split second, which is irritating.

Overall:

I might have been spoiled by the sports-car dynamics of my other car, but the Civic is not sporty enough to really approximate a sports car. It's actually a better everyday car, but still has some compromises to be sporty with no real payoff.

I don't dislike the car, and I know others love it, but the flaws are enough to make me think I'm gonna trade it in after next winter and buy/lease something else.