Faults:

Blower motor for heat.

Armrest wore a little more than expected, but easy fix.

Other than that 80k problem free miles, never has had any power train issues.

EVERYBODY BOUGHT ONE, AND IT'S HARD TO FIND YOURS IN A PARKING LOT LOL.

General Comments:

I love my car. I get nearly 40 mpg with it and it's so cheap to keep up. Has never broke down or made me lose my confidence in it in anyway.

Very nicely equipped for a compact compared to my Echo. The registration is down to $70 for 2008, which makes me really love it. The quality and build to this car are phenomenal.

I hate that everybody has the same car as me.

My advice to anybody is to follow the guidelines given from Honda; this doesn't mean you have to take it to the dealer for service, I don't, but I listen to the manual and it's been very successful thus far.

This is my first Honda product, and I would definitely buy another Civic (if they aren't TOO ugly in 2010), yet Toyotas aren't bad either.

Faults:

At 33000Km The SRS warning light lit up and remains on instead of switching itself off after the Power-on-self-test. Upon inspection, the dealer informed me that the SRS control unit has failed and needs to be replaced. This costs approximately US$750 in Sri Lanka.

The EGR valve was clogged at 45000 Km resulting in an engine 'knock'; The dealer insisted that I replace the valve. However, upon cleaning the valve myself and resetting the Error Code in the ECU the problem hasn't occurred since. I guess the dealer was just trying to sell a new EGR valve.

The driving seat rocks.

General Comments:

This is a Japanese Domestic Model (JDM) and is a pleasure to drive. It is equipped with Dual SRS Air Bags, Electric Power Steering (EPS), ABS, Climate control, Power Shutters and mirrors and factory fitted Xenon HID lights with a factory fitted Aero-Kit.

Sporty yet a wonderful Family car. RELIABLE!

The D17A 1.7L vtec engine is absolutely wonderful and fuel efficient. I get 12 Km/L in the city (Colombo) and up to 16 Km/L on long distance drives.

The drive position and the equipment are just fine, to say the least.

Very responsive and corners as if it were on rails.

Faults:

This car burned through brakes. I was getting both front and rear brakes replaced at a rate of once a year. Same for the tires, if not more frequently.

The main problem was a recurrent electrical gremlin that no one at two Honda dealerships could figure out. Sporadically and without warning, the electrical system would more or less fail. The car would have enough electricity to keep running, however everything else would go haywire. The odometer would read as if it was reset, the rpm gauge would spin erratically, even while the engine made a consistant low purr, and all the lights would cut out, and be unable to be turned back on. After pulling over somewhere and turning the car off and on, sometimes for as long as a half hour, the car would more or less "reset" as if nothing ever happened...

Once this car was out of my hands, my sister discovered that this gremlin could be fixed simply by hitting the car with extreme force in the middle of the dashboard...

Go figure.

General Comments:

This car was bought specifically for its reliability. It was my very first car, and it was bought mostly as the result of protest from, and with the aid of, my parents, who feared that my personal choice, (and what I was able to afford) a 1983 Mercedes 240D, was going to be unreliable and unsafe! psssh! The Civic, as far as first cars go, was a nightmare. Individual running costs were not expensive, but when one went to the dealership as often as I did... I'm just thankful they had decent coffee and chocolate chip cookies gratis.

Post - civic, I purchased a 1994 Volvo 850. I love this car. It is well made, substantial, and reliable. All the things my "beloved" civic never was. Theoretically, by almost all accounts, this car is supposed to be far more spotty than the civic. And it has had its occasional problems. But I bought it at 11 years old and with 100,000 miles on it. Not at 2 weeks old with 12 miles on it. That was my beef with the Civic- if it was a ten year old car, I would have been willing to put up with its crap. But it wasn't. It was new. And it scared me half to death on a bi- weekly basis.

Good Riddance!