I purchased a 2017 Civic LX sedan (Lunar Silver) in December after my 2014 Corolla LE Eco was totaled (a guy ran a light and smashed into me, my Corolla did a 360 turn and I was lucky to walk away - he drove off and was charged with leaving the scene of a property damage - it was the second time in 2016 I was hit while driving and although it wasn’t the Corolla’s fault, I felt spooked and wanted to try another make and went back to Honda. I have now owned 4 Hondas and 4 Toyotas in my life – but I digress).
I now have 2700 miles on the Civic. It’s a beautiful-looking car, IMO, and I am generally pleased with some exceptions. I am sharing my experiences and observations for what they’re worth and would be glad to hear others’ opinions, especially fellow 10th gen Civic LX sedan owners.
The most important GOOD thing about the Civic is that it provides a significantly MORE SUBSTANTIAL DRIVE than the 2014 (11th gen) Corolla LE Eco I was driving just prior. It absorbs bumps better and is quieter than the Corolla even though I believe it’s actually a few hundred pounds lighter. Honda Magic! The suspension feels tight and the car has no rattles. It’s hard to tell for sure in winter, but I think the gas MPG is a bit lower than the Corolla but that is compensated by having more power. It’s a 2.0 vs. 1.8 on the Corolla and has more horsepower. I’m very satisfied with the ability to speed up quickly when I give it gas.
The most important BAD thing for me is the IMPRECISE STEERING. Although I did test-drive two or three LX’s, I find now that the steering is too light and not precise, with little feedback and no sense of the center point. It feels like there is too much power assist and I need to correct the steering too frequently on the highway. It’s not the alignment because the car does track straight. It’s that the steering is not tight enough. The Corolla was similarly this way and I am greatly disappointed as some reviews of the Civic call the handling or the steering “precise.” I wonder if they are talking about the LX sedan. I did take it back to the dealer about a week or 10 days after getting the car and inquired about this. Supposedly the service manager drove it and said it’s exactly like all the other Honda Civics. So… fellow 10th gen Civic LX sedan owners… what is YOUR experience with the steering? Are you needing to watch like a hawk on the highway in traffic and constantly correct? Is it possible that my specific vehicle has an issue despite what the service manager said? I wish there were a fellow owner near me around Boston, who could try my car for comparison and let me try theirs.
SOME ELECTRONIC THINGS IN THE LX CAN’T BE ADJUSTED as they can in the EX models, which have the different display and interface. The service manager at my dealer said that “if it’s not adjustable by the driver, we can’t adjust it either.” Can anyone confirm this statement? I’m not sure I believe him. Things I would like to electronically adjust:
I now have 2700 miles on the Civic. It’s a beautiful-looking car, IMO, and I am generally pleased with some exceptions. I am sharing my experiences and observations for what they’re worth and would be glad to hear others’ opinions, especially fellow 10th gen Civic LX sedan owners.
The most important GOOD thing about the Civic is that it provides a significantly MORE SUBSTANTIAL DRIVE than the 2014 (11th gen) Corolla LE Eco I was driving just prior. It absorbs bumps better and is quieter than the Corolla even though I believe it’s actually a few hundred pounds lighter. Honda Magic! The suspension feels tight and the car has no rattles. It’s hard to tell for sure in winter, but I think the gas MPG is a bit lower than the Corolla but that is compensated by having more power. It’s a 2.0 vs. 1.8 on the Corolla and has more horsepower. I’m very satisfied with the ability to speed up quickly when I give it gas.
The most important BAD thing for me is the IMPRECISE STEERING. Although I did test-drive two or three LX’s, I find now that the steering is too light and not precise, with little feedback and no sense of the center point. It feels like there is too much power assist and I need to correct the steering too frequently on the highway. It’s not the alignment because the car does track straight. It’s that the steering is not tight enough. The Corolla was similarly this way and I am greatly disappointed as some reviews of the Civic call the handling or the steering “precise.” I wonder if they are talking about the LX sedan. I did take it back to the dealer about a week or 10 days after getting the car and inquired about this. Supposedly the service manager drove it and said it’s exactly like all the other Honda Civics. So… fellow 10th gen Civic LX sedan owners… what is YOUR experience with the steering? Are you needing to watch like a hawk on the highway in traffic and constantly correct? Is it possible that my specific vehicle has an issue despite what the service manager said? I wish there were a fellow owner near me around Boston, who could try my car for comparison and let me try theirs.
SOME ELECTRONIC THINGS IN THE LX CAN’T BE ADJUSTED as they can in the EX models, which have the different display and interface. The service manager at my dealer said that “if it’s not adjustable by the driver, we can’t adjust it either.” Can anyone confirm this statement? I’m not sure I believe him. Things I would like to electronically adjust:
- Volume level of turn signal clicks. According to the owner’s manual, this is adjustable on the EX, along with the volume of other bells and alerts. I usually cannot hear the turn signal when it’s on and can’t see it sometimes either - more on that below.
- Make Hands-free Bluetooth the default on Bluetooth-connected phone calls. On the LX, if you initiate a call from one of your 20 stored favorites, you’re ok, but if you initiate a call from your smartphone as I usually do, the car always asks if you want to switch to Hands-Free rather than use the Handset. To do that, you must turn the right-hand radio knob to YES and then push it. That’s two extra unnecessary moves while you’re driving and I think this is truly dumb on Honda’s part. If you’re connected via Bluetooth, isn’t it almost by definition obvious that you would want to talk hands-free, at least 99% of the time?
- Door auto-relock after 20 (or 30?) seconds. Sometimes I unlock the car with the key fob and then gather up a handful of stuff and by the time I get to the car, it’s relocked itself. Apparently, according to the dealer, this cannot be changed in the LX. It is a really annoying “feature” for me.
- Key fob feature of short-press, long-press on the unlock button to open all 4 windows (see below for more on this)
- Slow to shift into gear. My car is an automatic. When I shift from Park into Drive or Reverse, it takes about 2 seconds longer than my Corolla (and Camry before that) to shift into gear. They would be in gear almost instantly after shifting. It is weird and disconcerting. Are all the Civics like this? What this means is that if I shift into Drive and immediately hit the gas, the engine revs and then, when it actually shifts into gear about two seconds later, it jerks the transmission because the engine is already revving. I have learned to wait two seconds after shifting, until the car catches up if you get what I mean. Anyone else experiencing this?
- Steering wheel height at my favorite position doesn’t allow me to see turn signal arrows and digital speed. My optimally comfortable steering well position is the lowest possible. I feel I have more control that way, given the too-light steering weighting mentioned above. But in the low position, it perfectly blocks my view of the green turn signal indicators and since they are so quiet, I could easily leave them on unknowingly, which is actually a safety issue. You know how annoying it is when someone has their turn signal on and you think they are going to turn or change lanes but they don’t. If I could at least increase the volume of the turn signal clicking sound, as mentioned above, that would help.
- Key fob buttons too sensitive. I discovered the “clever” feature of short-press, long-press on the unlock button by discovering my car after work one day with all 4 windows open. Imagine my shock. Thank goodness it was not parked in an area where everything might have been stolen. This feature might be handy a few times in the summer when it’s very hot but it’s NOT handy to have it happen unexpectedly because your key chain moving around in your pocket caused the key buttons to be pressed inadvertently. If I could disable it, it would be no prob. My 2014 Corolla key fob had all the same buttons but they never were activated in my pocket.
- No “low windshield washer fluid” warning light. The first time I discovered this was when there was some snow on my car. When fluid didn’t come out, I kept thinking the washer jets must be covered by a little snow because the low fluid warning wasn’t on. So I tried the washer several times, which activated the wipers on a dry windshield, which is not a good idea. Finally it dawned on me that there might be no warning indicator and the owner’s manual confirmed it was “not on all models.”
- Single-speed intermittent wipers. Similar to how I kept trying the windshield washer until the light bulb went off in my head, I was fiddling to find the intermittent wiper adjustment ring on the wiper stalk one drizzly evening. Duh! Finally it dawned on me there was only one speed, which I confirmed in the owner’s manual. No “low windshield washer fluid” light and no variable-speed intermittent are two cheap-outs by Honda that surprise me, given the overall quality of the 10th gen Civic. For the previous 20 years, I had a 1998 Camry LE and a 2014 Corolla LE Eco and both had a low washer fluid warning light and variable speed intermittent wipers. The Corolla LE Eco is the equivalent of the Civic LX and Toyota didn’t cheap out on those two features. By the way, I would gladly give up the Civic’s new Brake Hold feature for these two missing features. Brake Hold is interesting but seldom really needed. If you’re going to be stopped for that long in traffic, you can just throw it into Park.
- Electronic Parking Brake. I was wary of this because my driveway is inclined and I was concerned that it might not hold tight enough. But so far, it holds very securely on my driveway and I like it. We’ll see how it is at 20K and 30K when the disc brake pads are not so fresh and new.
- Seat comfort: fair to good, not great. I have yet to take a ride of more than 100 miles and am wondering how comfortable it will be.
- Driver’s vision out the windows: very good for windshield and side windows but poor out the rear window. With the Corolla, when stopped at a red light, I could see the grille of the car behind me and know what kind of car it was. With the Civic, because the rear center headrest is so high, I can only see the top of the hood, and above, of the car behind me - no grille. The view through the rear window glass is also somewhat visually distorted - wavy - when viewing through the rear-view mirror but I got used to that quickly and it’s actually not a big deal. Probably because the window angle is so sharply raked.
- Headlights: much dimmer than the standard white LED’s I had on the Corolla. I have slowly adjusted but miss the bright white illumination of the Corolla. On the positive side, at least I am not blinding other drivers as I was with the Corolla! At some point, I may spend the hundred bucks for the LED replacement bulbs you can buy for the headlights
- Stock LX radio: definitely not as good as the stock Corolla LE radio. It doesn't pull stations in the way my Corolla did and there is more static and "flup."
- Horn: meep, meep weak! It was similarly weak on my Corolla and I easily replaced that one with a Wolo Maxi Sound dual horn. The access on the 10th gen Civic, however, apparently requires you to take off the front bumper and I’m not willing to do that. I am still hoping someone will suggest a cut-in to the horn circuit somewhere under the hood so I can replace or add a horn more easily.
