Well thought it time that I give an update on my new wheels – a 2015 Honda Civic 1.6 diesel SE plus in nice bright shiny red. My favourite colour of car.
Those of you who didn’t manage to fall asleep will remember I was having issues with my ix35 and needed to change it – after arranging an appointment with Webuyanycar with a starting price of £11300, I saw an advert for Evans Halshaw who do the same thing. Took it along there and they gave it a full check over and they always promise to beat the WBAC price. They did so by £700!
My friend has had a succession of Civics since 1997 and she swears by them. Each time she has came to me for advice and I have went along with her but she has only ever wanted the newer version! So, of course, I am getting some ribbing from her after all these times I have now joined the Civic club!
I got it because it ticked pretty much all my boxes – great economy, very comfortable, lots of toys and flexibility for carrying passengers, bike, or black lab! But suitable as a comfy car for myself who is probably in the car myself about 90% of the time!
The car was the service manager’s car for a small family Honda dealer. After years of buying from Arnold Clarks it was a joy to go back to this level of personal service. The test drive consisted of him chucking the keys at me and telling me to come back when I am finished. When purchasing, we got a bottle of wine and the wife got a bunch of flowers. Yes I know I still pay for these but it was a nice touch. Oh and they also threw in a new set of number plates with my private plate free of charge. I didn’t ask for them, they were in the boot for me. A really enjoyable, satisfying purchase process which is something I just can’t say about Arnold’s emporiums.
Since 1999, I have been driving MPVs and SUVs so it is taking a lot of getting used to, working out how to get in and out the car. Both the missus and I are convinced it’s lower than her Fiesta.
I still haven’t read the manual and so every few days I am finding another feature that I didn’t know existed. The sound system is touch screen, you can change the “skin†appearance and even add your own screensavers! The iphone synchs seamlessly with it and plays podcasts, music etc with ease. It doesn’t actually have a CD player but instead has two USBs and an HDMI ! Sign of the times I guess! Oh, also has DAB which lets me listen to Absolute 80s and such stuff!
The Civic has Honda’s “magic seatsâ€. Basically this means that the rear seats fold in two ways. They fold forward like the conventional method (leaving a complete flat floor) but the base of the seat folds up vertically as well so the dog can just jump in the side door and sit up in the rear footwell with plenty of space. In fact the rear doors open almost at right angles if you want to maximise the entry angle for awkward loads.
I had also looked at the Tourer versions and although these were bigger and more boot space obviously, I felt that the flexible seating layout of the hatch was all that I needed. I also really like the look of the car – I feel the Civic is an old man’s car but a lot of folk have said it looks very sporty!
It doesn’t have a spare wheel but does have space underfloor for a spacesaver which can be bought separately. I have found one on gumtree which I am hoping to get tomorrow.
Have done about 900 miles so far in it, the first tank I averaged 59.7mpg and that included lots of rush hour stop start traffic. Similar journeys in the Hyundai would have returned about 33-35mpg. We have a lot of roadworks around Lanarkshire just now with SPECS cameras so this allows some high indicated mpgs. On a recent early morning run to the airport and back the computer indicated I had done 83mpg.
Ironically since getting rid of my 4WD Hyundai, we have had 3 different episodes of snow which is 3 more than I experienced when I had the Hyundai!
My car is the same as this
usedcars.honda.co.uk/Civic/1.6-i-DTEC-SE-Plus/Northampton/3812395-605519681-2990392.aspx?srcmdc=se_na_re_
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Thanks for this. Very interesting reading.
Be interested in your further thoughts a few months down the road.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Sun 14 Feb 16 at 00:52
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Bobby, welcome to the Civic club.
Congrats on a Civic review which doesn't go on about the rear visibility, which is not an issue to me or most owners!
Have you decided whether to go with variable or fixed servicing? Unless you do lots of short, oil degrading journeys, I would recommend fixed time/mileage. This is better for most owners as the Honda variable system (at least on my 2012 model) calls you in for part services according to a number of parameters, not just oil change, so this results in more than one visit per year. If it's on variable the dealer can disable it, but not switch it back on if you change your mind later.
If your space saver turns out not to be suitable I found Cox's Honda could provide one online at a good price. I didn't need a jack as there is one alongside the gunk in the boot side compartment. I did wonder if a full size spare would fit as it's quite a big well but I've never measured.
Finally how was it in the snow? We've not had any since I got mine and I am interested in how it handles as we live off the gritted routes and it can get quite bad on the few occasions we get snow.
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Martin the car I bought has the remainder of a five year service package thrown in to the deal so just had its first service.
How do I check which regime its on?
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>>Martin the car I bought has the remainder of a five year service package thrown in to the deal
www.honda.co.uk/cars/owners/service-plan-lookup.html
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>>Finally how was it in the snow? We've not had any since I got mine and I am interested in how it handles as we live off the gritted routes and it can get quite bad on the few occasions we get snow.
To be fair it was only light snow, nothing really that you can give a judgement on. I do need to be careful on speed bumps as the front bumper has some sort of aerodynamic thingy at the bottom of it which quite often scrapes so I don't think I would be wanting to use it as a snowplough in anything deeper!
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Zero that bit is for when the dog is clean and we are just nipping up to my dads or down to the in laws or general visiting.
The boot is for after the 8 mile muddy walks!
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Is it an estate or is it the compromised one?
;-)
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It's a fully versatile, multi purpose, hatchback !
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You'll not get quite as many shoes in a compromised one.
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Bobby re service regime you are best to call the dealer to check. In my case I bought a time/mileage service plan but the car itself was set to variable. More confusing still the service book has a set of pages for each type of servicing and the first service (before I bought the car) was a variable one but recorded as time/mileage. Fortunately the all important oil changes happened to have been included. It was only when I picked the car up from the subsequent service that I found the oil had not been changed as the on board computer said it could go another three months over the anniversary. This may suit some people but repeated visits and extended oil changes are not for me.
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The service bumph just says that its 5 years or 62500 miles. The car was registered in Mar 2015 and I bought at the end of Jan. Dealer said I could wait till Mar to get its first service or just get it done before I collected it so I opted for the latter.
Will contact dealer to see what they have set it up for.
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>>You'll not get quite as many shoes in a compromised one
Ironically enough I currently have 3 bin bags of shoes in the boot of it just now!
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What? You're buying second hand shoes now?
It's getting worse...
;-)
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>> This picture of the magic seats probably demonstrates it better than my explanation!
What a really good idea.
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Just back from driving down to my brother's in Bishop Stortford from Lanarkshire.
M74 / A66 / A1 etc
Cruise control at 75mph where traffic allowed.
Returned 63.36 mpg.
Very impressed with that, and still happy with the overall car. Especially the iphone integration for playing music, playlists etc.
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Was that brim to brim or indicated MPG?
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Brim to brim.
Indicated was 68mpg.
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My new (ish) car - Honda Civic - Bobby
