$47,000 - once you get back off the floor, you can sit down and watch Paul Maric's review of the 2022 Honda Civic. It's expensive, but is it good value for money? We get behind the wheel to see if it's any good.
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Honda content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/honda
More Honda Civic content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/honda/civic
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 00:49
Interior 02:53
Infotainment 04:27
Safety Tech 05:43
Practicality 06:24
On the Road 10:00
0-100 km/h 12:45
Verdict 14:39
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
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#honda #civic #review
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Honda content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/honda
More Honda Civic content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/honda/civic
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 00:49
Interior 02:53
Infotainment 04:27
Safety Tech 05:43
Practicality 06:24
On the Road 10:00
0-100 km/h 12:45
Verdict 14:39
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
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#honda #civic #review
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.
00:01 It has been a while between drinks for Honda.
00:03 They finally have a new Civic
00:04 and it is finally here in Australia.
00:07 Controversially though, it's only available
00:09 in one specification in Australia,
00:11 and it's this one here, the top specification VTi LX.
00:15 It's priced at just under $50,000.
00:18 This competes with things like the Toyota Corolla,
00:20 the Mazda 3, the Hyundai i30 sedan.
00:24 So it is a busy segment,
00:26 but all of the cars in the segment have moved up in price.
00:29 So it doesn't really surprise me
00:30 they've gone up market with this.
00:32 Today, we're gonna do a detailed review of this car.
00:34 If you do wanna skip ahead to other parts of the review,
00:36 you can use the time codes up on the screen,
00:38 or if you're on YouTube,
00:39 scroll down and use the chapters below.
00:42 And if you haven't done so already,
00:43 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.
00:46 It's gonna tell you every single time we drive a red car.
00:48 So let's talk exterior.
00:51 I don't, normally I tell you here how many colors there are.
00:54 I don't know exactly how many there are.
00:55 I will update the video with a sticky once I do find out.
00:58 But I do like this red, really suits the car,
01:01 especially with all the offset black bits.
01:03 And if you come down to the front here,
01:05 they've just done a really nice job of tidying the Civic up.
01:09 The Civic never looked that bad,
01:10 and Honda, I mean, to their credit,
01:12 they have been producing some pretty good looking cars
01:14 recently, maybe Odyssey is an exception to that rule,
01:17 but the rest of the cars look pretty decent.
01:19 And I think this definitely fits into that category.
01:21 So big Honda logo here,
01:22 you've got these open sections in the grill for cooling,
01:25 and same story down the bottom,
01:26 enormous registration plate holder.
01:29 I don't know why it's that big, but anyway, it's there.
01:32 LED headlights with LED daytime running lights.
01:35 This is an interesting design,
01:36 how your running beam is on the outside.
01:38 It kind of leaves this center section blank,
01:40 but I think it actually looks pretty cool.
01:42 And I like the old school layout of the projector,
01:45 sort of housing in the back there.
01:47 I think that looks fantastic.
01:48 You've got fog lights down the bottom here,
01:50 and then we'll whip around to the wheel.
01:52 So 18 inch alloy wheels.
01:54 It's kind of a bit of a boy racer design
01:56 with a low profile tire, but I think it suits the car.
01:59 Certainly here with the red, the black offsets it nicely.
02:02 I don't know much about style,
02:03 but I know that black and red generally go together.
02:05 It's got that piano black finish on it
02:07 and tiny little breaks in the background there,
02:09 but I think that looks pretty cool.
02:11 Up here, you've got an LED indicator
02:13 built into that wing mirror.
02:15 Privacy glass, and then around the back here,
02:17 you have another styling change.
02:19 This is in hatch form.
02:20 LED tail light, and then incandescent gloves in here,
02:25 which I just find completely bizarre.
02:27 Let's just go full LED and not have to change these gloves
02:30 every time they go out,
02:31 'cause you use your indicators a lot.
02:33 So anyway, so down the back here,
02:36 I quite like the way this slopes down.
02:38 You've got that shark fin aerial up the top there,
02:40 and it's such a clean finish up here.
02:41 I like that they've mounted the wiper down the bottom here,
02:43 'cause it really just gives you that clean finish
02:45 all the way up to the roof there.
02:46 So let me know what you think about the design
02:48 of the new Honda Civic.
02:49 Are you as impressed with it as I am?
02:51 Let me know what you think down in the comment section.
02:53 Righto, so we're inside the Civic.
02:55 Here's the key.
02:57 Nothing too revolutionary.
02:58 You've got lock and unlock, and on the back, the Honda logo.
03:02 It's a proximity sensing key,
03:03 so you leave that in your pocket,
03:04 then once you're inside the car,
03:05 you have a push button start.
03:07 Okay, so styling.
03:09 Look, generally, Hondas, I don't know,
03:11 they don't really set the world on fire in terms of styling,
03:14 but you can see here that Honda's been
03:15 a little bit adventurous with the Civic,
03:17 and I reckon it's paid off,
03:19 because they've gone with the sort of softer touch materials
03:21 at the top here, that dash mounted screen.
03:24 But have a look at this.
03:24 You've got like this sort of,
03:26 it looks like a metal grate, but it's not.
03:27 I suspect that's plastic,
03:29 and it integrates some of the air vent controls,
03:31 and I think that it just looks really classy.
03:34 There are lashings of piano black,
03:35 but they haven't gone absolutely, you know,
03:38 piano black crazy, thankfully.
03:39 It's just sort of restricted to that area there.
03:41 So it is a pretty nice looking cabin.
03:44 Not sure I love this stuff in the center here.
03:46 I don't even know what they've tried to achieve with that.
03:48 This probably would have been better
03:49 as maybe a wood grain or something like that,
03:51 but yeah, for the most part,
03:53 I actually think it looks pretty good.
03:54 In terms of your touch points,
03:56 so that is really nice and soft,
03:58 and this is a little bit firmer on the door here,
04:00 but still not too bad.
04:01 How soft are they?
04:02 Well, we've got our durometer.
04:03 We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.
04:05 If you want to see how this car compares to others
04:07 that we've tested before,
04:08 have a look at the link in the description.
04:10 Now, build quality.
04:12 Not too bad.
04:16 Sort of moves around a little bit there in the center,
04:18 but for the most part, this all feels okay.
04:20 And then our door test.
04:21 (door thuds)
04:24 Sounds really nice and solid.
04:27 Let's talk about infotainment.
04:28 So top of the dashboard here,
04:30 you've got a nine inch infotainment system.
04:32 Thankfully, this is just about 10 million times better
04:36 than anything I've seen in a Honda before.
04:38 Last car I drove was the HR-V,
04:40 and that is possibly one of the worst infotainment systems
04:42 in a car today.
04:43 So this is a huge step forward.
04:45 It's really easy to use.
04:46 It's a very sharp screen,
04:48 and it comes with all the features that you need.
04:50 So you have inbuilt satellite navigation
04:52 just natively to the car.
04:53 You then also have AM, FM, and DAB+ digital radio.
04:58 In addition to that, you have smartphone mirroring
05:00 in the form of Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
05:03 Apple CarPlay is wireless, Android Auto is wired.
05:06 I'll show you what Apple CarPlay looks like first.
05:09 So there you go, full screen integration,
05:11 and it is nice and fast.
05:13 Tiny bit laggy, but it's passable.
05:16 It's not an issue at all.
05:17 And this is what Android Auto looks like.
05:19 Same story, pretty quick, just a tiny bit laggy
05:22 as you scroll through,
05:22 but all looks good for the most part.
05:25 This also comes standard with a 12-speaker
05:27 Bose-branded sound system.
05:29 It is good that it has a decent enough sound system
05:31 to keep you entertained.
05:32 Now, ahead of the driver is another digital display.
05:34 Well, it's half digital, half analog,
05:37 but nothing too special there.
05:39 It just gives you your trip computer
05:41 and safety information on the left-hand side.
05:43 Moving on to safety technology,
05:44 you've got autonomous emergency braking
05:46 with pedestrian detection.
05:48 You have an auto-dimming rear vision mirror,
05:50 lane departure warning with a lane-keeping assistant.
05:52 You've got radar cruise control,
05:54 a semi-autonomous steering function.
05:56 Generally works pretty well
05:57 when you're using that on the freeway.
05:59 You've got blind spot monitoring
06:00 on the wing mirror just there, a driver attention alert.
06:04 On the parking front,
06:04 you've got no front or rear parking sensors,
06:07 and also no 360 camera.
06:09 You only have a reverse view camera.
06:11 I'll show you what that looks like.
06:13 Pop that into reverse.
06:14 The quality of that is actually really impressive.
06:16 And then you've got several different views
06:18 you can have access to there for the rear view camera.
06:21 So yeah, really nice setup and very clear screen.
06:24 Righto, let's talk about practicality,
06:27 and we'll start with your connectivity.
06:28 So two USB ports down the front here.
06:30 They're both USB-A.
06:31 You have a 12-volt charging outlet.
06:33 You have a wireless phone charger.
06:35 Quite like the way that's set up.
06:37 It's very colorful, interesting.
06:38 You can also switch it off if you need to.
06:40 I really like that,
06:41 because sometimes you might just wanna pop your phone down,
06:42 but you don't want it charging.
06:43 That gives you the ability to just have it sitting there.
06:46 In terms of storage for your phone,
06:47 let's get rid of this for a second.
06:49 Where are you gonna put it?
06:50 So you can stick it down there on the wireless charging pad,
06:53 or it can live here in the cup holders.
06:55 That's pretty straightforward.
06:56 So I have a man-sized coffee cup today.
06:59 See how that fits.
07:00 Not a problem at all.
07:01 Plenty of room on the sides there.
07:03 You have teeth as well.
07:04 What about our normal bottle?
07:06 Yeah, easy done.
07:08 And then see if that fits inside the door.
07:10 Yep, no dramas.
07:11 Let's try our big one as well.
07:13 Not in there.
07:16 Not in there either.
07:17 So you don't really have storage for a big bottle.
07:21 Other storage items,
07:22 you've got this center console, nice and deep.
07:24 You have a little coin tray tucked into there as well.
07:27 You also have a glove box,
07:29 which is, that's kind of tiny
07:32 once you have the manual in there, unfortunately.
07:34 Now, what about your comfort?
07:35 Well, you've got dual zone automatic climate control
07:37 with ionization, which is fancy.
07:39 Heated seats for the first row.
07:42 Seats themselves, El Cantara finish in the center there
07:45 with some leather and then red stitching within the seat.
07:49 The seats for the front row are electrically adjustable.
07:51 So forwards, backwards,
07:52 and then backrest forwards, backwards.
07:54 Seat up and down, and then front up and down as well.
07:58 Seats are pretty comfy.
08:00 It's a good place to be seated.
08:02 Steering wheel offers both tilt and reach adjustment.
08:05 And then on our reach test, yes, all easy to reach.
08:10 Okay, second row.
08:11 What's it like?
08:12 We'll start with room.
08:13 Knee room is pretty good.
08:14 Toe room, not great.
08:16 My toes are kind of wedged under that seat
08:18 and headroom, not great as well.
08:19 My head is sort of into the roof there.
08:22 But I do kind of have a decent amount of space here
08:25 if you sort of take all of that into account,
08:27 which I didn't think I would.
08:28 I thought this would be really cramped back here.
08:30 Critch comfort, so you got air vents down here.
08:33 No USB charging, which is a little bit disappointing
08:35 and only one map pocket.
08:37 You do have a center armrest here,
08:39 which has two cup holders.
08:40 So a little one and then a bigger one.
08:43 You can also then fit your bottle inside the door as well
08:46 if you need to.
08:47 In terms of children, I know some of you have those.
08:50 You've got two ISOFIX points on the outboard seats
08:52 and three top tether points.
08:54 And then our window test, here we go.
08:56 It doesn't go all the way down.
09:00 So if you want to go sort of with your hand out the window,
09:02 actually you can, I think.
09:04 If you want to put your hand out the window,
09:05 you can fit it into that gap.
09:06 So I don't encourage you to do that
09:08 'cause I think it's illegal, but there you go.
09:10 So cargo space.
09:12 Let's have a little sticky beak here.
09:14 It's actually pretty decent.
09:16 So it comes in at just under 450 liters,
09:19 but it's quite a clever setup.
09:20 So you've got your cargo blind here,
09:22 but instead of having to fold it out
09:23 and get rid of it and all that sort of stuff,
09:25 all you need to do is just flick it out of the way.
09:27 And then all of a sudden you've got room.
09:29 Beneath the cargo floor, you have storage space as well.
09:32 So it's a really good boot there
09:34 in terms of what you can do with it.
09:35 What does it look like with our bags in there?
09:37 Well, there's our laptop bag.
09:39 We'll pop our suitcase in.
09:42 There we go. It all fits in nicely.
09:44 Then what you can also do to add a little bit more space
09:48 is drop the second row.
09:51 And then once that's down,
09:52 you have almost a flat load space with the exception of this,
09:55 but it's a pretty decent slot there
09:57 if you do need to pack your car full of gear.
09:59 So I've just hit the road in the Civic
10:03 and let's start off with the engine.
10:05 So if you have driven a Civic before,
10:08 this is probably going to seem very familiar to you.
10:10 So it's a one and a half litre turbocharged
10:12 four cylinder petrol engine.
10:14 Makes 131 kilowatts of power and 240 newton metres of torque.
10:19 And that's all mated to a CVT,
10:22 a continuously variable transmission.
10:24 Now, the reason why that's not the end of the world
10:27 is because the Civic doesn't actually weigh that much.
10:30 It only sort of tips the scales
10:31 at around that 1400 kilo mark.
10:33 So when you are behind the wheel
10:34 and you sort of get stuck into it,
10:38 it actually feels good.
10:40 I never thought I'd be saying that
10:41 about a one and a half litre four cylinder,
10:43 but it actually feels pretty good.
10:44 So as you do sort of roll into the throttle,
10:47 the CVT really responds nicely to the engine
10:49 and it gets up and moves
10:51 and really is just quite fuss free.
10:53 It has a stop start system.
10:54 The stop start system isn't linked to a mild hybrid setup.
10:57 So it means when we come to a stop,
11:00 I'll show you what I mean,
11:01 the car will switch off,
11:02 but then when it restarts,
11:04 it's not entirely smooth.
11:06 So mild hybrid systems use an integrated starter generator
11:09 and that allows them to take off really smoothly
11:12 and restart the engine imperceptibly.
11:14 This doesn't quite fall into that category.
11:16 In terms of fuel economy,
11:17 Honda claims 6.3 litres per 100 Ks.
11:20 It's a little sticky beak at what we're doing here.
11:22 7.3, so near enough to that figure,
11:25 which is pretty good,
11:27 considering we've done a bit of spirited driving
11:29 this morning as well.
11:30 So yeah, not bad there.
11:32 Now let's talk about drive mode.
11:33 So you've only got three to choose from,
11:34 normal, econ, economy,
11:37 which kind of dulls everything,
11:39 and then sport.
11:40 So I'll pop it into sport.
11:42 So I can see the CVT there is giving me a few more revs.
11:44 We've got our corners coming up here.
11:47 Tip it in through here.
11:48 Whoops.
11:51 It's actually not too bad.
11:55 Tell you what, there is a lot of traction
11:56 out of those tyres.
11:58 This is getting along really nicely.
12:02 So I wasn't expecting this to be as sporty as it is.
12:04 The fact that it weighs so little
12:07 means that it can be nice and agile,
12:09 and with decent tyres like this has,
12:11 it's actually sticking to the road beautifully.
12:13 Communication through the steering is good as well.
12:16 So as I feed it in through this corner,
12:18 there's more than enough feel through the wheel there.
12:20 We've got our tram tracks coming up here.
12:22 Yeah, look, this actually feels really,
12:25 really nice and resolved.
12:26 And that's the thing,
12:27 Honda needs to have a USP,
12:29 and I think if their USP is sporty feel behind the wheel,
12:32 then that puts a big smile on my face.
12:35 Really, I think of something like an i30 N-line sedan
12:38 as a competitor to this.
12:39 And sure, the i30 N-line sedan
12:40 might have a more powerful engine,
12:42 but this definitely feels more sporty in comparison.
12:45 Honda claims a zero to 100 time of seven and a half seconds.
12:48 This is how it went up against our stopwatch.
13:01 Now let's talk about road noise.
13:03 So we're out here on a,
13:05 or what is simulating a country road,
13:07 a course shift country road.
13:08 There is a fair bit of tyre noise coming into the cabin,
13:11 and I think that is thanks to those low profile tyres.
13:13 It's not the end of the world,
13:14 it's just you're gonna have to turn up the radio
13:17 if you are doing a highway drive.
13:19 Now, what about your ride quality as the speed picks up?
13:21 So we've got our undulations here on our country roads,
13:25 and we'll just dial up the speed a little bit
13:27 to the legal highway speed here in Australia.
13:31 See what it's like.
13:32 Wow, that is remarkably good.
13:37 I'll tell you what, you know,
13:38 this may be a pricey option in the segment,
13:40 given it is only a one model range,
13:43 but yeah, the ride is fantastic.
13:46 There is excellent body control over those undulations.
13:48 It doesn't do what a lot of cheaper vehicles do,
13:51 or vehicles that haven't been tuned correctly,
13:53 which is sort of bouncing up and down
13:55 and making you seasick.
13:56 This actually feels quite impressive
13:57 there as the speeds pick up.
13:59 One thing I did notice just while we've been driving,
14:02 this center console lid, if you tap it with your elbow,
14:06 it's sort of, it's not quite fixed correctly,
14:08 and that is getting quite annoying.
14:09 So I don't know if that's a build thing or something,
14:12 but yeah, that's a little bit frustrating.
14:15 Now, what about visibility?
14:16 So down the front of the car there, it's great.
14:17 I can see the edges of that bonnet.
14:20 The wing mirrors are good.
14:21 They could potentially be a little bit bigger,
14:23 but you do have blind spot monitors built into those.
14:25 You don't have the lane watch system,
14:27 which is that camera that comes up
14:28 on some other Honda vehicles,
14:29 which I would have liked to see here.
14:32 As we go over some bumps there.
14:33 And visibility out the back is okay.
14:34 It's quite a narrow envelope,
14:36 but it's not the end of the world.
14:38 So the Honda Civic,
14:41 this caused a bit of controversy in Australia
14:43 because they launched it with one price point,
14:45 which was right up the top,
14:46 and everyone was like, "Oh, it's so expensive."
14:48 But when you actually have a look at what you get here
14:50 compared to its peers,
14:52 it is actually a really impressive car.
14:54 It's sporty.
14:55 It's got all the latest tech and features.
14:56 It's got plenty of room inside as well.
14:58 It really is just quite hard to fault.
15:00 So yeah, that's my take on it.
15:02 I like it.
15:02 Let me know, are you gonna buy one
15:04 or are you gonna wait for the Type R potentially?
15:06 I think that thing's gonna be pretty awesome.
15:07 So let me know in the comments section below,
15:09 what do you think of the Honda Civic?
15:12 And is it on your shopping list?
15:13 If it's not, what are you buying instead?
15:15 Let me know down there.
15:16 Now, if you did enjoy this video,
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