2016 Civic Owners-Biggest Surprises/Disappointments so far?

[firstblud]

Thanks for sharing! Sweet deal.

I just gave the costco program a shot and unfortunately no dealers willing to play by Costco's rules haha. I hope after Thanksgiving things will budge.

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[hondo]

Yeah, the only dealer Costco gave me was in another state, CT while I'm in NJ. Not outrageously far but they said I have to come in just to see the Costco price. I had better luck with truecar. It's not the powerful tool it used to be in terms of seeing actual dealer cost but can be useful when buying such a new model when dealers don't want to come down much from MSRP.

 

[Slickone]

I can't believe dealers would come down at all on such a brand new, hot car. If it were me, I would expect to pay near MSRP right now. If price were a big concern, I know I would have to be patient and wait a few months until the demand vs supply started doing down.

 

[hondo]

I can't believe dealers would come down at all on such a brand new, hot car.

It depends on the area. Within 30 miles of where I live there are 465 2016 Civics. 30 of them are touring. 3 of them the exact color combination I wanted. I made sure that they knew I was aware of this. They are aware of the demand, you just have to be aware of the supply.

 

[firstblud]

When you negotiated, did you go in person, letting them know you have 2 other dealers with what you want, or did it all over the phone/internet?

 

[hondo]

In person. I find that they take you more seriously. I had a piece of paper with the list of dealers that had the trim and color I wanted, including the VIN, stock number, and name of person I spoke to to verify it was in stock. When the salesperson was looking up the car on her computer I pulled out the piece of paper and read her the stock number. I didn't try to hide the list, so she could see what was on it. The best leverage you have is information. Be well informed, and let it show.

 

[GearGrind]

Rear disc brakes on the EX sedan looks extremely tiny. Looks cheap.

 

[C Note]

Rear disc brakes on the EX sedan looks extremely tiny. Looks cheap.

At least they're not drum brakes anymore hah.

 

[Revver]

So far I have been suprised (in a good way) but how peppy the acceleration is. Maybe I was just used to my old Civic but it doesn't take any effort to accelerate, even in economy mode. With my old Civic I literally had to floor it to get up to 70 on the freeway. It could just be cause it's new but it really doesn't take much gas to get going. The fuel economy has been very good so far too, I got 45 MPG on my 60 mile drive into work the other day. The quality of the radio audio is better than I expected (my 09 Civic's radio had terrible audio). I also love the brake hold, it's a very underrated feature but is very nice to use when in a lot of stop and go traffic.

My only real disppointment is the display screen on the radio (on the LX model). I think the screen would look a lot better if it was a solid black background with white text. The default setting is primarily medium blue with a black stripe on the top and bottom with the text in blue. It looks ok but it also looks kind of cheap and doesn't really go with the rest of the interior. You can change the background color to red but that doesn't look any better. It also has a amber and gray setting that look even worse. The gray makes it look like the screen can't display any color.

I am happy with the LX but I do kind of wish I would have paid the $2,000 more for the next trim level. Before I bought the LX I was considering getting the next trim level but I just didn't think the other features were worth $2,000. The moon roof would be nice but I had one in my old car and didn't use it much. The heated mirrors would be nice but again, I never had them before and got by ok. I liked 7" radio with the Apple car play and all of that but I don't think I would use it that often. Plus I don't like the idea of having to adjust the heat and A/C on the touch screen along along with the lack of volume knobs. Even though the 5" screen doesn't look as good at least it is very easy to use while driving.

At the time I was making my purchase I was planning on having the remote start installed for $400, I realize the EX comes with the remote start included so technically it would have only been $1,600 more, but that was still a little more than I wanted to pay. So I settled for the LX. They were supposed to install the remote start on my LX in the morning before I picked it up. When I arrived the salesman informed me that they had just found out that day that the '16 would need a transponder for an additional $200 to install with the remote start, so it would have been a total of $600 for the remote start so I told them never mind. Looking back at it I should have tried to negotiate changing my purchase to an EX and see if they would take some money off since they mislead me about the remote start.

That's ridiculous, you should definitely have negotiated for them to install the remote start at the price they quoted.

It seems odd the display screen doesn't have solid black with white text. Is this the same for the Touring models larger screen? About the larger screen it really is a double edged sword whether it is worth it in the end. With a larger screen the manufacturers tend to want to put every bit of functionality into it, even simple functions like HVAC and volume controls and there's enough people complaining about its ease of use (or lack thereof). In the end I think if the only feature you really wish you had was the remote start, I'd say you made a good decision not paying $2K extra for the next trim level.

 

[Izze]

In person. I find that they take you more seriously. I had a piece of paper with the list of dealers that had the trim and color I wanted, including the VIN, stock number, and name of person I spoke to to verify it was in stock. When the salesperson was looking up the car on her computer I pulled out the piece of paper and read her the stock number. I didn't try to hide the list, so she could see what was on it. The best leverage you have is information. Be well informed, and let it show.

Some dealers also soften their stance when you show up with a sheet showing the invoice pricing, so you show that you know how much profit they're making.

 

[hondo]

I knew that it didn't have blind spot monitoring, but I was surprised to see that it didn't have rear cross traffic alert.

 

[poop1994]

My main disappointment so far is the wiper system in the Touring. In the Touring there are three settings for the wipers: auto, slow, fast. On slow, the wipers are moving constantly just not that quickly. On fast, they're moving very fast. So there's no intermittent option that has the wipers go every 10-15 seconds or so. You'd think this would be no problem with the auto feature which is supposed to sense the rain on the windshield and wipe accordingly. This seems to work about half the time but other times, the wipers are just going and going and there's hardly anything on the windshield. So this is a big disappointment for me since I hate having my wipers going all the time and there seems to be no option that doesn't have them running pretty much constantly (in the touring). I wonder if there's something wrong with the sensing system or if the tech just isn't there yet? It sounded like one of those "too good to be true" kind of options.

when you have it on auto mode, you can adjust the speed of it

 

[tandjent]

Not a lot of surprises for me since I relentlessly read up and watched many review videos before I purchased. The Low-Speed Follow option was one I wasn't 100% sure that it came with up until right before I bought it. It's a pretty nice feature but I'm not sure how often I will use it. Honda does not recommend using it in stop-go traffic (which it seems made for).

One disappointment for me is Honda requires you to plug in your phone for Apple Carplay. Who wants to plug in their phone anymore? It's a hassle. Also, iOS 9 and higher supports Carplay with wireless connection. I wonder if Honda will ever update the system to allow this. On the bright side, Carplay has a long way to go before it makes me actually want to plug in to use it. There are very few apps to choose from and almost everything can be done using the Bluetooth connection through Honda's system. I actually prefer the built-in Garmin Nav over Apple Maps for the most part also.

The other disappointment is my Bluetooth connection to my phone (while playing music mostly) will be choppy or skip at times. It doesn't happen super often but I'm trying to figure out what is triggering it. Possibly when the side view camera turns on and off? I need more testing to see if I can reproduce. I had a cheap $25 bluetooth adapter in my old civic that worked flawlessly so I was surprised to see any skipping after pairing with the new Honda.

That's all I've got for now.

 

[Ten10]

You have to plug in for Carplay?Is this some kind of conflict with Honda's own bluetooth phone connection/pairing? I was looking forward to using it on the new Civic too. I hope just a firmware update will do it.

 

[lightthief]

You have to plug in for Carplay?Is this some kind of conflict with Honda's own bluetooth phone connection/pairing? I was looking forward to using it on the new Civic too. I hope just a firmware update will do it.

It took close to 4 years for any car to ship with tethered CarPlay.

I wouldn't expect less for wireless CarPlay.

No car manufacturer has announced any plans to do so.

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