What did you almost buy? And why you chose the Civic

So anywho ... a couple months ago as my 2006 Mazda 3 approached 235,000 miles I started researching cars. I was almost certain I wanted another hatch for the space and convenience, and I wanted something quick and agile like the Mazda. Reliability, cost of maintenance, and price were also factors. I started looking at the VW Golf, Hyundai Elantra GT Sport, Ford Focus ST, Subaru WRX, and a few others. Nothing ticked *every* box for me, and I eliminated the European cars (including the VW) right away based on price and maintenance costs. The Hyundai has a great warranty and tons of features with a great price, but had their reliability reputation going against them. Also, the nearest dealership to me is over 60 miles away.

By this time I'd discovered the Civic Si. Tasty. But since I have an irrational hatred for sedans, the coupe made my list.

A little more research left me with two choices: the Focus ST and Civic Si coupe. But after driving both I had to go with the Civic. The interior of the Ford is ... cheap? And not very well-designed/appointed. The thing makes great power, but when you get on it, the front end gets light and sketchy. Not confidence-inspiring at all. The ride overall is uncomfortably harsh and stiff. I quickly learned to hate the Recarro seats.

I had to test drive the Si coupe twice to make sure it was right. There are compromises here for me, but they were overcome by the long list of positives: plenty of power and opportunities to tweak it for more if I want; comfy and well-appointed interior; smooth ride with plenty of firm sportiness but never harsh; and it's a Honda and there's a dealership here in town. Also, it just looks cool as sh*t.

The main compromise was interior space. I rarely carry more than one passenger, but I do pack fishing rods, and guitars and amplifiers. A hatch is great for that kind of thing, but I pulled my fully loaded Mazda up next to the Civic and popped the trunk on both. Just eyeballing it I was pretty sure that with the Civic's rear seats down I could make it work. Two weeks in now and so far so good. Good thing I sold my refrigerator-size 4x12 bass amp before I bought the car

Touring sedan is still the mpg king in its class.

Even 3 years after its release, is there anything that even comes close to the CivicX lol?

Like Car and Driver says, the Civic exemplifies automotive excellence. In other words, it's the king of its class.

The ability to deliver good highway mpg without sacrificing performance, in the best overall package is what sold me.

Not too distant second was the Accord.

I didn't even look at the Corolla, a distant third.

Bit of a Honda fanboy, as I’ve owned a few over the years (00 Si, 05 Coupé VP, 06 RSX-S) But have also been into German cars and a few muscle cars. The cars I’d considered were:

-18 Accord 1.5T Sport 6MT (ultimately didn’t go with this because my fiancé already has a pearl white CVT. Couldn’t have 2 of the same car.....or could we?

-18 BRZ or 86 (love the idea of a classic lined, RWD sport coupe (coming from all the BMW E36’s I’ve owned). But Toyota and Subaru didn’t quite get these right. The 17+ BRZ’s have that awful trunk spoiler. (Other than the massive wings that function; think E36 M3 LTW High Rise, Type R, Evo, etc. I tend to stay far away from spoilers on trunks). I would go Toyota 86 base model due to clean trunk, but that engine is pretty awful in the twins. Sorry. (Not just due to slowness. It’s not linear.

-Subaru Crosstrek 6MT. I have zero need for AWD in Hawaii. Poor fuel mileage compared to Civic. Cool car though with decent use of space. The idea of being able to not dodge every crappy road in hawaii’s potholes was a nice thought.

-lightly considered Mustang/Camaro. More of a pushrod guy vs the complexity of the modular Ford V8. Plus the pushrod flat out sounds better. Mustang is a huge car with awful use of space. Think 100% opposite of a Honda Fit lol. I like that Camaro got somewhat cleaner lines and smaller than the 2010-2015’s. Wasn’t really wanting to jump by budget up to the 40k range for a nice SS. Considered a V6 1LE. But 35 grand for a V6 Camaro was against my religion. Ha.

-Though I’ve never owned a WRX or STI, I always have a soft spot for them. Like others have said though, just not worth the: price, poor fuel mileage vs performance (these aren’t fast cars here so 20 mpg is unacceptable), my lack of love for AWD. Somewhat sketchy reliability of those flat 4’s.

-used performance cars I considered were plenty. Mint E36 M3. E46 M3. 14/15 Camaro Z/28 or SS 1LE. C6 Z06. Evo 8/9. Focus ST/RS. Living in Hawaii it’s difficult to use any of the massive performance those cars have. So I passed. Plus being 38 now, I have a large sense of financial intelligence I had zero of 10-15 years ago.

-Type R. I’ve only driven one for a few miles but it is a riot. By far my favorite performance car. Can’t get one for less than 10k over out here. So that’s not happening. Sadly. Someday I will own a black or gray one (perhaps the 2019 Sonic Gray).

-18 Civic Sport Hatch 6MT. Amazing little hatch. Cannot beat the performance vs cost. The drive is tight and quick. Interior quality is absolute garbage compared to our Accord Sport though. Wasn’t worth the 3 grand premium over the LX for my uses. I like the smoother cloth on the LX vs the Sport.

-18 LX Coupé. Wanted to buy this 6MT but the color wasn’t to my liking and it sat on the lot a long time unsold.

......so I ended up with, of all cars. A bare bones, 2018 Civic LX Sedan 6MT. Burgundy Night Pearl on tan cloth. Fantastic little car for 19 grand. Worlds better than it’s competition. Port injected, simple 2 liter 4. Slick shifter with a light clutch. Fantastic fuel mileage. Slapped some Eibach Pro Kit springs on it. 17x8 lightweight Enkei TFR wheels with sticky Kumho 225/45ZR 17 tires. Ceramic 35% tint.
Drives just fine.

Bought the '18 Civic Hatchback 11/24/18. Looked at an '18 Corolla hatch, too small. Test drove an '18 Mazda 3 Grand Touring M/T, too clunky and not sporty. Test drove the '18 Hatch M/T and didn't have to look further, I knew this was my car.

Owned an '02 EP3 from '07 to '10 and was looking to find something to replace that driving experience. I found that and more in the '18 Hatch.

I had a 2015 VW GTI SE DSG, while i loved the car and the transmission it was very unreliable and trouble. After 9 trips to the dealer i traded it before the warranty ran out for a CPO 2018 Civic SI. I love the car and i am shocked at how much better it handles, hondas LSD diff is pretty amazing and the car gets way better mpg at combined 35 for me. I added a Hondata Pro Tuner and its good, I tried driving a Veloster but did not like the fit and finish compared to Honda. I chose the SI for reliability, mpgs and fun with potential to tune.

Literally was going to buy a new Dodge Charger AWD but after seeing the price of the new Honda Civic and driving them... Needless to say I own a new Civic Sport Hatchback
Always been a Honda guy anyways lol

A Subaru Crosstrek. Like the look, but gutless AF. And since I have two other four wheel drives, one being a nice SUV, I had no reason to get another AWD. Plus, the MPG wasn't nearly as good. However, the Limited Crosstrek interior puts my 18 Coupe Si interior to shame. Granted, it was a more expensive car, but they make a real quality interior.

I was fully committed to getting a 3 hatch. However the reason i got in the market was I unfortunately got in an accident meaning i had to buy a car ASAP vs a few years down the road. My old car had cvt and the loaner had gears. i got too used to no gears over 6 years that I wanted a CVT if tuned right, and the honda was right. Plus actually fun given it's an economy car. The mazda dealership wasn't helpful at all. Buying process + refinement = Civic.

I had been working from home for 8 years, then got a new job with decent commute. My Jeep Rubicon on 35s wasn't going to cut it. So start search for "cheap commuter."

Phase 1: completely committed to buying a hybrid. Don't love the Prius, but told myself the Jeep is for fun, this is purely functional purchase to get my butt to work (on Los Angeles freeways).

Phase 2: still thinking electric, but after some numbers crunching, realize that I can be almost as frugal with a used car that gets around 30 mpg hwy. Trip to CarMax to get some feels. Original target: $17k-$20k.

Phase 3: forget hybrid, I might as well have some FUN if I'm going to be sitting in this thing for hours every week. Go back to CarMax to test drive three cars target (under $2 a Z4, a Miata, and a Toyota 86. Miata so tiny, but stick and really nice mpg. Toyota... interesting. Reminded me of a Nissan 240SX I had in 90s (but with a lot more guts). Also manual, so also fun. And really good mileage for the power. Z4... was a 3.0si version, so very fast. But automatic, and mpg a big step down. Hard to justify.

Phase 3.5: walking out of CarMax. Hey, what's that? 2015 Civic SI (9th gen). I'm a longtime Honda fan (owned 3, not including my Dad's 1982 Civic), so what the heck, let's take it for a spin. Fun factor was totally unexpected. This was certainly NOT my father's Civic. Didn't really consider it, but was really impressed.

Phase 4: after researching this Civic SI thing, I realize the 10th gen turbo puts out very nice power... and 38 mpg hwy?! Crazy. Crazier still: I could get a BRAND NEW one for just a couple grand more than that 2015! Beeline to dealer where I have a minor connection. They have black 2018 SI in stock. About an hour later I'm driving off with it.

As impressed as I was with this thing on paper, it is continues to impress me more every day. Look, I'm not saying it's a Porsche Cayman. But the whole package (price, performance, mpg, Honda reliability, looks) just astounds me. It almost makes me glad I no longer work from home. Almost.

Vmac said:

I had been working from home for 8 years, then got a new job with decent commute. My Jeep Rubicon on 35s wasn't going to cut it. So start search for "cheap commuter."

Phase 1: completely committed to buying a hybrid. Don't love the Prius, but told myself the Jeep is for fun, this is purely functional purchase to get my butt to work (on Los Angeles freeways).

Phase 2: still thinking electric, but after some numbers crunching, realize that I can be almost as frugal with a used car that gets around 30 mpg hwy. Trip to CarMax to get some feels. Original target: $17k-$20k.

Phase 3: forget hybrid, I might as well have some FUN if I'm going to be sitting in this thing for hours every week. Go back to CarMax to test drive three cars target (under $2 a Z4, a Miata, and a Toyota 86. Miata so tiny, but stick and really nice mpg. Toyota... interesting. Reminded me of a Nissan 240SX I had in 90s (but with a lot more guts). Also manual, so also fun. And really good mileage for the power. Z4... was a 3.0si version, so very fast. But automatic, and mpg a big step down. Hard to justify.

Phase 3.5: walking out of CarMax. Hey, what's that? 2015 Civic SI (9th gen). I'm a longtime Honda fan (owned 3, not including my Dad's 1982 Civic), so what the heck, let's take it for a spin. Fun factor was totally unexpected. This was certainly NOT my father's Civic. Didn't really consider it, but was really impressed.

Phase 4: after researching this Civic SI thing, I realize the 10th gen turbo puts out very nice power... and 38 mpg hwy?! Crazy. Crazier still: I could get a BRAND NEW one for just a couple grand more than that 2015! Beeline to dealer where I have a minor connection. They have black 2018 SI in stock. About an hour later I'm driving off with it.

As impressed as I was with this thing on paper, it is continues to impress me more every day. Look, I'm not saying it's a Porsche Cayman. But the whole package (price, performance, mpg, Honda reliability, looks) just astounds me. It almost makes me glad I no longer work from home. Almost.

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Wish I could like this post ten times.

I almost got the mazda 3 hatch and considered the TLX and ILX. What sold me on the Civic hatch was it's size. it was so much larger than the 3, had a nicer interior than the ILX even with mine being cloth. And then for TLX I drove the accord and it's just too large of a car so it wasn't worth looking at a TLX. I do wish they made an SI in hatch, i would have actually bought a manual finally, but i need the utility more than the fun factor.

Here is the list:

Mazda MX-5 Miata RF
BMW 2 Series Coupe
Honda Civic Hatchback Sport Touring

I came from a Mini Cooper S Coupe. Only two seats and they made the car only four years. Not many two seater cars. Mazda called and left voice mails for over a month. But I needed a spare in the trunk or run flat tires. I drive 60 miles a day. Or, 5 years I would have gone 90K. I need a disposable car. At least one that is affordable to maintain. I also wanted small. The Civic seems like a boat in comparison to my Mini. But it drives like a Cadillac. The Mini actually has that go-cart feel, just be careful as you can easily crack your teeth going over bumps. And from what I am told the Civic can easily handle 90K miles. Good gas mileage is also important. I had a BMW in the past. Can be expensive to maintain.

I cross-shopped a 2018 Golf and 2018 Elantra Sport before getting my Si. I was pretty sure I wanted it from the get-go -- I knew about the adaptive suspension, had read the positive reviews, then saw one in the same blue I have now on the freeway, and remember saying to my friend "I want one of those."

Golf - Nice interior, very quiet on the highway, but I could immediately feel that it wasn't what I was looking for in terms of handling. Suspension and steering were too soft. Engine wasn't bad, but not exciting either. None of this was really a surprise but I was glad I gave it a drive.

Elantra Sport - Not bad! Love how the steering wheel feels and it had decent pull with the DCT. But the ride felt cheap compared to the Si, and so did the rest of the car. The real dealbreaker was the steering - it felt artificial and in its heaviest mode was a good amount lighter than the Si's. I'm not opposed to light steering - in this case, it just wasn't very engaging.

I was also quoted around $130/month over the Si (lease), so there was zero incentive for me to go with the Hyundai.

ablueSI said:

I was also quoted around $130/month over the Si (lease), so there was zero incentive for me to go with the Hyundai.

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Yea Hyundai's are known to have terrible lease values. Thats why they offer 10 year/100k warranty that is non-transferable. They want you to finance/purchase the vehicle

I also looked at the Mercedes CLA Coupe but with the miles I run maintenance would kill me. Love the luxury of the Touring and hopefully maintenance will be cheap. I just hate to dump $$$ in a car. Maybe that is because I am an accountant? No debt, own it all including house. But hate to taken and not into impressing others with what I drive. Had those cars when I was young. Need something with my busy schedule that keeps me out of the repair shop. Rides better than BMW. Not many options lacking that matter.