Lxvpq
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 14, 2016
- Threads
- 3
- Messages
- 53
- Reaction score
- 30
- Location
- Canada
- Vehicle(s)
- Civic 2018 Hatchback Sport
Trick with the 1.5, if you want to smooth it out quite a bit is to put it in Eco mode.My girlfriend and I made our way to the local Honda dealership this past Saturday to try to narrow down which style Civic we wanted to pursue - the Sport sedan 6MT or the Sport hatch 6MT. As there is only a $1100 price delta between the two, they were as level as they could be in regards to price. Going in, I did lean more towards the more consertatively styled sedan, but did warm up a bit to the hatch. Well, mostly. The fake vents and enormity of large plastic swaths on the front and rear bumper made it hard for me to get excited about it. I did like the general design better in person, especially the side profile, but the front and rear mostly were tough to love. It was something I could get over if the driving experience blew me away.
As i discussed in my intro thread, this car will be the shared daily driver car for my gf and myself. I own my own business and work from my home office and will have a sports car just for me in the family. We've previously been leasing premium/luxury cars for the past few years but decided we wanted something we could just buy outright or payoff in less than a year. At $22K (sedan) and $23,100 (hatch) MSRP, either of these options would fit the bill nicely. I taught her how to drive a manual transmission on my previous car - BMW 3 series - so while she's still a bit of a manual newb, she is good with the idea of the next car also 100% being a manual.
I'll jump ahead to the conclusion by saying that within about 100 feet of driving the sedan 6MT with the N/A 2.0 I MUCH preferred it over the hatch 6MT with the 1.5L; I did drive the hatch first and both cars were driven along the same typical 10-15 minute test drive route. It was around 72 degrees when we test drove and I was very mild driving the first few minutes until both cars got up to operating temp. I just felt almost immediately that the 2.0 N/A car was quite a bit smoother, sounded better, had a more comfortable driving position (visibilty) mainly and just felt more 90s/early 2000s Honda that I grew up with. Interestingly, my gf came to the same conclusion on her test drive period. She said the 2.0 N/A car was quieter which was probably because of the road noise from the hatch and also a gruffer sounding engine. While the 1.5T is impressive in its power output for its size, I immeidately noticed the turbo lag and coarseness of the engine, but the midrange was impressive for a car of its class. I'm sure the motor is tuned for that midrange and fuel economy so this is more of a personal gripe of mine than a knock against its engineering. Yes, yes, I know a tune wakes it up and probably eliminates some/most of that lag but I just felt the 2.0 N/A was the car I preferred in almost every way. From heavily reseraching Civics over the last couple of weeks online I felt confident going in that I knew most of what there was to know about these cars, but was surprised by my oversight that Apple Car Play was not available on the slightly more expensive hatch Sport. That wasn't a deal breaker but a disappointment and the much smaller screen screamed base model. All of that, coupled with the driving experience I've described sealed the deal that I preferred the sedan over the hatch. Perhaps if I didn't have a separate fun car I would put all of that aside and go with the 1.5T as there is no doubt it can make more power, but in no way did the 2.0 N/A with the manual feel slow to me. It felt much more linear and in that sense, fun.
I should mention that I've had and always loved Hondas/Acuras. I'll be 40 this summer but my first new car was a 2001 Prelude 5spd in college. I've also owned a new Accord Coupe V6 6MT (a very underrated car of its day), a new 2010 TSX 6MT (another fun car), and a 2015 TSX 2.4L with the DCT. The clear commonality of those cars has been a high revving fun to drive motor that isn't overly powerful. I got that same feeling, to an extent, in the new Civic Sport sedan 6MT. I'm sure the new Si is a great car to drive, and the CTR a beast, but the 2.0 N/A Sport with the manual is an absolute bargain for new cars in the very low $20Ks range. We're looking to purchase one when her lease matures in a couple of months.
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