GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Today I had the chance to admire and drive one of these cars and let me say, I am extremely impressed. If you are looking for information on the new civic, read on. Let me start off with some background info; My sister is a junior at University of Michigan, and purchased her new civic last weekend because she was in need of her own car to get to and from her student teaching job (which means the vibe is ALL mine, btw ) So today she came home from Ann Arbor to celebrate my mother's birthday, and let me drive her car out to the store to get some shampoo, and I was obviously excited. So enough of the rambling, let's get on with the review.First, we'll talk exterior: I didn't spend a whole lot of time checking out the exterior, as its about 30 degrees here and quite windy, but what I saw I liked. The styling is very clean all around, and nothing looked tacked on or cheesy in the slightest bit. The wheel covers mask the steel wheel very well, and I actually had to look twice to see if they were alloys or steelies. Chrome exhaust tip also adds a bit of flare, without looking out of place, or God forbid 'rice'. Overall, exterior looks great, a very clean and high-class look.Interior: Again, the first thing I noticed when I sat down (besides the fact that the seat was probably as far forward as it would go...my sister is MAYBE 5'4) was that the styling was very nice and high quality. The center mounted tach and digital speedometer provide very readable instrumentation, and the location of the speedo is almost heads-up-displayish, which is very convenient. However, if you are like me and drive a stick with your left hand at 12 o clock and right on the shifter, you will notice your left hand blocks the view of the speedo, but I'm sure you could work around that, i just didn't bother messing with how my sister had the wheel and seat set up, etc. I didn't sit in the back seat, however it did appear to have sufficient room for kids, even with the front seat all the way back. The position of the shifter felt very natural, your right hand seems to fall right onto the knob, and the shifts are VERY smooth and throws are very short. I nearly snapped my wrist when I shifted fast because I'm so used to the vibe's mile-long shift throws. Everything about the interior seemed high-class and VERY high quality, much more that I expected from Honda, so kudos to them. Also, interior noise is very minimal. The 140 hp 4 hummed nicely at low rpm and howled at high rpm, but not obnoxiously like the vibe gt's, it isn't nearly as loud or whiny; for normal driving, engine noise is at a minimum. Drivability: While I didn't spend much time driving the civic, I did notice it seemed to respond to every slight steering movement very well. Handling is great, suspension is tight when you want it to be, but also forgiving, similar in ride quality to the vibe gt, but a little softer on larger bumps. Overall: The new civic seems like a great car for the money. The exterior and interior styling have been fine-tuned to appear very clean and natural, and the ride is somewhat sporty, but also nice enough to do some serious road tripping without being uncomfortable.Hope you liked the read, I was super bored so I figured I might as well do something productive. Any other input is welcome EDIT: Since you all seem to be talking about price, I thought I'd mention that my sister bought it off the lot for a price of around 15k well equipped. Original price was around 16.5k but my dad managed to talk it down because my sister didn't want a test drive, and he basically said, This is how much money we want to spend, you don't have to try and sell us the car, can we just buy it for X amount of dollars, and they said ok

Well that's good to hear as I've found myself really liking the Civic coupe.Something about the sedan just doesn't work for me, but the coupe is nice. Somehow I have a feeling once the Si comes out my Sebring may just have to go away.

if I owned a honda, I'd have to rice it lol... there just is no way around it. But honda makes a nice car. A couple years ago I almost did get a honda... but I got the Vibe instead.

I love those digital gauges. Damn, I miss the 80's. Kudos to Honda for that, pretty sweet idea that everyone else has abandoned. They certainly look different, the pics I've seen on the net before hand were rather repulsive at first, but it turns out it is better up close and in person than I had expected.I saw one on the road and became remotely intrigued until I got back home and looked them up. The lack of equipment you get for the price you have to pay for one of those things, yikes!!! I've read the base model has no radio, not even as an option, nor can you even get A/C as an option, yet it still sets you back $15,110. I don't find myself thinking how expensive those stripped down Vibes are anymore. At least you still get A/C and a CD player standard. The EX with automatic has a MSRP $21,110. For that money, someone can easily escape this particular class and move up to something classified as mid-size or even full-size.kbb.com sums it up: "You May Not Like This Car If... If the Civic's $15K starting price is the most you want to spend, you might be disappointed to find out the base model doesn't offer an audio system, air conditioning, power locks, center console or even map lights."On the flip side, they say: "You’ll Like This Car If... If you appreciate world-class refinement (along with impressive mileage), and you're looking to spend anywhere from $15K to $21K for a new car, your test drive schedule might not continue past the Honda dealer."However, the standard safety features are a very nice touch. ABS and side curtain air bags standard. 40 MPG highway with the automatic, which bests the manual by 2 MPG! Finally, the shift-it-yourselfers get the fuel economy penalty. (Noticed the same with the new Kia Rio, their auto gets more than the manual. )I'm sure it is a nice car, but that price, whew! Granted, these days $21K isn't bad for a car, I suppose. But when so many other nameplates, foreign and domestic, can give you a lot more car for that money or a couple bucks on top of that,I have to say I couldn't give the Civic any consideration. But they'll sell a zillion of 'em to everyone else but me. Despite the cost, I'm sure it will continue to be a winner for them... And it's different, nobody else makes a car in this class that looks this funky. I just wonder though, with that HUGE tach, if the ricers are still going to need that second 'A' pillar mounted tach with shift light on their automatic Civics? I can't wait to see what the ricers do once those guys get their hands on one of these beauties.

Quote, originally posted by millster »Somehow I have a feeling once the Si comes out my Sebring may just have to go away. I saw the Si for the first time at SEMA. I took some pics of the Si on the track there (they're the pics in the first few rows):http://gallery.genvibe.com/gallery/sema05othersI also saw a regular '06 Civic on the road the other day. I was impressed on the clean look (as already stated) and it had minimal wheel well gap (which looked good!).

Quote, originally posted by NSimkins »I saw the Si for the first time at SEMA. I took some pics of the Si on the track there (they're the pics in the first few rows):*DROOL*Something about that funny looking little car just appeals to me. I'll probably wait until I see some reliability stats just to be sure.

That new SI is beautiful. One of my sponsors is a huge honda man begging me to buy the new SI but its not gonna happen.

Quote, originally posted by Emerica13 » and the shifts are VERY smooth and shorts are very throw. I nearly snapped my wrist that'll happen when the shorts are very throw. lol

Quote, originally posted by mcgusto82 »that'll happen when the shorts avery throw. lollol...woopsIt was late at night when I wrote that...and...uh...*hangs head*