Our Review First Published March 2008

Honda’s latest Civic flavour – the Type S – is pitched as a sporty three-door hatch just below the ultra-quick Type R. It’s billed as a more comfortable, less expensive and less, well, extreme alternative to the Type R, I was keen to see how it coped with the demands of family life with the usual kids, shopping and mess that entails. Could it do all that and knock a few years off as well? Let’s have a look…

The Look

What a great looking car – bit like a batmobile with funky twin exhausts and the most amazing belt of lights to the front and rear. It’s very neat with sleek lines and a pert but ample posterior not unlike my own! The shape continues with the door handles which looked great but I felt were rather awkward to open. My first impressions were showy, but not flashy. A car I’d definitely like to be seen in.

The Interior

While fooled momentarily by the need to press the red starter button, once found it hasn’t failed to delight. The engine starts beautifully with such a satisfying sound. While panicking that I wouldn’t be able to start the car I had a moment to observe my surroundings. First the chrome foot controls are awesome. Moving up, the cavernous depths of the dashboard are amazing. It gives the sensation of looking into a beautiful, deep pool where the dials seemingly float. The digital speedometer is big and highly visible – it needs to be as I certainly had to keep my speed in check.

The front seats are extremely comfortable and firm. They are easy to adjust and feel extremely sporty – which apparently is the whole idea. They are designed to surround the pelvis which gives support while cornering. Something I later fully appreciated, although my passenger Deb did not! In all fairness it was raining heavily and visibility was extremely poor.

The feel and the position of the gear stick is just right. More over to your left than in you average car with a very sporty feel to it. And back to those pedals. So shiny and big. Who would have thought they could be such a great feature? ~The steering wheel is also funky and sporty being covered in leather and has audio remote control switches on the left. The dual sunroofs are very cool and the covers retract in a delightful way. When open, they give a very different feel to the car making it even more spacious than it already is. The manual does describe it as tardis like and I have to agree. From the outside the car looks so neat and small, but there is a great deal of space inside. Even enough for my large husband to manoeuvre about in the rear while attaching children to car seats. ~What is particularly useful is the storage room underneath the rear seats – bit like being on an aeroplane – so useful for handbags or toys. It’s very comfortable in the back and while there are seat belts for three, two would be the optimum number of passengers. There are also anchor points for child seats, but why anyone in their right mind would want to have screaming children aboard is beyond me – hence I let my husband do that trip. However, while at first glance I would have pigeon holed this car for a girl about town with no babies in tow, I can see that having a baby on board would not cramp your style. Getting into the rear seat is made easy by the front seats gliding forward to allow an almost lady-like entry and exit.

Storage

There are plenty of storage compartments and the boot is positively cavernous. Popping to the supermarket was a joy and I filled the boot up with a huge weeks shop for five people with room to spare. It was only later that the delights of the lower boot space was revealed to me.

The Drive

Wow – what an exciting ride. It positively glides along and with the slightest touch of the wheel – turns. The diesel engine is amazingly responsive and quiet. I got back into my diesel automatic and thought I hadn’t released the hand brake! This car zips around town and my only problem was the speed bumps (which it handles very nicely) and the hoards of learner drivers (which I do not handle well) which stopped me from pressing those lovely shiny pedals. It’s a joy on the motorway despite atrocious weather. I quickly got it into sixth gear which is still a mystery to me, but it sped along effortlessly. Apparently it’s very good for economic fuel consumption.

I must say, when I heard we had a Honda Civic to review my heart sank and visions of grannies holding up traffic filled my head. As soon as I saw the car, I realised there would be no grannies in sight. This is a car for those girls about town, with money in their pockets, or those grannies about town who just what to have fun.

Night out

Driving around London late at night was a joy. The blue lights of the dashboard look so cool and clear. Heading for Knightsbridge we felt as if we really fitted in with all the trendy young things. Shame my new shoes were killing me as I hobbled into the trendy wine bar. I was more than happy to be the sober driver – I had thought there would be a scene about who was going to drive!

Minor Whinges

I just don’t think Honda have got it right with the wing mirrors. It’s great that they can be brought in by a push of a button, but you have to remember to do this. ~The number of times I’ve had to turn the electrics on again in order to press that button. I even drove home from Brent Cross with the mirrors still in – rather worrying that I didn’t notice this until very close to home. Couldn’t this all be incorporated into switching the engine on and off? At least my car does that – one of the few positive thing it has going for it! Having said that, they are very large and allow a great rear view, so perhaps you can’t have everything?

The rear window was not liked by any of us due to the window being split in two by a bar.  I also felt that the glass either side of the bar was distorted and interfered with visibility.

Safety

This car is apparently one of the safest cars in its class, if you are in it, but only gets a three star pedestrian safety. It has a very clever braking system which helps the driver to maintain control during cornering, acceleration and sudden manoeuvres. For front and side impact it receives a five star rating and the front head rests help to protect against whiplash injury in the event of an accident. For child safety it gets a four star rating.

Going Green

Its hard to imagine this lovely, zappy car can have any green credentials, but apparently it has. This is Honda’s first in-house developed diesel engine and they claim that while it delivers outstanding performance, which we definitely agree upon, it actually creates low emissions due to its catalytic converters. Being diesel it produces less CO2 than the petrol engine although the power is still the same.

Money Matters

It’s not a cheap car coming in at just under £20,000 with the metallic finish, but what a fantastic toy that gets you from A to B in comfort and style.