First Drive Impressions : New 8th Generation Civic

As with the City MMC late last year, the new 8th generation Civic launch here in Malaysia was done in 2 separate events; the official launch event at the KL Convention Center where the car was unveiled to the general media and public, and then followed by a test-drive event for the media held around 2 weeks later. I was ecstatic when I learn that I continue to remain as part of the selected media people who will participate in this 2nd event.

The test-drive event for the new Civic took place at the Cyberville Lodge resort which is located at Cyberjaya, the I/T capital of Malaysia. The event comprised a drive down south from the resort, ending at the Avillion resort in Port Dickson, a seaside holiday town on the west coast of Malaysia. This was a journey of approximately 140-150km and Honda Malaysia planned a route comprising a nice mixture of trunk and highway roads for this purpose. Again four media journalists shared a car, driving one variant there and the other variant back.

My group got to drive the Civic 2.0S to Avillion, and the 1.8S back. Again the test drive started with a 'negotiation' between us as we all wanted to be able to take the wheel for our own preferred 'sector' of the drive. For the 2.0S, I managed to get the 2nd stint, which involved a mixture of highway, normal roads and finally a short section of country roads. With only 140-150km being shared by 4 persons, this means each of us gets to drive for only 30+km but my stint seems to be quite nice since it allowed me to get to drive the 2.0S over quite a comprehensive variety of driving conditions. For the journey back, we of course got the 1.8S. My stint for the journey back involved more or less non-highway trunk roads which was not as 'comprehensive' as the 2.0S drive but it was still sufficient for me to get a very nice initial impression of the 1.8S.

Civic 2.0S - First Drive Impressions

Regular TOVA readers, especially those who drives the original 7th Gen Civic 2.0 i-VTEC (and I know there are quite a number) will know that the one area which I have the biggest reservation about that car is its suspension. Specifically, and to the point, my complaint (yes it can be called that) about the Civic 2.0 i-VTEC's suspension is that it is far too 'lively'. The softness can be tolerated if it is understood that the car is designed for 'luxury with performance'. So a soft suspension allows a lot of road imperfections to be absorbed and as a result, the driver and passengers gets a soft and cushy ride. But in the Civic 2.0 i-VTEC, I really felt that this was carried way too far, with the result that it was all 'luxury' with hardly any 'performance' to speak off. So the end result was that the car simply bounce around too much almost out of control over less than perfect roads when taken at higher speeds. It is therefore not surprising at all if I am to reveal that the one most common theme running through all of my conversations with a ET1 Civic 2.0 i-VTEC owner is 'I want to upgrade my suspension !'.

So naturally in this test drive, the first and foremost thing in my mind when I hop into the new 8th Gen Civic 2.0S is to check out how Honda has approached the suspension setting on this car. I already know that it will still remain a case of 'luxury with performance' but will Honda engineers make the same (what I feel are) mistakes as before ?

In this case, I am happy to report that the new Civic 2.0S has a much better suspension. There is still a compromise for ride comfort but there is now bias for performance as well. If I am to characterize the new Civic 2.0S' suspension in a single sentence, I would say that it is similar to that of the Jazz VTEC but softer. The main difference is over particularly bad roads, where the Jazz VTEC bounces controllably but the Civic 2.0S can still be just a tad lively. The Civic will slightly exaggerate the road undulations, to a small extent making it feel as if the road is a little bit worse than what it really is. So both the Jazz VTEC and the Civic 2.0S will pitch about when going over a particularly bad patch of road but while the Jazz VTEC will settle down quickly after, the Civic 2.0S will still exhibit some amount of 'after-shock'. The suspension takes a discernable amount of time, short as it may be, to settle down. So if we are pushing the Civic had, this interferes with the handling as we have to wait a little bit longer for the suspension to settle before we can resume pushing. Nevertheless, the most important thing is that the new Civic 2.0S no longer gives that sense of 'bouncing out of control' that the ET1 Civic 2.0 i-VTEC is notorious for. As would be expected then, on good and even roads, the Civic does well. In hard cornering, body lean is apparent but the car still feels confident through the corner. If we do a direct comparison, then there really is no competition; the new Civic 2.0S handles a lot better than original 2.0 i-VTEC even if it is ultimately still biased towards comfort.

As expected, the new K20Z engine feels more torquey at low-rpms. It also pulls very nicely throughout the rev range, all the way to the red-line - and it sounds quite nice as well. The gearbox now offers L, S, and D, with S offering the sequential shifting option. This sequential shift option is a huge improvement. Of course we can remain the purist and continue to lament the lack of a true manual gearbox. But really, other than the hardcore purist, the real world enthusiast (meaning most of us) have to work with real world domestic constraints and that dictates an automatic gearbox. So if that is the situation, then the addition of the sequential shifter greatly sweetens the 'deal'. The sequential shifter is a true 'sports shift' in the sense that it does not automatically upshift. The engine will happily bounce madly against the rev-limiter if we keep the throttle floored (and it happened to me more than a few times !). However, it is semi automatic in the sense that it will not downshift if it will over-rev the engine. There is shift delay, or rather actuation delay, meaning that there is a discernable period between pulling the upshift paddle and the gearbox actually doing the upshift. But if one has to use an automatic gearbox, this is indeed a huge upgrade over anything that Honda has to offer so far, bar the wonderful Multimatic/CVT gearbox.

As expected, the Civic 2.0S does well in high-speed cruising, including an all out mad dash to top speed. With 4 in the car and with less than 500km accumulated mileage on the odometer, we still managed to clock in excess of 210kph. This is where the intelligence in the design of the new dashboard makes itself clear. As have been described by many, the new dashboard layout really do offer something akin to a HUD, as far as the speedometer is concerned. When doing high speed cruising, the speedometer remains nicely visible even when keeping the eyes squarely planted on the road. So it makes traveling at high speeds much safer as one can check the speed without really taking the eyes off the road. So the new dashboard design is not a case of 'for looks' only. It is truly functional and personally for me, it is something I am rather proud of from Honda as Hondas of old, especially the Civics, have always been known to produce 'functional but boring dashboards'. Other than wind noise, the Civic 2.0S feels solidly planted on the road right up to and beyond 200kph.

As my drive stint involves a bit of country back-roads travel, I got a chance to check out the Civic's mid-range acceleration. The roads are typical single lane each way, and twisty. As usual, many lorries laden with goods ply along this road to avoid having to pay ever higher amounts of toll on the highways. Visibility is not always good as the roads are lined on both sides by 'greens'. So there are many blind corners, trees and bushes blocking the view of on-coming traffic. Consequently, true overtaking opportunity is relatively scarce and this is emphasized by double 'no overtaking' lines over most of the roads. Whenever the chance to overtake - safely and legitimately - opens up, the new Civic 2.0S proved itself. For such normal day to day overtaking requirement, the power of the K20Z reinforced by the new sequential shifters was quite sufficient. Along these sort of roads, overtaking can be 'easy' if one is willing to take risks and to break traffic laws. Overtake over double lines, swerve out early when still on the no-overtaking zone, or complete the overtaking deep into the on-coming no-overtaking zone. Those are easy. It is also dangerous and frankly is really not 'real' overtaking. Similarly, one can push one's luck and overtake into a blind corner. I have met my fair share of people who does this regularly and some even boast about it. I suppose they feel their luck will always run good. For me however, real overtaking ability means being able to do it safely and legally. I only start when I am properly in the 'broken line' (over-taking allowed) zone and I never voluntarily overtake into a blind corner, as long as I can control it. So my judgement of whether a car can overtake well will depend on whether it can overtake safely and legally. In this case, the new Civic 2.0S passes this test well. When there is a need, one can really depend on the Civic 2.0S to deliver enough power to overtake the normal slower moving traffic, lorries straining at 60kph or Sunday drivers strolling along at 70 or 80kph, both safely and legally even over quite short stretches of over-taking zone. One of the biggest advantage it has over the ET1 Civic 2.0 i-VTEC is of course the sequential shifter. Pull the paddle to downshift early in preparation for the over-taking zone that is approaching ahead. Swerve out and WOT. The Civic 2.0S pulls confidently and consistently, executing the overtaking maneuver quickly without fuss, except for the nice VTEC roar from the engine and of course the engine madly bouncing off the rev limiter when I got too immersed in the maneuver and forgot to upshift ! There's no need to make a big 'event' out of overtaking, plus it is aurally enjoyable as well. Amongst all the models that Honda Malaysia has officially sold or is officially selling here in Malaysia (since they came in officially early in this century), I can confidently say that the new Civic 2.0S offers the best overtaking performance of all. It may not ultimately pull as much as the 240hp Accord 3.0l V6 VTEC but because I can pre-select the gear I want to start to overtake with, it simply overtakes better.

The brakes is another area where I feel is lacking in the original ET1 Civic 2.0 i-VTEC. Actually it's more to do with the 'brake pedal feel' rather than outright braking power, which is actually quite sufficient in the ET1. But the brake pedal feels soft and mushy and more importantly, the stock brake pads seems to require warming up, as if they are racing-type pads ! So when first starting off, the first few occasions of braking in the ET1 can be quite hairy as the car will continue to roll forward even with the right foot hard against the brake pedal. This improves greatly after a few rounds of braking but the brake pedal continues to feel mushy, as if the brake fluid has been used for too long and has absorbed too much moisture. I remember that when I had the ET1 Civic 2.0 i-VTEC for loan, most of the time I had the urge to go and upgrade the braking system ! For this new Civic 2.0S, again I am happy to report that the brake is also much improved. There is no longer that strange lack of bite when first moving off. And the brake pedal now feels a lot firmer eventhough there is still some degree of 'give' to hard pressure.

Words of praise must go out to the new seats. They are really comfortable and supports the body so well that there was no feeling of tiredness or discomfort in the drive to Avillion. This applies to both front and back seats and ties in with what Honda highlights in their technical overview, that the new Civic seats have been designed so that we sit in them and not on them.

Civic 1.8S - First Drive Impressions

When it comes time to drive back from Avillion to Cyberville Lodge, it also comes time to reset my expectations and to mentally bring in a different set of criteria. It was the new Civic 1.8S that we will be driving and I know for a fact that this variant is designed to compete successfully against the 'normal' offerings from Honda's competitors; the 1.8 Altis and 1.8 Sentra and so forth. So comfort and how well it handles as a daily driver will be of utmost importance. No more pretentions about 'sportiness' anymore.

Well, to cap off the impressions of the 1.8S test-drive in a single sentence, I have to say that most glaringly was that it has a surprisingly good handling ! Indeed so good was its handling for normal driving style (and perhaps also due to my 'new' expectation levels), subjectively I felt that the 1.8S handles better than 2.0S ! Actually this has probably more to do with expectations than with actual handling capability as I was really expecting the 1.8S to give a soft, bouncy, overly cushy ride. But in low and medium speeds, the car rides comfortably and handles confidently and this actually gives the impression that it is more sporty than the 2.0S. Unexpectedly the 1.8S also gives a much better steering 'feel' than the 2.0S. Turning the steering wheel gives a more 'solid' feeling and the 1.8S seems to project a better feeling when turning. It's not all about steering feedback or turning accuracy, the 2.0S offers as good as the 1.8S here but its more about how much one reacts to turning the steering. For some reason, I actually enjoy turning the steering more in the 1.8S than the 2.0S, something I really didn't expect.

In terms of ride quality, the 1.8S feels as solid as the 2.0S from low to medium speeds. However, the 'status quo' prevailed at higher speeds, as the 1.8S loses out to the 2.0S in stability beyond 140kph. In this case, rather surprisingly, the test-drive unit I drove exhibited traces of 'floatiness' at speeds beyond 140kph. So the Civic 1.8S was really a very nice surprise for my case, as I had expected a bland cushy drive but I ended up really enjoying driving it. In fact, for relaxed daily driving, I would really find it hard to choose between the 1.8S and the 2.0S.

In a huge contrast to its apparent sporty handling at lower speeds, when pushed hard at higher speeds, the 1.8S reveals that it really has a suspension which is way too soft. Everyone in the test drive commented about this and most of us hit the suspension bump-stops more than once. For my case, one rather 'dramatic' demonstration was when I took a wide corner at over 160kph, encouraged by the stability of the car. We hit a huge dip in the road halfway in the corner and the whole car shook as the left rear suspension hits the bumpstop. The car responded by actually skipping (very) mildly to the left (it was right turn). Everyone in the car, including me, let out a soft 'whoops'.

Like the K20Z the R18A feels very torquey, especially for a 1.8l. Is it equal to the 2.0S ? To put it bluntly, yes ! In fact, in low and medium low speeds, I had a pretty hard time trying to find the difference in power between the 1.8S and 2.0S. The higher power of the K20Z only really becomes apparent at higher rpms as the R18A loses breathe at high rpms. Indeed the 1.8S won't be that much slower if one does not push the car hard !! For driving at 'sensible' speeds, up to around 140-150kph, ultimately only the lack of the sequential shifter will be the one big disadvantage of the 1.8S over the 2.0S.

I ended the 1.8S test drive with really good impressions. I had expected it to be a bland drive, but ended up really impressed with its low and mid range torque and its handling, especially the steering responsiveness. In the end, the main area where it lacks for the performance enthusiasts is handling and power in the higher rpms and higher speeds. But for the person who wants a daily driver, the Civic 1.8S can be a great choice indeed, provided the extras offered with the Civic 2.0S, like the paddle shifter, HID, 16"wheels, and so forth are not 'must-have' items. The Civic 1.8S certainly comes highly recommended !

Civic 2.0S 'versus' Civic 1.8S

At the launch, Honda Malaysia said that delivery of the Civic 2.0S will only start in May, due mostly to a desire to ensure that the backlog of orders for the Civic 1.8S are fulfilled and that the units delivered are to the highest quality possible. So the plan is for the factory to concentrate on assembling the 1.8S and to only add the 2.0S to the production line later. Apparently due to this, test-drives of the 2.0S at Honda dealers have also not been readily available. In fact I do not know of any dealer who is offering test-drives of the 2.0S, all of them only for display. There might be 1 somewhere but I have not heard of it yet. Because of this too, potential Civic buyers, especially those interested in the 2.0S will not be able to test-drive one. So many it seems will need to make a decision based on test-driving just the 1.8S. It is a sad state of affairs but that unfortunately is how the current market is like.

In this quick review, I hope to restore a small amount of 'balance' to this situation, by offering readers who are interested in the Civic 2.0S a small idea of how the Civic 2.0S drives, based on the Civic 1.8S as the base reference point. A simple review like this will never ever replace a real test-drive of course but if one really cannot get a test-drive at all, then hopefully this simple review might offer a little bit of help.

Between the Civic 2.0S and the 1.8S, personally for me the biggest difference is in the packaging. By this I mean the features and options that comes as standard on the 2.0S, many of which are not retrofitable, forms the major differentiation between the 2 variants. This list is already well known to Civic enthusiasts and potential Civic buyers, and for the enthusiasts, the critical components in the list are probably the side airbags and paddle shifters. These will not be easily retrofitable. Of less significance would be those options which are retrofitable, but at a cost, and this will include items like the HID (Xenon discharge headlights), 16inch wheels, and so forth. So for potential buyers of the Civic 2.0S, my personal opinion is that the very first step they have to do is to carefully assess the features and options list, to decide if any of the items in the list is a 'make or break' case, i.e. something that they 'must' have and for which they have to assess if it can be retrofitable later should they decide to opt for the 1.8S but finds out that they are 'missing' that item.

Other than that, in terms of 'usage', the key difference between the 1.8S and 2.0S will be in two aspect of their performance: power and handling. I now take a look at each aspect in turn and will try my best to describe the difference between the 2 variants.

The difference in power delivery between the R18 1.8l SOHC i-VTEC on the 1.8S and the K20 2.0 DOHC i-VTEC on the 2.0S is almost totally in the high-end or high rpms. As reported above, for general driving in city traffic, it will be very difficult to find a significance difference in terms of power between the two. The 2.0S will exhibit a small amount of 'throttle lag', i.e. in very very tight situations one might notice a small time lag between flooring the throttle pedal to when the engine response. Apparently this is a function of the new Drive By Wire system (cable-less throttle control) on the 2.0S. However, I need to highlight that for many people, this lag may not be noticeable. So at move-off from standstill, or in normal driving, city or even highway in relaxed conditions, or when there is a need for a quick sprint to overtake a crawling vehicle or to merge into another lane, the 1.8S works just as well as the 2.0S. It is only when we push the engine to the higher rpms, subjectively from maybe 5,000rpm and beyond, that the R18's power delivery starts to taper off. The K20 on the other hand will continue to pull strongly right up to 6,800rpm - and beyond - now that we have the sequential shifter so we can really 'bounce' against the rev-cut which is around 7,000rpm. This will become apparently when we start doing high speed cruising. For e.g. if we are cruising at 80kph and we want to overtake quickly, the R18 will deliver well because we will usually have accelerated to perhaps 120 or 130kph by the time we finish the overtaking. But if we are cruising at 100kph or 110kph (the speed limit on Malaysia's expressways) and we want to overtake quickly, we will need to pick-up to 140 - 150kph or beyond. In situations like this, the 2.0S will be clearly superior to the 1.8S. Also when we are pushing for maximum performance, this means running the engine to redline or overtaking in tight conditions, the superior top-end power of the K20 will then become obvious. Beyond this, the other situation where the 2.0S delivers better will be due to the extra control offered by the sequential shifter - i.e. the same feature that allows the 2.0S to offer better overtaking ability than even the Accord 3.0l V6 VTEC and that is simply that we can pre-select the desired gear.

The other difference between the two variants would be in the handling. In this case, I think there will be 2 major areas which one will be able to clearly feel a difference between the 2.0S and the 1.8S. First would be the suspension setting. The 1.8S clearly has very soft springs. The shocks are very good but ultimately the overly soft springs causes the suspension to hit the bump-stops when the 1.8S is pushed very hard over even only moderately uneven roads. The suspension setting on the 1.8S is skewed totally towards comfort of course but it still delivers a surprising level of handling. So the handling on the 1.8S is fine, in fact equal or even slightly better than the 2.0S at low to medium speeds. It's just that at high speeds the suspension tends to bottom out a bit too easily. The other major area, which to me makes quite an impact on the driver's experience, is the steering feel. Actually more accurately would be to call it 'steering response'. This is the way the car responds to steering input. The response of the 1.8S to steering input is discernably sharper, the car turning more responsively and 'positively' to steering changes as compared to the Civic 2.0S whose steering by comparison feels quite 'listless'. How can I best explain it ? The Civic 1.8S feels a lot more 'lively' to steering wheel input, a real 'eager to go' kind of feeling as compared to the Civic 2.0S which is more of a 'passive indifference' to steering inputs. If I were to characterize this in terms of human behavior, the Civic 1.8S would be : Ah ! You want to turn, LET'S GO ! while the Civic 2.0S would be more akin to : Oh, you want to turn. OK, let's get on with it. Both cars turns well but in the 1.8S you want to turn while in the 2.0S you don't really care if you turn or not. So when I first took over the wheels of both cars, I was playing - and enjoying - flicking the 1.8S around, the experience of the steering response forming a key contribution to the test-drive experience whereas with the 2.0S, after a few twitches of the steering wheel to check out the steering response, I quickly got on with the test drive.

In conclusion then, I have to say that both the new Civic 1.8S and the 2.0S are excellent vehicles, a very significant step up from the outgoing 7th Generation Civic. No car can be perfect of course so do read the positives and the negatives in this review with a clear sense of perspective in mind. But for anyone contemplating a purchase, I will not hesitate to recommend both of them strongly. For someone who is comparing the 1.8S to the 2.0S, then again I will highlight that the very first thing necessary is to consider the features and options list between the two, because really I feel the most significant differences between the two are in the features and options. In terms of the driving experience, the 2.0S offers higher performance as expected but this is only apparent at high-speeds and in more demanding situations. For normal driving needs, city or highway, seriously the 1.8S delivers more than enough 'oomph'. But if you are one who likes to engage in 'challenges' on the roads (please do it sensibly and safely if you have to do it at all), then go for the 2.0S because you will quickly end up missing the extra 15ps of top-end power and the lack of the sequential shifter on the 1.8S. Other than that, the major difference will be that subtle differences in the steering response of both cars. Whether or not this becomes a huge point will depend on the individual. It is a pity that one really needs to actually drive both cars in order to truly appreciate the difference though I hope that I have at least managed to give an idea of that difference.

And to wrap up my impressions from that first drive of the Civic 2.0S, one question that begs to be answered, from the enthusiasts point of view, would probably be whether I can say that the Civic 2.0S satisfy my requirements as a 'sports sedan'. The way Honda has packaged the Civic 2.0S; HIDs, 16" wheels with small stock fender gaps, paddle shifters, and so on, all these screams enthusiasts ! And for the enthusiast, the natural expectation from the Civic 2.0S would be that it is the answer to their prayers for a true sports sedan from Honda. In this case, my answer will depend on which reference standard I use for the performance. Against my Integra, the new Civic 2.0S has no hope of coming close in terms of performance (power, handling, sportiness, all aspects) but Honda designed the Integra to be an all out sports coupe so that would not be an apples to apples comparison. What about the Jazz VTEC ? This, as expected, the Civic is completely superior to in terms of outright performance eventhough ultimately its suspension is still just a little bit too soft for my taste. It is certainly by far the most sporty of all models Honda Malaysia has ever launched here in Malaysia, and except for the S2000 sold by HAT, it's also the most sporty model ever sold by Honda in ASEAN. But the crunch comes in the Civic Si Sedan that Honda showed off early this year in the 2006 Chicago Motor Show. A true 4door Civic with a 200hp 8000rpm K20 engine and 6MT with helical LSD. Now THAT is what I would call a TRUE SPORTS SEDAN ! . Judged by that standard, regrettably the Asian Civic 2.0S falls short of the mark to qualify as a true sports sedan. But make no mistake. It still sets a high standard, certainly high enough that I for one would be happy to call it a sporty sedan.

Final Conclusions

This report is necessarily brief simply because the test-drive event is brief as well. 150km is hardly a 'long' journey and even shorter is the actual driving time behind the wheels - 35-40 km only. In so short a time and distance, I need to highlight again that this can at best be only a first drive impression. In any case, all the test drive units had less than 1,000km on the odometer and even with the mileage clocked in the test-drive, none of them hit 1,000km either. So the cars were also not run-in. As a result, I fully expect at least some of my impressions here to change. Expected to be further refined too would be my personal opinions of how the new Civics stacks up against its competitors. After all, I am still in the process of sampling what Honda competitors can offer, though my options are limited to what my close friends drives or through test-drives at dealers (since I have not been successful in registering as media with manufacturers other than Honda, nor do I have the time to become one).

It will take some time before any of the Honda Malaysia test cars have clocked up enough mileage for a proper review but in the meantime, the impressions from this short test-drive session gives me enough confidence to recommend the new Civic very strongly to anyone who is seriously contemplating one. Now, if only Honda's R&D engineers really heard my pleas for a real Civic Sports Sedan for the near future.