2006 Honda Civic

I bought the 2006 Civic because I loved my 2000 Civic so much (I only had a brief problem with the muffler after I ran over something, which was totally my fault; I still drive it). There are many good points to this car, but there are also a few that I don't care for so much. I'll start with the good and end with the bad.

I chose this car for the gas mileage, and it doesn't lie on long trips. It's rated at 40 mpg and I routinely get 38-39 mpg when I'm taking a long drive on the interstate (which I do routinely to visit family). I really like how the car handles, and the angle of the windshield really helps when a semi kicks up rocks. Because it's more angled than other cars, rocks don't tend to crack the windshield like other cars. I also love the digital speedometer! It's so neat and easy to read. The interior of the car is very driver friendly; changing the radio station and the track on the CD is pretty easy, and for a dummy like me, figuring out how to program stations and change the time on the clock is pretty easy, too. The shape of the seats is very comfortable, and you would not believe how much leg room you have in the both the front and the back. The outside of the car does not do the legroom justice. The engine runs very quietly and I am always impressed at how quickly the car cools down on a hot day. If you can't tell, I really like this car. I LOVE the power train warranty!

However, I do not like it as much as the 2000 Civic. The first thing I don't like about it is the placement of the frame in the front of the car. Sometimes it's hard to see when making turns at certain angles because of how far the frame goes down to accommodate the angular nature of the windshield. The in town gas mileage isn't so spectacular, and my 2000 Civic actually gets better in town mileage than my 2006 civic. It's not bad compared to other cars, but I've gotten 26 mpg in bad start and stop traffic vs 30-31 in the 2000 Civic. The other thing that I didn't care for was the engine block. It cracked about 2 years after having the car. After a bit of research, I found that this is a typical repair for the car. I'm happy the power train warranty covered it, but it was really annoying to have to go 3-4 days without the car. I really don't like the sliding center console, but that's a personal preference. I know that's a selling point, but frankly, I find it kind of annoying. My other complaint is with the CD player. I like how it plays mp3s, but I wish it supported CD-RW formats, not just CD-Rs. I burned a bunch of songs on an RW for a trip and was really annoyed to find that the stereo wouldn't play it. Since the file format was the same, I don' t think it should matter as long as it's on a CD.

If I had it to do over again, I would buy this car, but my expectations wouldn't be as high as my older Civic.