So we got a 2013 Honda Civic

So we got a 2013 Honda Civic

Ah, the car that has become the new whipping boy of Hyundai-Kia fanboys who put price above all else. The 2013 Honda Civic is a car we’ve been itching to test-drive ever since we heard that it went in for a quick upgrade after the lukewarm response to the 2012 Civic. More than just a cosmetic facelift, the Civic has undergone changes under the skin as well.

The exterior looks great now, at least compared to last year’s model, even though all they changed was the front grille, bumpers and tail-lamp housings, with some new wheels.

Inside, Honda has added soft-touch padding on the upper front-door sills and passenger-side dash face, along with the leatherette-padded armrests and inserts on all doors as before. But they’ve skimped on the driver’s side of the dash and the rear door-sills, which all remain hard-plastic. The cup-holders and console-cubby don’t have covers either, like the 2006 model used to. Lots of nice tech in this top model though.

The boot is decently-sized for a compact car, with a good opening and fold-down rear seats.

But what we really liked is the marked change in the way it drives. The Civic is entertaining to throw around again, maybe a tad less-capable than the class-leading Focus, but definitely better than any Civic sedan in the past decade. The suspension is tighter, the steering is meatier and the brakes are solid. More in the full review.

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Comments

  1. 1st!

    2013 Civic vs 2013 New Cerato

    Who will take it to the top.

    If you have the money get Civic

    else New Cerato is our vote.

    • Author

      The broblem is Hyundai-Kia still haven’t sorted out the suspension-tuning on anything cheaper than the Genesis platform (except Veloster).

    • If I had to compare the handling aspects of the new Cerato with the 2006-2010 Civics, I would safely say that the Civic is the better handler. Now if this Civic handles better than any of the older Civics, you have the answer.

      Forget Hyundai, but their sister Kia is somehow improving on the suspension tuning aspects, though they still have a long way to go to catch up with Honda. Anything other than handling, the Kia would go head-to-head with the Civic, and murders it when it comes to pricing.

  2. Im confused between corolla, sentra and camry accord and altima…..ah let me see? I will get the civic because it has the same price of altima and camry and ot is the size of corolla and sentra …. very brilliant and smart choice

    • Samer,

      Drive the 3 cars and then comment.

      Its not just the price.. People look at the Quality, Fit and Finish as well.

    • Hard to decide …But Altima – Camry – Accord is much successful formula in terms of :safety ,petrol consumption,and quality ride, than smaller corolla , sentra even civic .
      even crash test shows better life protection in bigger models .
      as long altima is cheapest . I think its not bad choice….taxi companies are not stupid.

    • @John

      So you are suggesting that the civic fit and finish and quality is better than the camry???? and for others….. My comment was ironic one you smart people just to state how civic is over priced

    • No Samer, I obviously meant the Corolla & the Sentra .. do try to look beyond the price factor

    • @John…..

      This is exactly what I meant, I know the civic is better than corolla amd sentra but that doesnt justify pricing it close to camry or altima and even the accord, so who would buy it? The last year model which was criticized buy all didnt sell well because it was criticized coz the target customers of civic dont really care about what car journalists say, it didnt sell coz it was over priced, so it is better than corolla and sentra I know, but it should be 5-7k more expensive, not by 20k

    • wait 2014 corolla is on it’s way with big improvements in refinement fuel economy and size yes it will be corolla so expect soft handling but u know u can sell corolla ver civic or sentra like a hot cake even after 10 years if ur doing an investment for 4-5 years don’t be fooled by sentra or civic both will depreciate more and have higher asking price so save your self Change,either get loaded corolla for 71k or get a base civic and if u can honestly wait wait for 2014 corolla as it will surprise a lot of people specially nissan and civic as it will be much much bigger car and fuel efficient at same time! driving don’t hold breath but from point a to b for xxx years it’s ur car forget Camry or even new altima as new accord is the clear winner in this gen with altima number 2 and Camry well number three accord is rock solid well built and absolute good looking car in terms of interior

  3. I still can’t find a good reason to justify the price…

  4. Mash, maybe you can answer why should anybody buy this car instead of a Sonata or a Mazda 6 mid option.

    • Author

      More fun to drive than the former and a better dealer than the latter? I don’t know what the latter since their people can’t even pick up the phone. Resale value is better than either. That’s about it.

    • Mash, I agree with tou that is a fine car but My question was why should one get the Civic instead of an Altima, Sonata or Mazda 6 that comes at pretty much the same price. To me, the Civic doesnt make any sense at the current price.

    • Author

      Those are the reasons.

    • @Mash. So basically Civic is only better than the Mazda 6 because the dealer’s management doesnt answer calls? I went to the Mazda showroom and got the number of a salesman and he usually answers or calls back regarding inquires. Besides isnt it too soon to judge the resale of the New Mazda 6?

      Are there no other justifications of buying this car at this price over the a bigger, more powerful, better looking and more economical (fuel wise) Mazda 6?

    • Author

      There’s more to dealers than just buying the car. Even Mitsubishi will sell you Japanese cars cheap. The fun comes later during servicing.

    • @Monty, With regards to judging resale value…I am an ex-Mazda 6 owner. When I bought my top-spec Japanese Mazda 6 back in 2008, as soon as the new model was launched, I came up with the same question as yours – that it is too early to judge it’s resale value. The car as such, was good overall. It had good features, fuel-efficiency was great too. Apart from prematurely wearing brake-pads and expensive dealer maintenance, I never had an issue with it. But in the end when I sold it, the loss was so much that I never removed my palm from my face for several days. The thing costed me dearly to buy, to maintain, and to sell off as well. In comparison, the Ford Mondeo I had in parallel was far cheaper to maintain, and nevr gave me a loss when I sold it.

      So moral of the story, do not have any expectations with regard to resale value…

    • Vivek,
      If you keep the car for 5 yrs the relase value is more or less the same for all of them…..altima, mazda 6, civic…. You probably sold the car after 2 yrs so you lost more.
      Its true Mazda doesnt resale as good as Honda, Toyota and Nissan, but I wouldnt even think twice in getting a mazda 6 instead of a Civic. Especially if I buy a car for a long term. In fact, who wants to keep a car only a short while should look for a used car, 1-2 yrs old. This is how you normally minimise the loss.

    • @Mitch, I kept mine for about 3 n half years before selling it…I sold it off for 40,000 Dhs (bought it for 96,000). For comparison’s sake, in case of my 2006 Ford Mondeo, which is theoretically supposed to depreciate faster than ice melting in heat, I was getting offers hovering 34,000 Dhs in 2009 (had bought it in 2006), inspite of the car having been involved in a major accident, and having racked up a lot of kms in 3 years (about 100k). Do the math 🙂 …

      Anyhow, I agree with you on the point that if you keep the car for 5 years or more, resale doesn’t matter.

    • Vivek,
      What can I say…you did loose a lot. Maybe you should have kept the car a little longer. Anyway, things are different now. Civic wasnt that expensive at that time and top specs Mazda didnt come with navigation. So, the terms are different now.
      The ideea was that Civic doesnt make sense to buy if you need a car for long term. Its too expensive, it makes more sense to get an Altima or a Mazda 6.

    • @Mitch: I was only speaking about the resale value..considering that the Civic isn’t any better when it comes to sky-high maintenance expenses and parts cost, and equally poor durability of the wear-n-tear parts, I lean towards the Mazda 6 any day.

  5. i guess you can make the last gen civic look exactly or even more better than this

  6. I wanna know how is the Suspension and handling of the Sonata?

    • In one word…Crap!..Better to check out the Optima, which handles far better, although theoretically, they are supposed to be the same thing underneath.

      https://www.drivearabia.com/news/2010/05/13/first-drive-hyundai-sonata-2010-on-rental-run/

    • So I’m removing SONATA on my target list.

      I’m buying a new car very soon and might need the expertise of everyone here. So I cross out the SONATA from my list.

      Here are my thoughts: my max budget is 85000 only, ill do the 20% DP, and the remaining for a 5 years auto loan

      Sante Fe – Basic model 2×2 only at 2.4 Engine 84000 AED, my Wife love it so much, but I don’t really feel it

      Altima – Basic Model only, what can you say about this car?

      Civic – Good Review from a professional MASH :), and a good resale value

      I’m a family of 4 btw.

      Thank you everyone for the inputs. It will be highly appreciated.

    • Family of four? You can cancel Civic from your list as well. You need at least a sedan. Santa Fe is also a good option.

  7. @Mush..

    Im still waiting for Heading “So we got Mazda6 2014” !!!

    • Author

      If you can track down their management at the dealer, let me know! They refuse to answer their phones!

    • Yeah… Even am waiting to see that same heading 🙂

      Went to that new showroom in SZ road…they dont have test car it seems… coz they have more than 100 bookings… tat was the reason given

      huh!!

    • I managed to test drive the mid optioned 2.5L mazda 6 last week, it handles great as usual and engine is powerful, price was 94k.

  8. Hello Mash, In your opinion which one do you prefer? Sentra or Corolla?

  9. Was very much attracted to buying Elantra with Sunroof, 17″ wheels etc.

    But was shocked when saw only one Air Bag! 65K and only one Air Bag? Hyundai put a sunroof into the car and cannot put atleast 2 airbags? What they are thinking?

    • airbags dont come cheapp……trust me!

    • @gv
      Do sunroof come cheaper in car than airbag?

    • Local stealership…. #nuffsaid

    • @Sunil: actually, yes. Airbags are costlier than sunroof.

    • Thank u Vivek for clarifying sunil’s query…..often people dunt look into the cars safety features…..they thro in attractive features…n people just fall for it..but yea sunroof is definitely cheaper…sumone had told me five years ago that u can get a sunroof fixed in ur car for 2500-3000…..nt sure how safe that is …but yea,it’s possible.btw..always. Better to have more airbags than a sunroof….:-)

    • Another funny part is, those guys dissing the Hyundai and Kia cars for the Civic, only do that for the sake of making their favourite brand look worth all that money. Talk to them about the Fords and Chryslers, who offer 4-6 airbags even in their most basic models, besides making superb cars, and giving excellent warranties and free service packages which ultimately makes them vastly cheaper to maintain than any of the Japanese cars; they will have nothing to say then, other than the mythical reliability issues and high maintenance costs based on what they heard 20 years back from their grandparents and peers! Its not the airbag really, its just the fanboy’ism that is going on here…

    • @vivek.
      You have to understand that cars to capture the hearts and heads of people require lot of effort and time, may be generations altogether, that is when you start hearing myths about cars!

  10. Better is Civic.

  11. 2007 full loaded Vti Civic was bought for 67k by my sister. Amazing how this one is close to 90k!

    Al Futtaim loves to rape us…well and the other stealerships

  12. Confused between civic,cerato,corolla and cruze , i liked the kia cerato but really concerned on resale after i guess a year..heart says the honda for old timers sake!

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