Honda Civic 3-door
Vanessa Hinkley gets the chance to test Hondas 3-door Civic and finds that it stands alone in a field of clones
When a car has been on the market for some months, there is always the danger that any new variant will fall under its shadow.
Honda, Im happy to say, have managed to give the Civic 3-door a personality of its own and one thats very different to that of its 5-door sibling. I had the opportunity to take the 1.6 SE home for the weekend and discovered just what all the fuss was about.
Inside the Civic 3-door, theres plenty of head and shoulder room while the rear passengers benefit from more than ample legroom. The driving position is high, giving you a commanding view of the road ahead. The seats are nicely formed and fully adjustable so that most people should be able to find a comfortable driving position, especially as the steering wheel can also be moved up and down. I, however, am evidently not like most people I ended up sitting a bit too far away from the steering wheel in an effort to avoid my knees being jammed into the dashboard.
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Height adjustment for the
seat would be helpful other than that the accommodations OK. Luggage room is plentiful (for a 3-door anyway) with up to 560-litres on offer with the seats down, so you can justifiably use this as a main car and not worry about fitting all of your suitcases in the back. This
Honda seems to have been designed for those Friday evenings when all you want to do is get home, run a bath and let the cares of the office slip behind you it is almost ludicrously easy to drive. Strap a blindfold on and Ill bet that you can still find all the major controls, switches and levers.
As Ive already said, this Honda is simple to drive. However, one thing youll notice (or at least I did) is the very light clutch and almost over-servoed steering rack. This can take some getting used to, with swinging through corners and over-revving being the order of the day for the first few miles. The 1.
6-litre engine was an acceptable road companion although noisy at speed and easy to stall thanks to the light clutch. In fact, I was surprised to find that the car had Hondas advanced VTEC system installed and that it wasnt a diesel, as Id assumed from the soundtrack. The rest of the range sounds a little more promising in the engine department. The base model 1.
4 is somewhat smoother, while the top flight Type R is tuned to the extreme - giving startling performance and a rock hard sports set-up. There really isnt a great deal I can say about the on-road experience of the Civic 3-door. Its pleasant, its comfortable (if you get the right seating position), it gets you from office to bath without too much fuss and its economical. On the negative side, I found it difficult to access the rear seats.
To make the 3-door variant, the Honda engineers sliced nearly 15cm from the floorpan of the 5-door and it is through a clever use of space that the interior feels so roomy. However, if you have passengers in the back on a regular basis, I really would recommend the 5-door model. Theres no doubt about the fact that the Civic 3-door is very well specified. A CD stereo, ABS and electric windows appear on every model with air-conditioning on most, while an upgrade to SE trim adds in an electric sunroof and body coloured mirrors.
At £12,225, the 1.6 SE is certainly class competitive, stacking up well against its direct rivals. If youre looking at getting away early from the lights, then it is certainly worth paying the premium over the £10,125 base model 1.4-litre.
If youre after something extraordinary, then the Type R is only £4,000 away and its an impressive car.
As I dont carry rear-seat passengers very often, I think I could live with a Honda Civic 3-door. Its practical, cheap to run, but it isnt a vehicle that excites me. However, after a stressful week at work, excitement is often the last thing that I want
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