It came about that I was the one, again, who had to make sacrifices to collect our car from Honda Australia for the Gympie weekend. I had to drag myself away from work on that Friday afternoon and battle through the Valley traffic to front up at Honda and sign my life away for a red Civic with less than 8000 kilometres on the odometer.
Firstly, after my
City (Turbo II (just thought that I'd remind you.)), it's a big car (as
is almost anything else! But don't forget that early in the year I did
do the transition into an Odyssey for a similar venture). For me what makes
the Civic seem so big is that the driver cannot see those rear corners.
In the City and Odyssey you can at least virtually see the inside of those
far corners. This is not very comforting when reversing in car parks.
Secondly, after my etcetera, it doesn't have that scorching acceleration.
But, it still gets up and goes. That tacho winds up to about 2500 and just
stays there whilst the speedo winds well past those legal limits. No real
feeling of acceleration, but that speedo says that it's still happening.
It is very difficult to get it to reach for the redline. Partly because
you don't need to.
Thirdly, and this
is where the story really starts, everything fits, like most Hondas. (Except
the cup holders aren't intended for china mugs!) And I think that everything
works as it's supposed to. Okay, two gripes, both in the boot. The hinge
does intrude well below the hinge point when closed and if you need to
change the tyre in the dark you'd better have a torch handy 'cause the
boot becomes an absolute black hole when the floor is swung up and masks
the light. Please Honda, put the boot lights, preferably two, at the ends
of the boot, maybe inside above the tail lights. And while we're on lights,
what'd be a very good idea would be to fit as standard those directional
map/reading lights for both front and rear seats.
I found the Civic's manners exemplary when ever I drove it, in city
traffic, along the freeway, through the suburbs, up, and down Mt Gravatt,
through the grass beside the runway. Yes, smooth, quiet, comfortable. I
can't say eager, because it was almost restrained.
Whilst it's highway acceleration can be adequate, the driver needs to think ahead with overtaking manoeuvres and slip it back into "S", you could use "L" if you really wanted to, the maximum recommended speeds in all selector positions is the same (170kmh, from memory). The gliding bit, for those who are interested, wasn't very successful. There was little lift about on Saturday, flights of 12-15 minutes being typical, okay for nervous beginners. We were charged accordingly, making it less expensive, but still lots of fun. Young Jessica got her first glider flight, the little 6 year old quite enjoyed it, probably couldn't see over the side enough to realise how far away her Grandmother was. A special thankyou to the Gympie Club for their special effort for our littlest glider pilot. I couldn't find any of the people that I wanted for either the Gazelle or Cheetah and had to content myself with a little hanger flying. Maybe next time.
The clubroom really rocked, and tangod, and waltzed, and seven veiled on Saturday night thanks to the piano playing of Mick and the dancing of Sue and Patti. It was a real experience, a good one, and well worth doing again, and again.
As Sunday gave us
a cool change with a relatively low overcast and little hope of lifting
it was decided early that there would be no flying. So we packed up and
went sightseeing. And well worth while it was too. Sometime we'll have
a special event up there especially for our soon to return David Keely.
Yes, historic steam train trips from Gympie to Imbil. We saw some very
pretty country, in comfort, ably chauffeured by Leon. Across to Imbil,
Bonduran Dam, Lake Cootharaba, Noosa and Caloundra, and home in the rain.
Thanks to Honda Australia for the Civic, Gympie Gliding Club for their
flying and hospitality and Leon for doing all the highway driving. (you
could have swapped seats anytime, LP)
I found it was much
easier to drive in the "S" range than "D" because the gearing is too high
in "D", cruising on the highway at 100kph in "D", you get about 2,300 revs,
which is well below an efficient rev band. It is very difficult to match
your speed with the normal traffic fluctuations, you need too much throttle
to bring it up a few K's. Of course, a cruise control might have helped.
In "S" range, the engine sits just on 4,000 revs which is perfect (Campbell
tells me that the fuel economy suffers though) to give instant throttle
response.
Pulling onto the highway from a standing start is great fun in "S".
You can give it about 3/4 throttle, and the tacho winds up to 6,000 and
stays there as the speedo catches up (remarkable quickly) without any sensation
of acceleration, then when the desired 100kph is reached, you back off
and the tacho comes back to 4,000. On twisty country roads, it is easy
to drive, with good response up and down the hills, there is plenty of
engine braking is "S".
The handling is very precise, it will hold a perfect line through a corner regardless of any undulations, but there is a lack of steering feedback which might cause the driver to be nervous on a loose surface. The ride was very firm but smooth, even fully loaded with 4 people and a boot full. The Press Release suggests that this model is as quiet at 140kph as the previous one was at 100kph, and I would agree. When you drive onto a section of the new style hotmix (like on the freeway) it sounds as though you just pulled up somewhere, this of course means that you have to watch the speedo constantly on the highway (another job for a cruise control).
The brake pedal is not as solid as most cars, but that's because of the ALB, the 4 wheel discs are very progressive so you don't give anyone whiplash. On Sunday night I gave them a good hard jab to see how they behaved, but the car just stopped, downhill, in the wet, without a hint of assistance from the electronics, how disappointing!
The seats are comfortable (all day) and the drivers seat has a sort of tilt-tray on the bottom which can be adjusted so that your backside fits neatly in. The large headlights are great on a wet night, (have you ever driven a late model Integra on a wet night?) they are said to put 30% more light on the road than previously.
I should comment on the air conditioning, the previous model took some flack for being too small, they were being environmentally sensitive by cutting down the volume of refrigerant. But they have got over that and it works very well in this model, although (like most cars) it is difficult to get a good flow of cold air to the rear passengers. I did think the fan was noisier than necessary on the second speed.
The Gympie gliding club members were suitably impressed with the car, and kept asking who owned it. I am disappointed with the turnout from our members who seemed to find other things to do. We did give about 3 months notice. The drive on Sunday was great, it is over 10 years since I have been to Lake Cootharaba, and even Noosa has changed in the last couple of years.
John T. and Helen and Sabina had a good cruise around on Friday night during our little get-together at Dockside. The Civic did not look out of place in the up-market surroundings with the Mercs and BMWs for company. Thanks to Len Daddow, who was unable to be there when we took the grand tour of his dealership in Cooroy on the Saturday morning, I think we were more interested in the Honda power products than anything. Did you know that Honda make a 24HP diesel stationary motor?
I would certainly recommend the Multimatic over a regular auto, it makes for smooth and quiet driving, and keeps the engine at peak performance for whatever type of driving you want. The economy was between 11 and 12 km/l and that's all you could wish for. Many thanks to Honda Australia once again for their hospitality.
