Owner Review: Not the best work Honda has done - My Honda Civic Hybrid 1.5 i-VTEC SOHC

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Basic information about my car

Honda Civic Hybrid 1.5 i-VTEC SOHC

Reasons why I bought this car

At that time it seemed a reasonable choice, travel from Bangi to Kuala Lumpur daily wanted a fuel sipper. 

Car Selection Process

• I had a budget of 140,000

• Model(s) that I have considered include: Volkswagen Golf 1.4

Reasons why I chose this car:

Mum's decision, as she wanted a safe car and not too punchy for me.

User Experience

• I have already done 150,000 km

Since the purchase, my thoughts about the car are:

Pick up is adequate around town, a steady cruise on highways is quite refined as well, only when you need to go above 130km/h you feel the need to usher every last rev the engine has to offer. Overall NVH is quite poor be it tyre noise and overall insulation is quite rubbish. When raining the roof gets rather noisy and tyre noise is acceptable because always opt for silent tyres, cc6, primacy4.

Did some major floor, boot, doors soundproofing didn't help much? Perhaps I have too high expectations. But seriously overall refinement I can give it a mere average 5/10 at best. Being a hybrid, and been running it for 8 years plus now. The inverter and hybrid battery are both starting to linger on my mind as their due dates may be close. The FB model of the civic is, I have to be honest here not the best work Honda has done. Probably due to the incredibly good sales from the previous FD gen. The company has slackened off when developing this FB. 

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Comfy enough

• Smooth engine and gearbox combination

• Fuel-sipping (800km on a full tank)

• Adequate stock sound system

Cons

• Poor sound insulation everywhere

• Poor view of the front of the car from drivers seating position as the hood is quite sloped downwards

• Tiny boot due to hybrid components and battery

• Uninteresting design

Ratings

• Total Score: 4

• Performance: 4

• Quality & Features: 3

• Space: 2

• Ride Comfort: 4

• Fuel Economy: 5

• Price & Cost: 3

Summary

After using this car for 8 years, I've grown to live with her shortcomings as well as her merits. But being a hybrid, saving fuel is its strong point, however from an economics standpoint what you save is subbed into the inevitable cost of repairs and replacement when the battery and other hybrid components are due. So I would sum up the experience of owning a hybrid as it is. It is an experience, you get a rather silent drive most of the time because of the seamless gearbox +hybrid motor and engine combination. Perhaps that's why the outside noise is so apparent due to the lack of engine note. And also because you have regenerative braking you don't have to use the brake pads much as such I have not replaced the brake pads since new and they still have over 50% of service life left at the very least. Friends and family who have driven the car have asked if I have modified the brakes because they are so linear and grabs immediately with assurance.

Interesting events that happened to my car

Got hit by two Peroduas in two separate incidents before, the adjuster couldn't identify the damage but their cars had broken bumpers and headlights.

There was a time it was pouring quite heavily and I did not see that the car in front had applied full emergency brake until almost the very last moment, but the car still managed to brake at a very short distance. And stopped at a much further distance than I was expecting it to. So rather impressed with that especially when considering it comes with rear drum brakes.

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