Owner Review: The quality of the car is just dreadful - My first and last time owning a Honda Civic 1.8S

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Basic information

2016 Honda Civic 1.8S in Dark Ruby Red Pearl

Reasons why I bought this car

Needed a car that would be a daily and reliable. It was also my first car that I would ever buy.
I came from a Honda family, Mom and Dad had driven and owned Honda even before I was
born. So naturally, when it came to my turn to buy my first car, I would buy a Honda too! And
plus, BRAND HERITAGE matters. Senna, NSX, Best Motoring influenced me. Not really a
CRAZY Honda fan, but a fan nonetheless.

Car selection process

• I had a budget of RM 100k-110k
• Models that I have considered include:

Considered the 1.5 but I don’t like turbo engines in general. (Sorry people, I prefer my engines NA or supercharged). Mazda 3 was way out of my reach. I was also considering a used E90 325i. That didn’t happen cause I didn’t want to go back and forth to the mechanic to replace parts.

• Reasons why I chose this car:

Why I chose the car? NA engine, my dad had the previous FB 1.8 as well and loved that
engine. I also loved the colour. I didn’t want a black/white/silver cars. Too boring for my taste.
And as I said, I need something to daily to go to office and back, to go for weekly shopping
etc.

User experience

• I have already done 45500  km.

Gonna be honest, brutally honest here.

I bought the car in October 2016. Drove it around, happy. First car I ever bought and all that, done all servicing. The next year, February 2017, the worst thing happened to me. The gearbox gave way. Sent it back to the dealer via a tow truck, the dealer was alright, fantastic guys, handled the case with no issues whatsoever. But by that time, I was just heartbroken. Honda changed the gearbox and other ancillaries cause it was under warranty. Thankfully. That job alone took them a few months, don’t remember the exact amount, but few months.

Now as the car ages, it gets worst. The quality of the car is just dreadful. Dashboard and driver door side creaking noises, the rear right door rubber seal comes off from its mountings no matter how hard you try to put it back, if rains down hard enough and if you park it under no roof, the alarm goes off. The underside of the driver seat is frayed and I have to manually try to slot it back into the crevice it came out from.

I don’t know how to put this but its a car that doesn’t feel like its worth a hundred grand. Like most cars are defined by something, like if you were to buy any other car, you know you paid that money for something, be it the engine, the drivetrain, the build quality etc….but my car? I don’t know.

Pros & Cons

Pros -

it looks good, it does the daily job well, its quick enough for KL/PJ traffic and I guess maybe its economical. Its got a big boot. Its cheap to insure and parts and servicing is affordable. It’s comfortable for daily use. The break hold idea was a good one, makes a traffic crawl easier. It handles well and the brakes are good as well. Its good a good size boot and knee room at the back. Apple CarPlay as standard.

Cons -

Honda’s questionable reliability credentials. (THIS SHOULDN’T HAPPEN, HONDA). After reading more owner reviews both locally and internationally, I think the marketing team in Honda needs to take the back seats and let the engineers do the work and the talking.

The gearbox! What is exactly wrong with a normal automatic? Why a CVT? For some reason my car has some sort of a rev limiter, I have never gotten it near the redline. NEVER! It cuts out at 4-5k rpm and pretends to “change” gear. Eco mode was a stupid and pointless idea, tried it once for a week, didn’t bother with it ever since. If its me, I would’ve firmed up the suspension just a little bit, its too soft for my liking. The engine is all about torque now, no longer about power which is a shame cause “VTEC brooooo”. Also there is no indication at all when the battery will die, no warning of “your car battery needs changing” kind of warning. So you gotta keep track of your car battery!

Also, leather seats should be standard for a car that’s over RM100k. It needs more sound deadening, particularly in the roof cause when you are driving in heavy rain, you gotta shout to your passengers in case you wanna carry on with the conversation.

Ratings

Total Score: 3.5
Performance: 3.5
Quality & Features: 2.5
Space: 4.5
Ride Comfort: 4
Fuel Economy: 4
Price & Cost: 3

Summary

Honda fan who grew up in a household who owned Honda’s in his lifetime finally buys a Honda as his first car. 5 months later, the car broke his heart. The author said this after 3 years of ownership, “this is my first and last Honda” and “PLEASE DO BETTER HONDA”.

Interesting events that happened to my car

2020 is the year where I have parked the car for longer than I have driven it. And I don’t really care about getting in it and driving it cause I know if I were to drive it more, something bad is gonna happen. Its got a tapping noise at the back every time I accelerate, something is loose back there and it needs to be checked. Oh my god….