HONDA CIVIC 1.7 VTEC 2dr Auto (2001)

Honda Civic 2Dr - Good all rounder but don't take it off road obviously

The only warning is not to expect it to behave off road. It's obvious really, and fair enough, it's just a coupe not designed for that sort of thing, but my partner got stuck once and it was no fun.

Anyway, that aside, our Honda Civic has been a charm. It's nice and cheap to run day to day, and other running costs are low. Services as well. And our Honda dealer is excellent really, we'd thought of going independent before but they really do treat us well.

When my son drives it, he says it's not quite what you might expect from a v-tec, in terms of acceleration, but that just couldn't be further from being a problem for us. It gets up to speed just fine, never feels out of breath on the motorways, and stays comfy throughout. I suppose you could describe it as being a bit 'firm' on rougher roads, but that just goes back to what I was saying about not bothering off road. It's a road car, and is excellent in those conditions.

There's plenty of space inside for all the passengers. We often take adult friends out walking with us, and they're happy in the back. The boot also happily takes our four walking backpacks, and boots and things. Our typical rear passengers are quite small though, and it is only a coupe so bigger people may well struggle back there. I imagine the saloon version of the Civic is roomier back there.

The ONLY thing I would change about the Honda Civic is the rear window. It's just a little bit too pokey to get a useful look at where you're reversing, and to make sure you're not going to clonk something. Thankfully we've never done that, but it wouldn't be hard.