HONDA CIVIC 1.8 i-VTEC SE 5dr (2006)

Civic 1.8 SE Review - Great car, some annoying bits

We got this when we had our little girl on the way. I wasn't too impressed by the stylings really but we were after something a bit more reliable than our old Saxo. I'm certainly converted to Honda now, but the Civic has got some pretty annoying things that have bothered me.

First of all, we got it for reliability mainly. We got it second hand but still I think only just a year old. It's been completely trouble free in terms of reliability, and it's nearly five now. Far as I'm concerned that alone really is a reason to be completely happy with the car, and it's why I haven't even begun to consider getting rid of it.

However.... there are some problems that annoy me day to day. The biggest one is visibility. I wasn't impressed by the look of the Honda Civic initially cos of the odd angled windows, it just looks sort of suspicious almost. Anyway inside the car that means really a restricted view out the back. Try parking it in the dark before you decide on it. That trick is almost impossible, I tend to end up going in head first and hoping I don't have to move it again until it's light.

The other thing about the sloping angles is that there's very little head room in the back, which I stupidly didn't even think of when we first got it, but now I literally have to warn everyone who gets in the back not to whack their head on the pillar, and not to lean their head back. That actually worries me a bit if we ever got rear ended, I mean what would happen to their head.

Apart from this stuff, the Honda Civic is nice enough to drive. The reliability frankly makes me smile, having come from what we had. It just doesn't cause a fuss ever. Everything works really smoothly. It can be a bit sort of dull sometimes, but I'm hardly a boy racer anymore.

Having said that about the back seats, the boot is really quite big. It all depends on what you expect to be doing with it I suppose. The Honda Civic is totally fine for our needs just for now, but I'll be more careful with some of these points when we get our next car.