All Grown Up

First things first. Allow us to make it clear from the onset that this writer was once a proud Honda Civic owner — so this is one review that is close to heart, if not nostalgic altogether. To be precise, this writer once drove a Honda Civic ESi 1600 manual transmission, which, at the time we had it, was the baddest of the bad (and we mean that in a good way — go figure). No offense to the all-time favorite Toyota Corolla but when the Civic ESi came along, it was actually so good that the sales charts tipped in favor of Honda for quite some time, despite the Pinoy’s long-time love affair with the said Toyotas. This writer held on to the ESi for four years — all of which were filled with fond memories between car and driver. So it’s understandable if we treat every single Civic model that comes out in the market with a touch of personal reverence.

The Honda Civic’s history in the Philippines is filled with many highs, none however, were higher than when the Civic SiR was launched at the turn of the century. In the SiR we all found the true meaning of the conjoined word "pocket-rocket". Here was a compact sedan, already the quickest on its toes in its class, gifted with even more horsepower — enough horsepower, in fact, to send young hearts a-pumping (and we don’t mean that in the romantic sense). With all of 160 horses working beneath its hood, the SiR practically redefined the way people looked at compact sedans — or at least their high-end versions. The SiR was, without a doubt, a class all its own back in its prime.

Well, it’s 2004, and after some major changes in the Philippine auto industry — the most notable of which is the imposition of a new taxation scheme — Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. (HCPI) deemed it appropriate to bring back their bouncing bad boy via the all new Civic 2.0 i-VTEC. The Civic 2.0 is HCPI’s answer to the growing demand of the Pinoy consumer for compact sedans with bigger displacements. With rivals Ford, Toyota and Nissan releasing their own versions of 1.8 or 2.0 compact sedans, Honda, the company that started it all, finally brought in their bigger, badder Civic. Well surprise, surprise. What was once the brawny bad boy of Philippine roads has calmed down considerably. Frankly, just like the SiR’s original target market, the Civic 2.0 has grown up.

While the much-revered SiR came in the necessary manual transmission iteration, for example, the Civic 2.0 comes only as an automatic. And despite its larger displacement, the Civic 2.0 is powered by five less horses (155 horsepower). Of course with power like that the car is still anything but a pushover on the roads. It’s still much faster than any other Civic, save perhaps the SiR. Given an open strip, it can probably outrun any of its competitors save for Ford’s ultra high-revving Lynx RS. So the bottom line is that the Civic 2.0 is a fast car, not the fastest in its class anymore, but a fast car nonetheless. All the necessary attributes that has made the Civic a favorite, however, remain. It corners with the best of the lot, there is very little over- or under-steer and it’s braking capabilities remain admirable. One thing that still escapes me is how torque steer in the Civic is still anything but negligible even after all these years.

A big plus factor for the Civic 2.0 is the cosmetic makeover that it has undergone. The large, sweeping headlamps akin to that of the Accord, its bigger brother, are immediately noticeable not to mention admirable. Leather finish in its interiors are plush and comfortable. It has a great audio system and climate control airconditioning to boot. So inside, there’s nothing much to be disappointed about. That and the fact that given the car’s driving dynamics, one can almost feel the car adapting to one’s driving prefrence.

All in all, it’s hard not to like the Civic 2.0 i-VTEC. What one has to be clear about, however, is that the Civic 2.0 is no SiR. It has its own personality. It is not the street racer in stock car’s clothing that its predecessor once was. It’s the top-of-the-line version of a Civic that has grown up quite well with its original target market. The Civic 2.0 i-VTEC, like all Civics before it, should therefore have no problem attracting its fair share of buyers. If you’ve got anywhere from P910,000 to P975,000 (pricing of several color variants play around those numbers) to spare, and you’re looking for a compact sedan that won’t get left out in the streets but that you can still be proud of aesthetically, this Civic’s for you.