Best in class
Written: Apr 13 '00 (Updated Apr 13 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Reliability: |
 |
|
| Seat Comfort: |
 |
|
| Build Quality |
|
|
| Roominess: |
 |
|
|
Pros: dependable, award-winning, very comfortable
Cons: boring style, boring colors, everyone has one
|
|
|
| astrid's Full Review: 2000 Honda Civic 4 door |
After over a month of research (which is how I discovered the Epinions.com site, actually) I bought a Honda Civic Sedan LX two weeks ago. I test drove the Toyota Echo, the Mazda Protege, the Saturn SL1, and the VW Jetta in addition to the Honda before making up my mind.
What I love about the Civic is the comfortable, nice-looking interior, the well-designed placement of the controls, the smooth gear shift, and most importantly, the fact that you don't feel every bump rattling through the steering wheel and seats--a complaint so common in the other cars I test drove that I started to believe that all compact cars were like that. I also appreciate the details; like a very smooth seatbelt height adjuster, a vanity mirror on the driver's and the passenger's shades, and (at least on the LX model) the ease by which you can adjust the driver's seat to a perfect fit. This car simply felt MUCH more luxurious inside and much smoother on the roads than all my other choices (except the Jetta--which had an equally nice interior, lots of even nicer small features, but which was noisier and a lot more expensive).
On the other hand, Honda could stand to be a little less rigid as far as options and choices. The color choices for the Civic Sedan are pretty lousy--white, black, a kind of blah sand color, purple, light blue, and last year's green. This year's big color, silver, was discontinued by Honda for the 2000 model. Considering that over 20% of the 2000 model year market is being sold in silver, it wasn't such a great idea. Also, ABS (for the safety conscious) as well as a moonroof (for the style conscious) are only available on the EX model. Essentially, you pick a DX, LX, or EX model and live with it! This was such a turn off to me that I almost didn't even test drive this car. But, the fact that it came up so often in the winners circle and had such good resale value made me relent enough to give it a test drive--and that was all it took!
I drove this car from Chicago to the mountains in Georgia two days after I got it, and even though it could have used a little more power going up some of the steep mountain roads, the Civic handled itself smoothly and gracefully on the corners.
Rough pavement and bumps are absorbed by the car, not by your body (a real advantage in parts of Chicago), and the ride is smooth and quiet.
I bought the sedan rather than the coupe because 1) I didn't think that the coupe was terribly good looking, and 2) because when I sat in the back seat of the coupe, my head hit the roof and I'm only 5'6. While the sedan certainly isn't a huge car, the back seat is roomy enough and there's enough floor space to fit two adults comfortably.
I can't really imagine anyone that shouldn't buy this car--with it's dependability, good gas mileage, and fairly innocuous good looks, the only problem with the Civic is picking yours out of the crowd in the parking lot.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 13,850
Condition: New
Model Year: 2000
Model and Options: LX manual
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
astrid
|
|
Member: Astrid Fingerhut
Location: Chicago, IL
Reviews written: 39
Trusted by: 57 members
About Me:
I like kayaking, hiking, reading, films, good red wine, and thoughtful, funny people.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.