2011 Honda Civic Buying Advice
The 2011 Honda Civic is the best car for you if you want to experience how great automotive design endures.
The 2011 Honda Civic returns unchanged from 2010 as Honda prepares to launch an all-new 2012 Honda Civic. This tabs the 2011 Civic as a lame duck paddling the compact-car waters with a design that dates to model-year 2006. Every key competitor is newer yet none surpasses Civic for engineering precision, refinement, and owner satisfaction. The 2011 Civic repeats sedan and coupe body styles and is again available as a gas-electric hybrid sedan. Slightly larger than the coupe, the Civic sedan is roomier and rides softer. Sedan or coupe, the middle-of-the-lineup LX trim level again furnishes the best blend of features and value, though driving enthusiasts will find the sporty Si models deliver plenty for the dollar.
Should you buy a 2011 Honda Civic or wait for the 2012 Honda Civic? Buy a 2011 Civic with confidence you’ll be driving a car that’s still a leader in its class, and one that should be available with ripening discounts as dealers clear inventories before the all-new 2012 Civic drops. Those discounts will help offset the resale hit you’ll take buying the final edition of an outgoing design. Wait for the 2012 Civic if you hanker for the latest in styling, performance, and features. The 2012 will cost more, but it’ll look fresh well into the future.
2011 Honda Civic Changesback to top
Styling: The 2011 Honda Civic styling carries over unchanged from model-year 2010. This eighth-generation Civic continues with an artsy sense of design inside and out. No rival has quite matched it for forward-looking good taste, and Honda kept the look contemporary with revisions to the nose and tail model-year 2009.
The Civic four-door is notably roomy, with particularly generous rear-seat room for a compact car. Credit its 106.3-inch wheelbase, among the longest of any sedan in this class. Wheelbase is the distance between front and rear axles and key to how much space a car can devote to the passenger compartment. To promote more agile handling and sportier looks, the Civic coupe’s wheelbase is about two inches shorter than the sedan’s. It roofline is lower, too. The differences are most evident in tighter back-seat space, though of course rear-passenger ingress and egress suffers on the two-door model, as well.
Both body styles have severely raked-back windshields -- good for aerodynamics, a little disconcerting from the driver’s seat because you look out over a long, long dash top. The two body styles share an instrument-panel design that’s as avant-garde as the exterior styling. It’s no serious impediment to functionality -- at least after you’ve oriented to its double-tier layout. The feel of the various buttons and switches, even the finish on many of the cabin surfaces, benefits from the same exacting execution Honda lavishes on cars from its upscale Acura brand.
The 2011 Civic lineup mirrors the 2010 roster, starting with the DX range of sedans and moving up through LX, EX, EX-L, and Si versions of both the sedan and coupe.
Mechanical: The 2011 Civic powertrain lineup segues into 2011 intact except for a reduction in the model variations available with manual transmission. The 2011 Civic formula of four-cylinder engines and front-wheel drive is compact-car typical. The modestly sized engines balance power and fuel economy. And front-wheel drive carries the slippery-road traction advantage of placing the weight of the engine over the tires that propel the car. Some rivals offer more horsepower, some the added grip of all-wheel drive. Several have six-speed manual and automatic transmissions versus Civic’s less-efficient five-speed units. But this Honda’s powertrain is tough to beat for overall smoothness, and few are better matched to the task at hand.
The sole engine in the value DX, volume LX, and upscale EX lines is again a 1.8-liter rated at 140 horsepower and 128 pound-feet of torque. These Civic models come with manual or automatic transmission and have good all-around acceleration. In a change from model-year 2010, the 2011 Civic EX-L sedans now come only with automatic transmission; same goes for the EX sedan and EX-L Coupe models equipped with a navigation system and satellite radio.
The sporty 2011 Civic Si coupe and sedan have a 2.0-liter that returns with 197 horsepower and 139 pound-feet of torque. The 2.0 links exclusively to a six-speed manual transmission, which helps drivers keep the engine in the higher rpm ranges, where it overcomes its paucity of torque to deliver snappy go accompanied by race-car sounds rarely heard at these prices.
The 2011 Honda Civic Hybrid returns as a sedan only and combines a 1.3-liter gas engine with an electric motor for a total of 110 horsepower and 123 pound-feet of torque. The electric motor can propel the Civic Hybrid for very short distances on battery power alone but mostly acts as an assist to the engine. This saves fuel and reduces emissions by allowing use of a smaller gas engine and by enabling the engine to shut off at stops and restart automatically as the driver presses the accelerator. The Civic Hybrid employs a continuously variable transmission, or CVT. A CVT acts like an automatic transmission but dispenses with set gear ratios in favor of a rheostat-like delivery of power. Honda also offers a near-zero-emissions model to retail customers in California, Utah, and New York. This Civic GX sedan has a 113-horspower 1.8-liter powered exclusively by natural gas.
All 2011 Civics have an all-independent suspension that balances ride and handling at a level difficult to beat in this price range, though the DX models, with their modestly sized 15-inch tires and the Hybrid, with its special low-rolling resistance 15s, are prone to some noseplow in fast turns. The LX and EX Civic families use 16-inch tires (on alloy wheels on EX models and the LX-S sedan) and furnish fine all-around grip. Civic Si models have 17-inch tires on alloy wheels, which itself is not notable in a class where rivals have adopted 18s and even 19s. But Honda matches them well with the taut but brilliantly tuned Si suspension and steering to provide road manners that can reward the most demanding drivers.
Features: As with all Hondas, the 2011 Civic doesn’t offer stand-alone options, instead grouping features to create individual trim levels. For example, to get such core items as air conditioning and a stereo, Civic buyers have had to ascend from the base DX sedan to the costlier DX-VP model. In that same vein, buyers who wanted a Civic with leather upholstery had to move up to the top-line EX-L model – and pay also for the heated front seats mandatory with that trim level. Still, it’s a system that works well for Honda by simplifying ordering and assembly. And it evidently hasn’t damaged Civic sales; this is constantly the best-selling compact car in the U.S.
The various 2011 Civic models continue with the familiar range of features. Every model comes with antilock brakes, a tilt/telescope steering wheel, a height-adjustable driver’s seat, and power windows. Antiskid control to stabilize the car in turns is standard on EX-L, Hybrid, and Si models.
Alloy wheels, steering-wheel-mounted auxiliary audio controls, rear disc brakes, and remote keyless entry are among available features, depending on model. So is a voice-activated navigation system that includes satellite radio, Bluetooth cell phone connectivity, and a USB audio interface for iPods and other MP3 devices.
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