[rollinhonda]

In response to 'Autoguides' "this is the 2016 Civc you have been
waiting for...." in a thread only for sponsors, I say:

THIS IS THE 2016 CIVIC I have been waiting for:

http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-car.../first-drive-2015-honda-civic-type-r-uk-spec/

 

[zroger73]

That's cute.

Regarding the rest of the 2016 Civic lineup that actually will be sold here, it looks like Acura and Infiniti had a child born without the muscles or manners of its parents. Honda design appears to be moving from simple and timeless to gaudy with lots of complicated chrome and plastic flashy bits reminiscent of General Motors - as if they're trying too hard to fit in and can't quite get the design right.

I feel the 2.0L and 1.5L turbo engines will be a welcome improvement over the aging 1.8L. I really hope at least one of these new engines will find its way to the HR-V next year.

I'll certainly drive one to complete my impression, but at first glance I'm unimpressed.

 

[Smokey619]

Interesting, I am alot about looks and this looks too much of a mixture, looks like an lexus is grille, and the back looks like a Chevy Volt and Prius with a big wing and the Subaru dual exhaust tips

 

[mpup10]

Wow...and I thought my 86 Civic Si was something special back then, with it's 3 color choices, and 91 hp.....but seriously, it was a one of the best cars I've ever owned!

 

[cccbock]

It is a bit gaudy. Wonder if it will lose the ricer wing in U.S. trim. But you will surely want people to notice you if you pay close to 50 grand for a Civic. Creeping up on Corvette territory price wise. I'd be looking at Corvettes in this price range.

 

[rollinhonda]

Over priced and gaudy I agree. But a blast to drive I'm sure. Hopefully it will be refined as well as re-priced for the US market. At least the potential is there, they just need to apply it where most people can get it.

 

[OhSix]

EEK! NOT a fan of "look at me" styling. But being in the minority doesn't port to the target of such designs. Take it's underpinnings and stuff in something less in-your-face and I'm there.

 

[zroger73]

The current 1.8L engine used in the Civic and HR-V develops 143 HP. According to one of the 2016 Civic reveal videos, the 2.0L develops 15 more HP (158 HP) and the 1.5L develops 31 more HP (174 HP). If you can tolerate the short delay while the turbo spins up, the 1.5L looks to be the engine to beat.

For comparison, the standard engine on the all-new 2016 Chevrolet Malibu is also a turbocharged 1.5L 4-cylinder rated at 160 HP - 14 less than Honda's. Ford also used a 1.5L turbocharged engine in the 2014 Fusion that developed 181 horsepower - 7 more than Honda's.

 

[Bogus919]

I would also venture to guess that the new Civic has a weight advantage over the Fusion and Malibu.

 

[rollinhonda]

Plus, I can live with 7 less from a Honda engine.

 

[zroger73]

My brother recently traded his 2015 Civic EX for a 2016 Civic Touring. Something is wrong with the audio system - sometimes there is no sound at all, sometimes the radio won't turn off, and sometimes there is a loud static/popping sound from the speakers. There's noticeable and annoying turbo lag from a stop, but it pulls nicely once the turbo spools up. Wind noise is incredibly low. The engine is boomy and has some typical 4-cylinder shake at idle, but is otherwise impressively smooth and surprisingly quiet. Unfortunately, it sounds as if Honda made absolutely no attempt to reduce road noise - quite a let down. Although some might prefer this, it rides noticeably firmer than the 2015 Civic. Interior materials look and feel nice as long as you don't inspect things too closely. Fuel economy has been 1-2 MPH better than his 2015 Civic despite the healthy power increase and the CVT is better behaved. There's good legroom in the back, but the sloped roof makes me feel claustrophobic - even if my 6' head doesn't hit the ceiling. The styling looks anywhere from sharp and modern to frumpy and cheap depending on the viewing angle. Overall, it is a definite evolutionary improvement, but this is the Civic that the 2011's should have been. Honda has several years of "bad" Civic juju to recover from. I hope the reliability of the 2016+ holds up.

 

[Dnick]

My brother recently traded his 2015 Civic EX for a 2016 Civic Touring. Something is wrong with the audio system - sometimes there is no sound at all, sometimes the radio won't turn off, and sometimes there is a loud static/popping sound from the speakers. There's noticeable and annoying turbo lag from a stop, but it pulls nicely once the turbo spools up. Wind noise is incredibly low. The engine is boomy and has some typical 4-cylinder shake at idle, but is otherwise impressively smooth and surprisingly quiet. Unfortunately, it sounds as if Honda made absolutely no attempt to reduce road noise - quite a let down. Although some might prefer this, it rides noticeably firmer than the 2015 Civic. Interior materials look and feel nice as long as you don't inspect things too closely. Fuel economy has been 1-2 MPH better than his 2015 Civic despite the healthy power increase and the CVT is better behaved. There's good legroom in the back, but the sloped roof makes me feel claustrophobic - even if my 6' head doesn't hit the ceiling. The styling looks anywhere from sharp and modern to frumpy and cheap depending on the viewing angle. Overall, it is a definite evolutionary improvement, but this is the Civic that the 2011's should have been. Honda has several years of "bad" Civic juju to recover from. I hope the reliability of the 2016+ holds up.

'Glad to hear the CVT is improving.

 

[zroger73]

Electronic glitches continue in my brother's Civic. The latest issue is the backup camera staying on while driving down the road. He has to shut the car off and restart it to recover. According to the Civicx forum, others are reporting problems with the Civic's infotainment system - some are blaming the Touring's amplifier while others are resorting to disabling some door locking features to get the radio to play. A couple of days ago, my brother had to brake hard to avoid hitting a dog that ran out into the road - frighteningly, the rear end of the car swung around - a very unexpected response given road conditions at the time and the presence of ABS and VSA.

 

[speedlever]

Methinks this will be the likely result of all those wanting the RL to be up-to-date in the electronic world. No thanks. I'll take a little older tech and reliability vs new-fangled unreliability any day of the week.

 

[zroger73]

Methinks this will be the likely result of all those wanting the RL to be up-to-date in the electronic world. No thanks. I'll take a little older tech and reliability vs new-fangled unreliability any day of the week.

I don't worry too much about software problems, since those are relatively easy to address with updates. The new Civic seems to have both software and hardware problems (faulty audio amplifier on the Touring trim at the moment).

I usually prefer the latest-and-greatest, but there are some exceptions here and there. If a new version is truly better, great. However, sometimes a newer version of something has been cheapened in one or more ways to save costs or it gets released before all the bugs have been worked out which makes a very bad impression - at least in the short term.

 

[Dnick]

I'm not the go-to guy on this stuff, but I can say that when we had real "gotcha" problems with our military systems we developed at Hughes (then Raytheon), the toughest nuts to crack were not software, but systems integration issues like timing & compatibility. Things as simple as cable lengths & routing could also generate phantom glitches. Sometimes these things won't cause issues 95% of the time (or more), making detection & correction a real PIA.

Like Speed says, 'best way to avoid the perils of complexity is to avoid complexity!

 

[zroger73]

I'm not the go-to guy on this stuff, but I can say that when we had real "gotcha" problems with our military systems we developed at Hughes (then Raytheon), the toughest nuts to crack were not software, but systems integration issues like timing & compatibility. Things as simple as cable lengths & routing could also generate phantom glitches. Sometimes these things won't cause issues 95% of the time (or more), making detection & correction a real PIA.

Like Speed says, 'best way to avoid the perils of complexity is to avoid complexity!

I got in my brother's 2016 Touring last night to ride with him to the store and I thought someone was shooting a gun or popping fireworks inside the cabin. As soon as he turned the car on, the radio made a LOUD popping sound that scared the b'jesus out of me!

Honda notified him of a software update for the amplifier to fix an intermittent "no sound" issue (causes a loss of ALL audio - including the "door" and other warning chimes), but this apparently doesn't address the intermittent popping issue.

Currently, there is no fix other than disabling the "DTS Neural Audio" sound enhancement feature that has worked for some (including my brother). Unfortunately, the radio sounds somewhat puny without this enhancement turned on.

Here's a video demonstrating the problem.

At work, we have a curing oven in testing that has a rotisserie motor control and an automatic fire suppression system. About once every two dozen cycles of the motor control, the a relay on the fire suppression system will momentarily drop out causing the oven to shut down as the control system reboots. I've been working on it for days trying to figure out what's happening. The component manufacturers are at a loss. I've narrowed it down to an RFI noise issue created by arcing in a switch when a motor contactor de-energizes causing the microprocessor in the fire suppression system to freak out. I've added snubbers, MOVs, shielded cables, and moved some components around - each change resulted in an improvement, but I've ran out of time. The oven must ship even with this known issue. Hopefully, it will "self resolve" once the oven gets permanently installed in the customer's location with all wiring inside metal conduit, but I'm thinking this is far from over. I hate these kinds of issues.