Motoring Honda Civic comes of age, but at a price

Press, 19 June 1986, Page 29

Motoring

Honda Civic comes of age, but at a price

The Honda Civic is growing up in size and, not surprisingly, in price. A 1.5 litre, five-speed, four-door LX saloon wears a $21,950 price ticket.

When I first drove a locally assembled 1171 cu cm Civic two-door hatchback, it sold for around $4BOO in four-speed, manual gearbox form. That was in 1976.

Compared with today’s Civic, one did not get a great deal for the money. Although there was a good measure fore-and-aft seat adjustment up front, there was mighty little room for rear seat occupants, and the seats were rather skimpy. Although its engine was willing enough, it was not the sort of power unit calculated to set the world on fire. It was, however, extremely

By

PETER GREENSLADE

flexible around town. Civics cropped up everywhere, but they were, essentially, pintsized shopping baskets. The LX saloon is a different sort of package. It looks like any contemporary, conventional saloon, whereas the first locally assembled EBI Civics were quite distinctive in that they were more like hump-backed bumblebees with quite an audible buzz. Certainly, the LX can be audible. Driven at the legal lOOkm/h maximum, or thereabouts, wind roar builds up around the driver’s door. I found that quite irritating. It became difficult to hear the programme issuing from the

surprisingly good radio which, I found to my dismay, is an additional cost option on all the latest Civics, with the exception of the two-door hatchback fuel-injected GT version which sells for the thick end of $25,000 in any case. The LX saloon is 4.14 metres long, 1.63 metres wide and . 1.38 metres high. It is powered by a four-cylinder overhead camshaft engine with three valves per cylinder. It develops 63kW at 6000 rpm and produces its peak torque of 12.8kg/m at 3500 rpm. This is a smooth, quiet and responsive engine, provided it is not treated too harshly. To me, it seemed quite lively, but there are certainly other cars in the class that have more sting. The selection of gear ratios could have something to do with the lack of fieriness. At 0.846 and 0.714 to 1 respectively, fourth and fifth gears are overdrive ratios, the engine speed at lOOkm/h in fourth being 3500 rpm and in fifth, 3000 rpm. Although the LX ambles along without the merest complaint at the open road speed limit in either of those ratios, one has always a nagging suspicion that it would be unwise to ask for anything more.

Fortunately, the gearbox is a delight to use and I found myself making more use of third and second gears than I generally do in 1.5 litre cars.

Whether the wind roar around the driver’s door is atypical of the LX, I am unable to say. It certainly deters any temptation to ignore the open road limit. The car rides and handles competently. Struts and lower wishbones sprung by torsion bars are used at the front. This set-up does not call for as much depth as MacPherson struts and has allowed the Honda designers to produce a saloon with a distinctive fall-away line to its bonnet.

Coil springs and solid beam axle located by trailing links look after the rear end.

This arrangement provides notably refined riding qualities in a car with a wheelbase of only 2.45 metres. There is sufficient compliance to iron out the bumps without leaving occupants with the feeling that the car wallows.

Although the front suspension is tied down to some extent by an anti-

roll or stabiliser bar, this device is not used at the rear end on the manual gearbox version of the LX and I felt bodyroll was somewhat excessive, although not uncomfortably so. The LX Civic feels very well balanced when it is hustled along tight, winding roads, mildly understeering to impart a feeling of security.

While it did not complete the regular test circuit as expeditiously as some of the 1500 cu cm cars I have appraised, it was lively enough and would have finished not far behind most of them. However, once again, it is only fair to add that the use of the gearbox would, perhaps, have seemed excessive if the shift action had not been so good. With its bright red paintwork and silver alloy wheels, the Civic could be likened to the only schoolboy in the class photograph wearing a freshly cleaned and pressed uniform. Once it is realised that

this is a 1986 Civic, there is nothing very’ much to distinguish it from any other saloon of similar size in the car park.

I liked the interior. The appointments are by no means lavish, but the upholstery and trim are cheerful enough and of reasonable quality. Although not over-gen-erously padded, the seats are supportive and comfortable. Provided front seat occupants are not too greedy there is sufficient leg space for rear seat passengers and the head room is tolerable.

I found the small diameter steering wheel very much to my liking. The rack and pinion steering is precise and quite light and the wheel provides all the leverage required without demanding undue effort.

Although there is nothing new in the specification to account for the dramatic improvement in the steering qualities of the latest Civic, either by

accident or design, torque steer, which has long been one of the less endearing qualities of successive Civics (and Accords, for that matter), is almost absent. In the LX, I found that the strength of the self-centring action of the steering varied according to the throttle opening. Although it can be quite strong when accelerating out of sharpish bends, it is never wristwrenching and always manageable. Moreover, the no-non-sense instrument cluster is not masked by the wheel rim and seldom by its spokes. It would be an exaggeration to claim that this particular new Honda marks a notable breaknrough in Civic technology, but it is fair to say that N.Z.M.C., the local" assembler and distributor, has billed it the third generation Civic with some justification. The Civic is growing up. Whether it has grown up

sufficiently to justify its price is a question individual shoppers must answer for themselves.

Certainly, when the new Civic range was first shown to the motoring press at Taupo a couple of months or so ago, NZMC’s chief executive, Bruce Carson, went to some pains to make it clear that the company was not scrambling to get to the top of the heap, with Honda the best seller of the year.

There is not much likelihood of this Civic helping Honda to the top of the tree, so Carson can rest easy. But the reason is the price rather than the car itself, in the case of the LX. For that sort of money I would want a bit more sparkle and a radio at least.