My Experience With a 2009 Honda Civic Sedan: A Daily Driver Review

So recently I have been daily driving a 2009 8th gen Honda Civic DX Sedan. Generally, it’s been a decent car, but there are reasons why I am still hoping to get into a new car soon. So, I thought a review of the car would be in order, considering I have been driving it for a while now. Let’s look at some different areas with which I will analyze how this Civic performs.

Performance

The Civic I have been driving has a 1.8 Liter with 140hp and it’s mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox. While it’s horsepower number is not crazy, I believe that’s actually higher than my Legacy, so it doesn’t feel slow to me. Actually, due to the way Honda makes their engines, it’s quite eager to accelerate even though it’s lacking at the top end. Generally, I find a revy engine to be entertaining, and I much prefer it to an engine that achieves the same performance at lower revs. That 5-Speed gearbox has a nice slotted feel to it, though it’s easy to mash the gears if you’re not used to it. Personally, I do not like the clutch. While it’s not the worst it could possibly be, it’s too springy for my liking. To add to the list of annoying traits, that springy clutch as well as the rev-happy engine, front wheel drive, and relatively skinny tires lead to me squeak the front tires quite often. With my all wheel drive Subaru, I always liked to feel the rush of accelerating from stops quickly and then reprieving my acceleration at around the speed limit. With the Civic you have to really ease it on if you don’t want to look like an imbecile, which is what you look like when you squeak the tires on a front wheel drive economy car. The brakes are honestly quite good, and have better pedal feel than my Legacy. It also handles in the corners quite well due to it’s light weight (just a hair over 2 and a half thousand pounds) and what I assume to be a well-designed chassis. Overall, it’s not bad for a front wheel drive car. If I was to give a rating, I would give it a 6.5/10, because it does more right than it does wrong, and the performance lives up to what most people need.

Interior

Honestly, the Civic, even though it’s only in DX trim, has a better interior than my Subaru Legacy. Though the transformer esque cup holders in the Legacy are cool, the two central cupholders in the Civic work much better. You can fit bigger cups, and to hold the cups stable, there are 4 nifty tabs on each of the two cup holders which stabalize the cup and adjust to fit all cup sizes and even water bottles. There are also not one, but two cubby holes in front of the shifter and on the dash which function much better than the “hey bro, you can’t afford a cd player!” slot that my Legacy has. There’s also a healthy amount of space behind the cupholders in the storage compartment. Also, I can tell that when Honda designed the climate control and radio controls, they actually thought about how well it would work in day to day life. The fact that the dials are high on the dash and easy to use, means less time spent looking away from the road. The digital spedometer is ok, even though I would like to have an analog one as well, but at least they included an analog tachometer, even though I still tend to shift by ear. None of the materials are special, but they are inoffensive and don’t appear cheap to the eyes or touch. Overall, it’s a good family car interior, I give it about a 8/10.

Exterior

On the exterior you can tell that to increase efficiency, Honda really compromised with the aesthetics of the car. It’s not ugly, but there’s something about a car with a short hood and tear-drop shape that just doesn’t work out most of the time. They did manage to give the Civic decent front facia which incorporates wings into grill and in a much better way than how Subaru tried to something similar with the Tribeca. The steel wheel covers are not the worst I’ve ever seen, but honestly, who likes plastic fake rims? I don’t cringe looking at it, but I much prefer the looks of my Legacy wagon. This happens to be one of the least important categories, but I have to give it a 4/10.

Daily Drivability

The 8th gen Honda Civic would be a great daily driver for anybody who wants a car that’s not extremely boring, yet has everyday functionality. However, there are some caveats. First of all, the car has massive blind spots, not quite as bad as a Chevrolet Camaro, but quite substantial due to the large pillars. Then there’s the manual transmission, which works fine in traffic, but it has a bad tendency to roll back due to having no power going to the rear wheels and the springy clutch can be hard on your leg and more likely to stall than other manual cars if you aren’t careful. The decent interior and performance contribute most to making the 8th gen Honda Civic a good car to drive everyday. While I would want to own this car myself if I had to pay for it with my own money, I can see people liking this car and I can see why other Hondas might be interesting to own. The reason for my conclusion just boils down to the fact that I could have a Subaru or other car with awd for the same price or cheaper, and it would be almost as good as a daily driver and be better in rough weather conditions and handling rough Pennsylvania roads. A rear wheel driver car would at least look cooler sliding in the snow. Overall, I would give this car a 7.5/10 as a daily driver. #blogpost #dailydriver #hondacivic