Have a look at the Reviews section of this site: it seems that the new Civic is less reliable than the previous version. Personally I wouldn't touch one for a different reason: the view out of the back is so bad as to be potentially dangerous.

When you say the 'new Civic' I take it you mean all variants of the spaceship looking one? Interesting - I had been led to belive that they are pretty decent but you live and learn.

Edited by Dingle232 on 18/10/2011 at 15:17

I ran an 07 plater to 100k without a single fault. Over that time it always did 45-47 mpg on the usual mixed diet of 80% fast runs on m/ways and A roads plus about 20% of urban. Did not consume a drop of oil in the time I had it.

Agree about the great use of space in the boot and also the way the rear seats fold in all directions. Ride not as good as, say a Focus, but I found the handling to be pretty good.

Never found the rear visibilty is any way dangerous but the split screen is a bit daft. It needed a wiper too. Luckily the mirrors are huge and have easy adjustment so reverse parking isn't so hard.

The engine is superb, it's a 5 year old design and still much better than most current diesels.

Spare wheel was £100 quid so get the dealer to throw one in for free. It doesn't mess up the boot space but you do lose the ability to lower the boot floor.

Dealer service excellent, but you won't see them very often.

It's a very good car and I'd buy another for my company without thinking twice.

We bought a 2.2 i-CTDi Sport in 2007 and ran it for just under 3 years, as a second car it did a very low mileage (11K) in that time.

I have to be honest and say it has completely put me off buying another Honda - ever, it was unreliable from the start e.g. it was the only car we've owned in 20 years which failed to start (an ECU fault when only a few months old).

The ride quality was truly dreadful with every road imperfection being transmitted to the cabin and rattles and creaks quickly becoming evident in the rather low-grade interior trim (I understand that a mid-life facelift may have improved some interior trim). We had numerous problems with the suspension - bushings creaking, bump stops and shock-absorbers changed and a driveshaft changed - remember we only did 11K (I'd contend gentle) miles in it.

Rear visibility is dire, we had the Honda reverse park sensors fitted withing the first week of ownership - I'd suggest you look for one with these fitted or get them fitted.

It wasn't all bad, there are things I still like about the car - the styling is brave and hasn't dated in my opinion, the interior space is excellent - the boot in particular is huge for this class of car. The 2.2 i-CTDi engine is very good too, refined, powerful and as other posters have said returning 45+ mpg (with no DPF).

We changed the car ealier than planned because we couldn't live with the ride, rear visibility and we didn't trust the reliability or the ability of Honda dealers to fix the car (they're allegedly more used to paragons of reliability after all). We bought a Golf VI which was a better car in almost all respects. On the plus side we got an excellent trade in for it.

Civic info is useful although (perhaps) as these admittedly stylish cars come into the financial reach of people interested in modifying their cars the tone and content seems to have changed since its inception.

Edited by idle_chatterer on 19/10/2011 at 15:41