Honda debuts "honed" 2013 Civic

['Vette Dude]

Can Honda please pick a grille style and stay with it?

[carart]

As an owner of a 2012 Civic EX auto, I have to say that the update is nice but I don't think that it makes me less happy with my 2012. I am very happy with my car and I don't think it is a downgrade from the previous generation, which I also had, in any way. It's quieter, feels nimbler, rides better and gets better city fuel economy. The current average is 31 mpg's for 90+% city driving and it's been very consistent. The Cruze was on the short list but it got knocked out for the cavelike interior. If I had one complaint about my Civic it would be the color but that wasn't my choice. It's gray and rather dull looking. I would have chosen the Urban titanium metallic that is gray with a little brown in it as it looks a little richer. Just my two cents.

['Vette Dude]

Cavelike interior? And you went with a Civic over it? lol ok

[Neanderthal]

Talk about damning a car with faint praise.

HAR!

As an owner of a 2012 Civic EX auto, I have to say that the update is nice but I don't think that it makes me less happy with my 2012. I am very happy with my car and I don't think it is a downgrade from the previous generation, which I also had, in any way. It's quieter, feels nimbler, rides better and gets better city fuel economy. The current average is 31 mpg's for 90+% city driving and it's been very consistent. The Cruze was on the short list but it got knocked out for the cavelike interior. If I had one complaint about my Civic it would be the color but that wasn't my choice. It's gray and rather dull looking. I would have chosen the Urban titanium metallic that is gray with a little brown in it as it looks a little richer. Just my two cents.

Thanks for chipping in. And given the non-love shown for the Civic here, I appreciate your candor. I wish I was getting that MPG.

Cavelike interior? And you went with a Civic over it? lol ok

Yes. That's what he said.

[steve333]

I think he means the Civic has better visibility

[Ambalanche]

Funny how sales still increased over last year by over 200k units. Honda people will buy any piece of garbage they put out

Kinda like GM used to do back in the day! This is nothing more than lipstick on a pig!...

[Tre-Tre]

It's better. Kinda.

Considering the first one it's not like the bar was set very high.

[CoolNate32]

One thing I'll never understand, we are just now seeing what this Honda looks like and it'll be on dealer lots within a month. I feel like I saw the '13 Malibu at least a year ago and the dealers are just now fully stocked although most people on this forum will say there are still supply issues. But I feel like Honda and Toyota have so much less time from reveal to delivery. I still remember seeing a Cruze at the auto show over a year before you could get one. That's fine but I needed a car then, and no way would I buy a cobalt after seeing a Cruze. That's why Honda sold more Civics then Cruzes last month when a mce was a month away IMO. Same with traverse/ Acadia/ Enclave. Revealed months ago, have yet to see one at dealers or on the road not sure how many have been produced.


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[exGMer]

Totally agree with you. Honda reveals new cars (e.g. Accord), and next thing you know the dealer lots are stocked, and they come out blazing with the marketing campaign. GM on the other hand. New Chevy Impala revealed April 2012 ...available Spring 2013! As you say, this causes people to not purchase the current model because the new one is coming out. It gives competition a clear detailed view of what GM is doing a year in advance. (OK, Honda did show the coupe last Jan as a lightly disguised concept, but exterior only.)

[spd98]

Wasn't the interior a sore point as well? I wonder what they are doing there. The outside is a big improvment.

[PREMiERdrum]

Wasn't the interior a sore point as well? I wonder what they are doing there. The outside is a big improvment.

I've heard it's the same layout and structure with upgraded materials. A dash redesign would be both cost and time prohibitive in such a quick turnaround.

[EcoBustier69]

Good enough for the minions I suspect.

[KingElvis]

One thing I'll never understand, we are just now seeing what this Honda looks like and it'll be on dealer lots within a month. I feel like I saw the '13 Malibu at least a year ago and the dealers are just now fully stocked although most people on this forum will say there are still supply issues. But I feel like Honda and Toyota have so much less time from reveal to delivery. I still remember seeing a Cruze at the auto show over a year before you could get one. That's fine but I needed a car then, and no way would I buy a cobalt after seeing a Cruze. That's why Honda sold more Civics then Cruzes last month when a mce was a month away IMO. Same with traverse/ Acadia/ Enclave. Revealed months ago, have yet to see one at dealers or on the road not sure how many have been produced.




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Yes. That's been the rap on GM for decades. Back in the 'glory days' they were very tight lipped about upcoming models - like Honda is now - for precisely the reason you state: a glimpse of a superior model a year in advance will tend to hurt sales of the current model as people figure they'll just wait for the better model.

The first example of this is the infamous XP887 AKA "Gemini" project which became the Chevrolet Vega. They started talking about an innovative 'subcompact' in late 1968 - even promising that it would cost under $2000K and weigh under 2000lbs - but it wouldn't debut until the '70 calendar year.

Why did GM bigwigs break their own rule? They wanted a public relations bump - the Corvair had been a disaster and as production of the Corvair drew to a close, they wanted to earn some credit as a good corporate citizen by promising to introduce a more pious model with those Yankee values of thrift and practicality.

This marked the beginning of a bad habit - to wit, GM's desire to be judged by upcoming models rather than the mediocre and/or 'gas guzzling' current models.

You can see why it was so tempting to point to future models from a P.R. perspective. It could change the conversation about GM from 'planned obsolescence' to 'corporate responsibility.' Something very similar happened when GM made the VOLT concept car. At that time GM = Decadent Hummer. And now the Volt has become the face of GM - in some sense the bette noire of FOX - but the darling of Thomas Friedman and MSNBC - even as most GM profits still come from pickups and SUVs. At least in that instance, there wasn't any current GM car that was comparable to the Volt.

[logansowner]

Yes, it's good for 10 HP and 2 MPG.

This is a pricey "compact." And $1600 for 16" alloys and $2000 for 17-inchers? Oiiii!

Darn right, if I spend two grand on a set of alloy wheels, they will damn sure be of better quality and look better than anything an OEM is gonna put out.

That being said, we are waiting to see more of this car, to decide whether to purchase it. After the Grand am eating two transmissions, wheel bearings and an axle in 130,000 KM, and the Impala just being a turd in general, we are about done with GM. We like the "new" Accord, but it seems so boring, almost like a Camry.

[logansowner]

All that being said, I love how this board seems to think that GM is putting out awesome cars every time, even though most of you have never driven any of the cars you talk about.

Even though the current Civic is a little lackluster, GM needs to take a few lessons from them, realizing they screwed the pooch and actually doing something about it, plus it comes in 2 door, 4 door and performance versions FROM THE BEGINNING....holy cow, what blasphemy! I guess, maybe some day, right before the Cruze is outdated, maybe they will make a coupe, but I wouldn't count on it, considering the thing was several years old before they even pushed it to the US market as some sort of game changer.