Civic-minded

Perhaps the last thing that unites the RoC and Quebec is, oddly, the Honda Civic.

That it should ever come to this--both in terms of the country and my own car choice.

Tested '06 Civic EX and '06 Ford Focus SE. Civic surprised by having, to me at least, better road feel than Mazda 3. Another surprise: Focus best handling of the three. But Ford feels cheap in comparison, and a very good deal '06 I drove had no tach. Also have never been sure about the styling, plus one wonders about Ford's future. Decided Subaru's small trunk space and lack of folding rear seat would not do. Wish I were younger and a bit more devoted to pure fun (like our son).

So am getting the Civic, despite an annoying digital speedo and a tach below it that is a bit hard to notice. For personal reasons had finally to get an auto but the Civic does have a five speed and one can downshift from 4th to 3rd easily for two-lane highway passing.

The inevitable development of modern industrial society: Peugeot 505 in the 80s, VW Jetta in 80s and 90s, then Ford Contour until now (I keep cars a long time). Today a Honda. Is a Korean car inexorable?

But the Audi A4--if only! An engineering afterthought: both the two-decade old Peugeot and VW designs were happy cruising at 160 kph on German Autobahnen. Never tried anything similar with the Contour, but I doubt either it or the Honda would be comfortable at that speed. A certain amount of regression, or at least building for what the market expects and the government allows. Yet fast driving in a capable car is safer than slower but bad driving in a mediocre vehicle--in principle and if drivers actually know how to, er, drive.

If there is interest would be glad to compare scooting fast on German Autobahnen with Italian autostrada--guess on which drivers scored best (two decades ago)?

A final thought, in terms perhaps of standards of living: In the UK a similar Civic costs around C$36,000. Yikes.

Mark C.

Posted by markc at October 26, 2006 06:03 PM