I'd buy one. After watching Danica Patrick drive one on Speed TV's test drive, I'd buy anything. I don't really know what they said about the car.

 

I sat in the new civic at the auto show here. The first thing I noticed is how simliar the massive dash is to my camaro. Funny, because one of the common complaints about the fbods was that the dash reminded them of a football field it was so big. Now that the civic has it, the press labels it as helping the car seem to have a larger interior then it does.

 

so true.

Remeber C4 Vettes had digital speedos--press hated them. But the the S2000 comes out and has....DIGITAL speedos. Press doesn't say a word cause its in a Honda.

 

No surprise at all. Car and Driver would have made the same comments, if not worse.

No offense to any current or former Motor Trend fans on board, but IMO MT has been a magazine geared toward the 8th grade study hall doodler crowd since it started. I liked it when I was younger, but nowhere near as well as I liked CandD (despite their obvious Japan-leanings). When I got a little older, I let all my subscriptions expire, except CandD. Then I got so fed up that I let that one expire too.

Now that I'm an adult, I prefer Road & Track over the rest of the "big 4" (CandD, MT, R&T, and Automobile). I still think CandD has some of the best writing (pretty entertaining), but I can't put up with their incessant anti-GM crap. They choose to make anti-GM comments when writing about vehicles or other things that have nothing to do with GM. It is unbelievable, really.

Road & Track seems to be the most balanced, IMO. Plus they have good photography and good tech data pages. I just wish they would shrink the "Track" portion and focus on the road tests, because it doesn't make sense for a monthly magazine to cover racing...by the time the mag comes out, the event is 2 months old (long lead time to produce each issue).

Jason E, I haven't read this year's COTY article, but it sounds like all the others I've read in the recent past. Even GM vehicles that are highly praised by them in earlier issues (whether as standalone tests or comparison tests) get blasted or just nit-picked to death when it is time for COTY.

I too am appalled that it is ok for DCX to share some of the M-B switchgear with the lower brands when Mercedes had their own, distinctive, if not necessarily attractive switchgear style, if it is not OK for GM to do the same. Not to mention the zillions of other cars that do it (VW/Audi, a least a little bit of Lexus/Toyota), etc. We are talking power window switches and stuff like that, for crying out loud.

Lame.

 

The hard stuff is usually ABS and molded in color. No paint. Paint is expensive.

I'll look at a dash when I get a chance. My brother-in-law has a 2001ish Suburban.

 

Yeah, that kind of tells you how far they had to dig to come up with a complaint. I liked MT in high school too, I don't even read it now. I like GMHTP, PopHotRod, all the Corvette stuff, but the big 4....nah.

 

Well then I'm sure you'll be excited to hear the Lucerne does have "self-turn on wipers" as standard equipment on its middle and upper models.

 

What I dont understand is what does the Civic bring to the table that wasnt there before?
A 2 dr coupe compact? Nope
An 4cyl engine that makes near 200hp? Nope
Good handling? Nope
DVD Navigation? Nope
Hybrid Compact? Nope
WHAT exactly does the Civic have to offer over that would make someone that had zero bias, buy? I still think that while the car is good, there are cars that do it better. I still think that the Mazda3 is THE prime compact car out there. It does everything that the Civic does, a year and some change ago. Only thing that Honda did was offer a coupe.
I wonder what would happen if Saturn brought over the Astra model here, would it get COTY? Or would it just get beat up for its badge engieering, or some other anti-GM rip?

What ever the case may be, next year could be heavily dominated by GM. 900's and the Aura, as long as they stick to there guns, we could be looking at Car and Trucks of the year.

 

Maybe because it has all of those things and does them well. I think maybe there's more to the story than just stats and features. Why don't you try sitting in one?

I'm not a Honda Civic fanboy whatsoever...in fact I've led most of my life disliking Civics. But this new one is an absolute homerun.

 

My worst greviance against Road and Track is their crapy times!!

They can't get a Z06 into the 11's and they just test a GTO--400hp and a 13.7??>? Yeah right!

M/Ts not great but they usually have a car in the mag that I want to read about, so I buy it

 

They test cars driven with 'manufacturer guidelines'. In other words they don't do things like run with an almost empty tank, lower tire pressure for better traction, remove the air filter, run 250rpm past redline, power shift, brake torque, etc...

 

Okay but Car and Driver does the same thing. Full tank, redline observed ect.

 

The problem with Motor Trend and Car and Driver are not so much their opinions but their lack of consistency. Like others have said, they will pan an American car for something but a few years before or after they praise the same thing on a foreign car. Hell, they even chose the slowest, poorest performing car of the group in their pocket rocket comparo (RSX) when the comparo was supposed to be just about performance (at least how I interpreted it). In one article they brag about the fuel economy of some foreign car and ignore the HP rating but for the American car instead of pointing out it gets better gas mileage with about the same or better HP the only thing they want to point out is how the engine still uses pushrods. I've read more than one article where an American car lead almost every measurable performance catagory but the foreign car still was better because it somehow felt better going slower. I guess the nicer switch gear really makes it so much better even though it didn't perform as well. It just seems like the bend every comparo however they need to so they can name the winner they feel like naming.

I've had the pleasure of getting to drive all kinds of cars through rental agencies. At one point I rented a different car each month for 15 months straight. We're talking 30 day rentals here, not a couple of days. I just don't see where many of the Japanese cars are supposedly better than the American cars other than perceived quality items (gap/flushness/feel). Hell, two of the biggest piles of crap I drove where Toyota Corollas and Hyundai Accents. Blah!

It's funny this came up now. It's time for me to renew my MT subscription. My next issue will be my last after about 10 straight years. I have no intention of renewing. I got my new MT last night. I spent about 10 minutes glancing through it and it probably won't get looked at again before throwing it away. Pure garbage.

You forgot about the 1983 Renault Alliance! That was also a car of the year winner. My parents bought a 3 year old one for me when I was in high school. Biggest pile of **** I've ever owned!

 

I am curious. Do people regularly rest their hands and or for some reason pet their dashboard. I think I touch it to dust it, and use it as a resting spot for gloves or singlasses overnight. That's about it.

 

This kills me. THe Si and RSX-S dont even hit 140 ft/lbs of torque and the second v-tech doesn't kick in untill 6,000 rpm. For an indy car, this power band might be great, but how could you drive this everyday on the street? You have to beat the poo out of it just to maintain a decent pace.