Honda Civic 1.5 Turbo Review

By Ion Ursu
Updated March 7, 2021
Honda Civic 1.5 Turbo Review

Today in our review the excellent balanced Honda Civic with a good known VTEC engine but this time with a little addition called Turbo!

Verdict - 8.1 / 10

Good

  •  Comfortable and quiet ride
  • Large and practical boot
  • Impresive torque

Not very good

  • Boring CVT gearbox
  • Limited headroom in the rear

Introduction

The Honda Civic is one of the best-selling cars in the world and always was on a good position in top 10 best-selling cars in the United States. This Civic represents a family car with an aggressive look aimed to turn heads of your neighbors. As well, the Civic is developed to impress its driver with a enjoyable driving experience that makes it a very balanced car.

Interior

Honda Civic interior is made using a lot of soft plastics, making it looking upmarket for its class. On the dashboard is present a 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system with some shortcut buttons aimed to help you when navigating through key features. The system is equipped with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring interfaces.

Interior is reach in storage with adjustable front cup holders. Under the dashboard you can find a tray for your phone with 12V socket and USB.

Seats are very decent with a great support and some options to make you feel more comfortable. Rear seats have one big disadvantage. There is not enough headroom if you are taller than 180 cm (5 ft 11 in), and even if you are not, the roof will be causing you some discomfort as it will be right above your head. Instead you have plenty of legroom and enough space for three adults.

Advantages

 

Disadvantages

  • Soft materials
  • Plenty of storage
 
  • Limited headroom in the rear

 

Performance and Ride

This generation of Honda Civic is available with two petrol engines 1.0 Turbo with 124 bhp (93 kW) and 1.5 Turbo that we tested with 180 bhp (134 kW). Thanks to its turbos both engines have impressive torque, 180 Nm (133 ft.lb) for 1.0 engine and 240 Nm (177 lb.ft) respectively, available between 1900 and 5000 rpm. As well there is a diesel engine available with 118 bhp (88 kW) and 300 Nm (221 ft.lb).

In the course of driving you notice immediately how quiet is inside with a very low noise from wind or tyres even at a high speed, so you can enjoy the pleasant sound of the engine. Honda's continuously variable transmission (CVT) is one of the best gearboxes of this type. Combined with a turbocharged engine it is trying always to keep revs in the low range to save you fuel.

Advantages

 

Disadvantages

  • Quiet ride
  • Pleasent engine sound
 
  • Boring gearbox

 

Safety

All trims have adaptive cruise control, traffic-sign recognition, lane-departure warning and front obstacle sensors as standard. During its Euro NCAP safety test, Honda Civic get 4 (out of 5) stars result, proving high level of protection to occupants of different sizes and to those sat in different positions.

Boot

Honda Civic has an impressive boot with 478-litre space with a lot of of underfloor space as well, making it one of the biggest in its class. Unfortunately you are not able to make the floor flat with the boot opening to make loading of heavy bags easier. It is very easy to fold  both back seats down as you can make this either from the boot or from the interior. After you fold down the seats, that split 60:40, you gain acces to an impressive 1,267-litre space. Also you can find a 12V socket and a couple of hangers for shopping bags.

Ownership Costs

Claimed range by Honda is 32 miles per US gallon in city and 42 miles on highway. Based on today's price per gallon in United States - 3.07$, it means you can drive an average of 10.5 miles per US dollar based on city fuel economy.

For Honda Civic 1.5 Turbo, the annual maintenance cost will be around an average of 570$ based on Honda's recommended maintenance schedule at every 7 500 miles (or 12 months, whichever comes first).

Carzall Verdict

Honda Civic is a very well balanced vehicle that can impress you in any style of driving. As it is one of the best-selling car in the world it means that you have definitely consider it if you are looking for a practical family car.

 

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