My personal review - Honda Civic FC 1.5 Turbo

Snapshot from Honda's website. Hope they don't mind me using for this post....

I have had a very good experience with the Semabok branch (as the SA who sold to our family our first Honda (even before my first Civic) is still there, though he's already moved up the ladder. I'm sure if I ever get another Honda (if there will ever be another one with as great price/performance ratio as my FD2), it will be from them.

Well, today, I managed to test drive the "new" Honda Civic FC (top-of-the-line 1.5 Turbo model). Before this, I've read quite number of reviews, watched an equally large number of video reviews on Youtube and even tuned in to opinions from my friends and Civic enthusiast group. A mixed review, if you asked me, so in the end, I wanted to have a short first hand experience for this car which has not managed to replace long and trusted ride.

Getting into the FC is a completely different feel from my old FD2. The interior seems somewhat less spacious in the two places where it mattered to me - that being the place between the driver and passenger seat (which is now raised and no longer able to accommodate climbing to the other side) and also the rear hump at the middle rear passenger legroom is back (which is the plus point of my FD2 vs most other cars). Still, minor issues. Hand brake is gone, now replaced with a lever (much like the one you pull to release the trunk) on the central dash to the right of the gear shifter.

The sales advisor gave me a brief overview of what's new, then respectfully settled back to let me experience the drive. This is highly appreciated, as I was then able to focus on the driving experience. In fact after a while I was the one who felt obliged to initiate some talk, to break the otherwise awkward silence. Now, on to the driving experience....

Pulling out of the parking lot and on to the main road, I was at first cautious when merging with traffic. I know on paper that the FC has a higher power/weight ratio, but having no prior experience, I don't want to test the airbags / other safety features.... :)

I felt an ever-so-slight lag in the throttle response when accelerating at low engine speed. Likely due to the small engine, don't expect the turbo to magically fix this part of the curve (below 2kRPM). The CVT was smooth, never could tell when then gears were shifting up. The response seems to be muted, as if giving you a moment to decide if you really want to go fast, before spooling up the power. Thus, you can stomp your foot on the accelerator and absolutely nothing will happen. To be fair, this is also a "feature" found even in the FD generation of civic, as a result of the drive-by-wire throttle. Still, I feel in the FC, this is very much pronounced, perhaps to tune the car to a more mature / comfort based target audience.

The car was quiet, but then, with these test drive models, you could never tell if this was an after-market enhancement or came stock. And I did not manage to test the ability to change directions and speed really quickly, as I did not want to flip out the SA who was in the passenger seat. Moving on to a long straight stretch of road, I put the FC in S mode and tested the paddle shifters. With more travel and matte finish, they felt better than the staccato shiny ones in my FD2. I shifted up to 7 virtual gears, 2 more than the real ones in my FD2. Red-line was at an unimpressive 6.5kRPM, but this car was not about top end. In the 3-4kRPM range, the FC was responsive - no turbo lag to bog you down and I'm sure it would sing happily to the (short) red-line. I did try to floor it in one of the higher gears, and detect no attempt from the engine or system to push the car forward at a greater urgency. This means you really need to be in right gear to increase the pace, otherwise, the ride would be pretty much sedated.

Power delivery was linear. No surge or Blow-Off-Valve hissing between gear changes to hint of the forced induction motor beneath the hood. Here was a car that would go fast without feeling or sounding fast.

I made it a point to take the FC through the housing estate with many speed bumps, high humps, potholes. This was the major pain-point of my FD2 which no amount of after-market engineering could fix. The showroom unit was with a Modulo body kit, so it would be a fair representation of body-to-ground. Making it through the housing estate, going over obstacles with sensible yet urgent speed (just like you would drive your own car, if you were in a hurry), I did not register hitting anything with the bottom of the car. Clearly, the stock FC (with Modulo body kit) would make it through the typical Malaysia neighbourhood without having resort to strange diagonal angle-of-attack movements that you always see those modified Wiras do.

As I pulled back into the Honda Semabok parking area and switched off the engine (push button, again, something with is standard for even the Honda City these days), I thanked the SA and took a moment to summarize me experience with the new Civic FC. I would guess that the designers were taking aim at the market segment dominated by Toyota (Altis) and at the same time, not sacrificing on quality in order to stand on its own against the other rivals in this car class. The FC is clearly not means to be the sports sedan that is the expectation of many drivers from MY generation. Rather, it's more of a sport-y mid-size family sedan to offer a solid option for those shopping in this price range. And truly a model worthy to carry on the "Civic" legacy.

The 1.5 turbo engine coupled with the CVT, apart from the low RPM range, seems to be well match at delivering results as intended. Ride, insulation and comfort are much improved versus the stock FD (sorry for my outdated comparison, as I've never driven the FB Civic which bridges the FD and FC). I'm sure that this car can be fast when pushed, but more like a passenger jet on full throttle during take off, rather than like a go kart (forgive the poor analogy). If you are looking for something more lively/involving, I guess you'd have to look elsewhere (or wait for the Type R)....

Disclaimer : I don't work for Honda, nor am I paid by them to write about them. I just happen to drive one myself. Writing car reviews is clearly not my forte, otherwise I'd have a career working for Paul Tan.... :)