Girlfriend looking to buy an 05 facelift Civic, what else?
Discussion
Hi
After my girlfriend was involved in an accident Which wrote off her MR2 in December, she's looking to finally replace it.
We've found an 05 facelifted 1.6 Civic 5 door for sale for £5495 at a Honda dealer with 40k on the clock. What else should we consider? As she has zero NCB it must be cheap to insure and importantly good on fuel. It will be used to regularly visit her family in Cornwall which is a 400 mile round trip as it's too costly in my S4 so it must have a bit of go and be comfortable, so no superminis!
Budget was ideally around £3500 but for the right car we'd stretch to £5000.
Wed like something modern and fairly spacious as we often take the bikes and kayak down to Cornwall
Thanks
Dan
After my girlfriend was involved in an accident Which wrote off her MR2 in December, she's looking to finally replace it.
We've found an 05 facelifted 1.6 Civic 5 door for sale for £5495 at a Honda dealer with 40k on the clock. What else should we consider? As she has zero NCB it must be cheap to insure and importantly good on fuel. It will be used to regularly visit her family in Cornwall which is a 400 mile round trip as it's too costly in my S4 so it must have a bit of go and be comfortable, so no superminis!
Budget was ideally around £3500 but for the right car we'd stretch to £5000.
Wed like something modern and fairly spacious as we often take the bikes and kayak down to Cornwall
Thanks
Dan
Edited by danyeates on Tuesday 14th September 10:03
You can't go far wrong with a Civic; Honda make fantastic cars. Possibly look at a Golf or a Fabia too? My girlfriend's got a Yaris and we use that for bikes and kayaks, so space isn't an issue (in fact we were kayaking in Devon this weekend). The only borderline thing is that at 5'10" I'm only just tall enough to load the kayaks onto the roof (my gf is 5'4" and she definitely can't manage), so check you're tall enough! Unless you've very short kayaks, you generally need both hands to lift one up, so that rules out using steps. Also, because of the height of the car I have to put my bike in the back. Most of my cycling friends swear by the towbar mounted bike racks, but that's an expensive option (£300 for the rack, and I guess a few hundred for a towbar). The other issue that I have with the Yaris (and the Civic) is that because I've got long legs the driving position isn't fantastic, even though the steering wheel adjusts for reach. That can be a pain on longer trips. I'm about to buy my Dad's 320d from him, and that will be more suitable because of the better driving position and the much lower roof line makes loading the roof rack easier (he's a keen windsurfer, or at least was when he bought the car, so the roof rack has had lots of use). To end on a positive note, the Yaris copes beautifully with the extra weight, although the reduced aero makes accelerating about 50mph a slow process. Our paddles have varying angle and split in the middle, so they fit nicely across the back seat. Small cars are fine with kayaks and bikes, despite what people may tell you.
danyeates said:
Hi
After my girlfriend was involved in an accident Which wrote off her MR2 in December, she's looking to finally replace it.
We've found an 05 facelifted 1.6 Civic 5 door for sale for £5495 at a Honda dealer with 40k on the clock. What else should we consider? As she has zero NCB it must be cheap to insure and importantly good on fuel. It will be used to regularly visit her family in Cornwall which is a 400 mile round trip as it's too costly in my S4 so it must have a bit of go and be comfortable, so no superminis!
Budget was ideally around £3500 but for the right car we'd stretch to £5000.
Wed like something modern and fairly spacious as we often take the bikes and kayak down to Cornwall
Thanks
Dan
If insurance and mpg are such an issue, why spend £5.5k on a car??After my girlfriend was involved in an accident Which wrote off her MR2 in December, she's looking to finally replace it.
We've found an 05 facelifted 1.6 Civic 5 door for sale for £5495 at a Honda dealer with 40k on the clock. What else should we consider? As she has zero NCB it must be cheap to insure and importantly good on fuel. It will be used to regularly visit her family in Cornwall which is a 400 mile round trip as it's too costly in my S4 so it must have a bit of go and be comfortable, so no superminis!
Budget was ideally around £3500 but for the right car we'd stretch to £5000.
Wed like something modern and fairly spacious as we often take the bikes and kayak down to Cornwall
Thanks
Dan
Edited by danyeates on Tuesday 14th September 10:03
Afraid I can't see the logic there, or get the sums to add up.
Spend £1k on a beater and bank the rest and either spend it on something else or buy a much nicer car than a Civic in 12 months time.
£1k can buy you a lot of car these days, MG ZS or ZT, an older Civic if you want. Ford's, Vauxhalls, VW's and so on.
Even another MR2 (2.0) would be in budget.
danyeates said:
Hi
After my girlfriend was involved in an accident Which wrote off her MR2 in December, she's looking to finally replace it.
We've found an 05 facelifted 1.6 Civic 5 door for sale for £5495 at a Honda dealer with 40k on the clock. What else should we consider? As she has zero NCB it must be cheap to insure and importantly good on fuel. It will be used to regularly visit her family in Cornwall which is a 400 mile round trip as it's too costly in my S4 so it must have a bit of go and be comfortable, so no superminis!
Budget was ideally around £3500 but for the right car we'd stretch to £5000.
Wed like something modern and fairly spacious as we often take the bikes and kayak down to Cornwall
Thanks
Dan
take the Honda, it wont go wrong, it will have a year of warranty, and her costs are fixed.After my girlfriend was involved in an accident Which wrote off her MR2 in December, she's looking to finally replace it.
We've found an 05 facelifted 1.6 Civic 5 door for sale for £5495 at a Honda dealer with 40k on the clock. What else should we consider? As she has zero NCB it must be cheap to insure and importantly good on fuel. It will be used to regularly visit her family in Cornwall which is a 400 mile round trip as it's too costly in my S4 so it must have a bit of go and be comfortable, so no superminis!
Budget was ideally around £3500 but for the right car we'd stretch to £5000.
Wed like something modern and fairly spacious as we often take the bikes and kayak down to Cornwall
Thanks
Dan
Edited by danyeates on Tuesday 14th September 10:03
danyeates said:
T84 said:
Focus?
Is it any better than the Civi? I certain prefer the Civic, and it's A Honda, not a Ford, which I'd prefer
Thanks Rob. I also windsurf, forgot about that one! I already have roof mounted cycle carriers so it would be good to get roof bars to fit those to.
Yeah, I agree to a point that we could get a cheap banger, but it will be our everyday car and we'll be doing a lot of miles in it so we'd like it to be fairly modern and well appointed. Also reliable. The Civic has just had a service at Honda and has a years warranty from Honda. Seems pretty good if we can get it for sub £5k?
Yeah, I agree to a point that we could get a cheap banger, but it will be our everyday car and we'll be doing a lot of miles in it so we'd like it to be fairly modern and well appointed. Also reliable. The Civic has just had a service at Honda and has a years warranty from Honda. Seems pretty good if we can get it for sub £5k?
danyeates said:
Thanks Rob. I also windsurf, forgot about that one! I already have roof mounted cycle carriers so it would be good to get roof bars to fit those to.
Yeah, I agree to a point that we could get a cheap banger, but it will be our everyday car and we'll be doing a lot of miles in it so we'd like it to be fairly modern and well appointed. Also reliable. The Civic has just had a service at Honda and has a years warranty from Honda. Seems pretty good if we can get it for sub £5k?
Yeah, I agree to a point that we could get a cheap banger, but it will be our everyday car and we'll be doing a lot of miles in it so we'd like it to be fairly modern and well appointed. Also reliable. The Civic has just had a service at Honda and has a years warranty from Honda. Seems pretty good if we can get it for sub £5k?
danyeates said:
The other option is a facelifted VW Passat. That would be within budget but I prefer the Civic. The Civic is also newer, would have lower mileage and has dealer warranty etc. Passat might be expensive to insure too as we haven't got a quote on one of those yet.
I can't comment on the value as I'm not up to date with that, but I completely understand your reasoning for buying a newer car; I'd do the same thing as you. It's worth it for the peace of mind alone, but a newer car will indeed break down less and cost less to run. Older cars tend to reach a point where lots of things start to go, and if you go for a bigger car the extra weight wears things out more.The Passat may be nicer to be in on a long run, and may have a better driving position as well - maybe have a sit in one at least to check that out. You also might want to consider the length of your windsurf mast compared to the Civic. Whilst I'm sure it's legal to carry a long mast on a short car (there is a protusion law I believe, but it's very generous), I'd always prefer to drive a car without something hanging off the back or front!
If you want to carry bikes on the roof, do check the practicality of the height of the roof. Modern cars are getting taller, and it makes putting stuff up there a pain. At least with the kayak I can dump it on the roof and then stand on the sill to strap it on. A bike isn't going to sit up there upright whilst you climb up onto the sill - you have to be able to lock it onto the carrier from your lifting position.
So in summary I'd have a think about lifting stuff up onto the roof, check the length of your mast vs the length of the car, and then if that checks out go for the Civic
danyeates said:
The other option is a facelifted VW Passat. That would be within budget but I prefer the Civic. The Civic is also newer, would have lower mileage and has dealer warranty etc. Passat might be expensive to insure too as we haven't got a quote on one of those yet.
I'm sure Passat's are fine cars, the current shape ones even look pretty good (earlier ones were mingers though). But my issue with them is that I've never ever, not once seen one not being driven like a tit (or by a tit maybe?)At times I do a lot of commuting miles, I usually run at about 70mph on the dual carriage-ways. I've only, in 1000's of miles ever once overtaken a Passat. Most go tearing by at warp 8 no matter the traffic or conditions. And to be fair the only one I did over take was being driven equally as badly running at about 35-40mph on a fast dual carriage way and weaving all over their lane.
Maybe VW put something funny in the glue they use in the interior??
We're looking at a 5 door Civic so they are a bit longer than the 3 door but Ill bear in mind your point and measure my mast. My bike is carbon fibre and I can easily lift it above my head one handed. My girlfriends alloy bike is heavier though and again, I will check the height if the car as you suggested. Also need to check the price of roof bars.
danyeates said:
We're looking at a 5 door Civic so they are a bit longer than the 3 door but Ill bear in mind your point and measure my mast. My bike is carbon fibre and I can easily lift it above my head one handed. My girlfriends alloy bike is heavier though and again, I will check the height if the car as you suggested. Also need to check the price of roof bars.
It was more the pure height of the roof I was referring to, rather than the weight of the bike. My bike's a lightweight road bike too, and is an easy lift, but I can't hold the thing upright on top of the Yaris though whilst I tighten a bike clamp.As I say, I believe it's legal to have the mast protruding, but I'd be forever worrying about it if it extended too much!
One bonus the Civic has is that you can flip the rear squabs up cinema style. Pretty useless for most folks but you can actually stand a bike in the space if you remove the front wheel. This does 2 things for me as it improves fuel consumption and keeps your bike safer.
As the boot is almost 500 litres you won't need to worry too much about space to stick your luggage either. Compare that with any other hatch and you'll find they're miles behind (usually 350-400).
The 5 door Civic is a cracking car and superbly designed. I didn't own the petrol but the 2.2 diesel and it was cracking. The only thing to watch out for on the 05 models is clunky rear suspension. This should have been sorted through the warranty but if not it will be very obvious. Otherwise the only thing I didn't like about it was the door handles as they're a bit naff but that's all.
As the boot is almost 500 litres you won't need to worry too much about space to stick your luggage either. Compare that with any other hatch and you'll find they're miles behind (usually 350-400).
The 5 door Civic is a cracking car and superbly designed. I didn't own the petrol but the 2.2 diesel and it was cracking. The only thing to watch out for on the 05 models is clunky rear suspension. This should have been sorted through the warranty but if not it will be very obvious. Otherwise the only thing I didn't like about it was the door handles as they're a bit naff but that's all.
danyeates said:
Anyone had a Civic to offer some advice on what to look out for on the cars if we do decide it's the car for us?
I assume it's an EP3 Civic. I have an older version, the one they lent to Rover, not sure of the code name. It is utterly, utterly reliable, even now at 12 years old. It used 1 litre of oil in the 8 years I have had it so far. It is milllllllllles better than the MKII Golf I had before, There was some talk of the condenser being vunerable to stone damage and other minor bits and bobs, but nothing serious. If the OP is getting it from a main dealer, it will be expensive, but it will also be perfect.
Look after it and it will literally last for years.
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