Car of the Year 2007

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الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

"Reciting Salawath on our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is an activity that will be accepted by Allah, even if we don't have Ikhlas (piety)".

Car of the Year 2007

Honda Civic was pronounced the title of Indian Car of the Year-2007 by top automobile journalists of India at a ceremony held in Mumbai.

Few cars have generated the excitement the new Civic has. Visually arresting, with bewitching and modern interiors. But does it have real substance underneath its well sculpted lines? Is it the Civic all we expect it to be?

March 12, 2007: The debate over who is the best continues. With many an award given away already, it is now the turn of India’s top automobile journalists to decide who really the best is. And they have picked a beauty.

The ICOTY award, which has been instituted to review all new cars in the Indian car mart, is judged by senior motoring journalists of India.

Civic was among the eight cars who qualified in this year’s awards that included new launches by other manufacturers competing for the title.

Civic had already been declared the car of the year by many a magazine. The car came up trumps winning as many as nine awards including two ‘Car of the Year’ awards. Honda Civic was adjudged the ‘Car of the Year’ by CNBC TV-18 Autocar Auto Awards 2007 and NDTV Profit Car India & Bike India Awards 2007. The car also made a clean sweep of the ‘Viewers’ Choice’ award bagging the NDTV, CNBC and Aaj Tak Viewers’ Choice awards.

The 10 members of the ICOTY 2007 jury included eminent auto journalists from the country, including Hormazd Sorabjee and Shapur Kotwal (Autocar India), Gautam Sen and Bob Rupani (BBC Top Gear), Bijoy Kumar Y and Srinivas Krishnan (Business Standard Motoring), Adil Darukhanwala and Aspi Bathena (Car India) and Yogendra Pratap and Sirish Chandran (Overdrive).

The Honda Civic, which was launched in India in July 2006, too has matched the success of other Honda models and has proved an instant hit with Indian customers.

The Civic looks like it’s from another generation, but that’s because it truly is. A modern saloon design with a cab-forward stance, the new Civic is shaped to cleave the wind. It bucks the current trend of trading sleekness for vertical space and is appreciably lower slung than the Corolla. A flowing design, with hood, passenger compartment and boot merging almost seamlessly, the new Civic takes the three-box car silhouette to the next level. In the nose section, the hood, bumpers and fenders blend together beautifully and give it that cohesiveness possessed by all great designs. And it’s got sharp styling too. Well sculpted, multi-element headlamps sit on either side of a prominent bonnet ‘V’, between a thick bar of chrome that plays the role of a grille.

Meanwhile, both the grille and chin look like they’ve been cut into a solid piece of metal. Proportions and detailing at the rear are exquisite as well. The boot is well formed and tight fitting, the design of the tail-lights have been inspired by a fighter jet according to Honda, while chromed double-barrel exhausts wrap up its sporty look. Make no mistake, this is the one of the most forward looking saloons round, and unlike the City, is extremely well proportioned.

The Civic uses a transversely mounted engine to drive the front wheels, has disc brakes for all four wheels and is equipped with anti lock brakes as standard. The Civic uses independent suspension all round with McPherson struts and lower ‘A’ arms up front. And it utilizes multi-links at the rear. With more than a passing resemblance of an aircraft cockpit, the Civic’s dashboard will simply take your breath away. A digital display mounted at the base of the windscreen puts important information right into the driver’s field of vision; its blue glow is carried over to the tachometer and other information pods. The radical, asymmetric central console serves up an ambience that is more jet fighter than saloon car. Of course, a traditional steering wheel would look out of place here, so in its place Honda has installed a sporty one featuring a futuristic, angular steering boss with ‘meshed’ spokes – it’s well built and nice to hold.

The Honda’s rear seats are low, but are well contoured, and with firm support. The Honda also has comfortable, soft-feel elbow-rests, which are a nice touch. Thoughtful features like rear door pockets, a unique and very useful remote control for the music system built into the central armrest and reading lamps make this driver-centric, sporty car a credible chauffeur-driven option too. The front seats and driver comfort in the Civic is superb. The seating supports in just the right places, finding a good driving position is easy and the steering wheel adjusts for both reach and height — a first in its class. The Civic is also very practical, with three generous storage areas available, apart from the four door pockets.

Honda’s new 130bhp, 1.8-litre motor comes with even finer valve control and high tech, ‘cracked’ connecting rods that are re-joined directly on the crank, thus doing away with heavy pins. Improving on the famous VTEC system, this new engine allows for greater valve overlap and valve lift, which in turn provides for improved high engine speed performance. Honda has added a new technology called VTC (or Variable Timing Control) to this single cam, 16-valve motor. A 100kph comes up in 9.5 seconds. While this is quick, we were mildly disappointed that the Civic was not quicker; its performance doesn’t reflect the quantum leap the car has taken in many other areas. The Honda engine is very refined and almost silent at idle and is less audible and buzzy once the motor get spinning quickly.

The low centre of gravity, long wheelbase, wide front and rear tracks and rigid body makes it feel nice and planted at all speeds. Body roll is well contained and the quick steering coupled with good front-end grip makes it particularly entertaining around corners. The relatively high-profile tyres may have taken some edge out of the handling but even so, the Civic feels sportier. The Civic’s electric steering is extremely light, which is a boon at city speeds, but sadly, it doesn’t weigh up sufficiently as you go faster and lacks sufficient feedback at high speed.

The Civic’s stunning design, mind-blowing interiors, quality build and handling prowess put it in a different class altogether. It’s quick too but we only wish it was quicker. Ride quality over poor roads may not be its strength and it is a little short on boot space too. Nevertheless, we wouldn’t call these problem areas, but merely things it could have done better. The Civic is clearly a generation ahead.

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine Petrol, Inline-4 cyl, 1799 cc

Bore (mm) x stroke (mm) 81 x 87.3

Compression ratio 10.5:1

Valves per cylinder 4

Valve gear operation SOHC

Fuel system PGM-Fi

Aspiration Naturally-aspirated

Gears 5-speed manual

Drive FWD

Power (bhp@rpm) 130@6300

Power to weight (bhp/ton) 107

Torque (Nm@rpm) 171.61@4300

Torque to weight (Nm/ton) 142

Fuel Economy

Fuel Petrol

City (kpl) 9.2

Highway (kpl) 14

Overall (kpl) 10

Performance

0-60 kph (sec) 4.49

0-100 kph (sec) 9.59

Top speed (kph) 205

20-80 kph in 3rd gear (sec) 12.23

40-100 kph in 4th gear (sec) 16.37

Brakes, Steering, Suspension & Tyres

Brakes - front Ventilated discs

Brakes - rear Discs

Steering type Hydraulic, power assist

Min. turning radius (m) 5.4

Suspension - front MacPherson struts, coil springs

Suspension - rear Dual wishbones, coil springs

Tyres 195/65 R15

Interior Dimensions

Seating capacity 5

Rear seat legroom - min (cm) 70

Rear seat legroom - max (cm) 91

Headroom (cm) 90

Width (cm) 1320

Boot (liters) 405

Fuel capacity (liters) 50

Exterior Dimensions

Kerb weight (kg) 1210

Length (mm) 4545

Width (mm) 1750

Height (mm) 1450

Track - front (mm) 1495

Track - rear (mm) 1520

Wheelbase (mm) 2700

Detailed Features

Comfort

• Power Windows
• Power Door Lock
• Electrically Retractable Power Outer Door Mirrors
• Day / Night Rear View Mirror
• Driver Sunvisor Vanity Mirror with Lid
• Passenger Sunvisor Vanity Mirror with Lid
• Driver Front Seat Back Pockets
• Front Adjustable Seat Headrests
• Rear Adjustable Seat Headrests
• Slide Type with Storage Front Seat Centre Armrest
• Slide Type Lid with Retractable Partition Front Cup Holders
• Rear Seat Armrest With Audio Controls
• Auto AC with Silver-finish AC Vents
• Driver Seat with Height Adjuster Device
• Key-in, Seatbelt
• Door
• Low - Fuel - Warning Lamp

Exterior

• Body Colored Bumpers
• Body Colored Door Mirrors
• Body Colored Outside Door Handles with Chrome
• Body Colored with Chrome Insert Door Protector
• Opposed Flat - Blade Type, 3 -speed Intermittent Windshield Wiper
• Green Tint Windshield Glass
• 5-spoke 15-Inch Alloy Wheels
• Dual with Exhaust Pipe Finisher Exhaust Pipe

Interior

• Beige
• Multiplex Meter with Illumination Control
• Power Steering
• Power Tilt
• Power Telescopic
• 3-spoke Leather Wrapped Steering Wheel
• Silver Finish Power Window Switch Panel
• Metallic Finish with Lid Console Pocket
• Map Interior Lights
• Rear Reading Interior Lights
• Integrated 2DIN AM/ FM Audio System
• 6CD Changer Audio System
• MP3/WMA Audio System
• 6 Speakers (2 Front + 2 Rear + 2 Tweeters)
• Rear Glass Printed Antenna

Safety

• Brake Assist (BA)
• Front Pretensioner Seatbelts
• Front Seatbelts Height Adjuster
• Child-proof Rear Door Locks
• Rear Window Defroster
• Dual Horn
• Keyless Entry with Security Answerback
• Immobilizer System
• Security Alarm System
• Wave Key
• Dual SRS Airbags
• Anti-lock Brake System (ABS)
• Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD)