For years, the outfit dedicated to testing and rating consumer products, Consumer Reports, has given out ‘Recommendations’ to vehicles that excel in overall reliability and quality. One car in particular has held a long standing reputation for being on the Recommend list, but not anymore. In a recent test by Consumer Reports, the 2012 Honda Civic did not manage to impress enough to land on the list of recommended vehicles.
“The new Civic feels insubstantial with a cheap interior. You don’t get much feature content for the $19,405 that our Civic LX automatic costs, either,” said Consumer Reports editors. They went on to say that compared to some stiff competition from new-comers such as the Chevrolet Cruze, Hyundai Elantra and Ford Focus, the Civic no longer stacks up. Apparently as Honda has decided to ‘soften’ and ‘mature’ the Civic, so has fallen its once sharp dynamic performance.
Consumer Reports described the Civic’s performance this way, “Stopping distances are long. The steering is lightly weighted and comes up short on feedback. Body lean appears early in the corners. The ride is marred by frequent short pitches. And road noise still remains an annoying companion.”
