No ride and drive for the new 2012 Civic (another cost cut by Honda) for the sales guys, but had a rep come in with a 2012 EX Sedan on Wednesday for in house training here at the dealership. We weren't allowed to drive, but did get to ride in one.
Initial impressions:
A little concerned (but not as much as I had previously worried) about quality of materials in seat fabric and dash, doors, etc. It does feel a bit down market from current generation, but not markedly so.
Looks fine exterior wise in person. Nice evolution. Will grow on most people and make current one look dated.
Biggest surprise: Visibility is exponentially better than current design. You feel a little bit higher and less like you are in a cave. The front fixed window and rearview mirror, while looking less attractive from the outside, are MUCH better from a visibility standpoint. A pillar and C pillar are much slimmer. Can I say again how much better this is over the previous model? MUCH IMPROVED and in noticeable way.
Not being a techno geek, impressed by the amount of technolgical advancement. Blue tooth on EX and above. USB on LX and above. VSA across the board. The MID on the EX we had was impressive, on the lines of the Touring Odyssey (I know not exactly, but impressive on a Civic).
The design of the dash with everything angled to the driver gives a great 'cockpit' feel and is ergonomically superior.
These are the kind of things driving buyers today and if Honda had to skimp on interior plastics and cloths to keep the pricepoint similar to the current Civic (which we were told would be the case even tho pricing wasn't announced) to gain these techno advances, would say well done Honda.
Better than the GTI and better navigation. Here is a pic of ours when we got it in 08.
