2013 Honda Civic EX Sedan

2013 Honda Civic EX Sedan - The Perfect Commuter Car?

I still remember when my friend Scotty showed up at Guilford High School in Rockford, Illinois in his 1975 Honda Civic CVCC. We thought it was a joke. Scotty was a tiny guy, and his Civic was a tiny car. Most everyone else in the parking lot had a pickup truck or a cast-off muscle car. Six linemen from the football team gathered around Scotty’s Civic, lifted it up out of the parking lot, carried it up the stairs and deposited it on the landing outside the front door of the school one autumn day. Scotty was unperturbed. He just climbed into his Civic, started it up and bounced it slowly down the stairs. It was a cool move. Scotty was a cool dude, and he loved his Civic. I didn’t get it.

1973 Honda Civic - Photo © Jason Fogelson

Fast forward to today. I just spent a week driving the 2013 Honda Civic EX Sedan, a member of the ninth generation of Civics. With a base price of $20,815 ($21,605 as tested), the new Civic is rated to achieve 28 mpg city/39 mpg highway. My Civic was assembled at Honda Manufacturing of Indiana, LLC in Greensburg, Indiana, the same factory that produces the Civic Natural Gas and the Acura ILX.
The 2013 Civic Sedan is an attractive, capable machine. The vehicle’s profile is a little bit wedge shaped, with a steeply-raked windshield line that connects with the hood line, giving a sleek face to the wind. A clean shoulder line rises from middle of the front fender and connects all the way to the tail lamp, while the wheel wells are accentuated with modest flares. Modest chrome trim highlights the grille and trunk lid on the EX model, just enough to stay classy and conceal a big 12.5 cubic foot cargo compartment. Eccentric 16″ alloy wheels are standard on the EX and EX-L, and they are eye-catching with fan blade cutouts and blacked-out insides. My test car wore a gorgeous coat of Kona Coffee Metallic, a delicious dark brown that sparkled in the sun and did a good job of hiding dirt and dust. I was struck by just how good the Civic looked parked out in front of my house.

Photo © Honda

Climbing inside, I was almost as impressed. From the driver’s seat, the most prominent feature is the horizontally-split instrument panel. A conventional-looking arched housing shows through the steering wheel, home to an analog tachometer and some indicator lights. Then there’s a shelf and an eyebrow ridge above that, with a digital fuel gauge, speedometer, and instant miles per gallon bar gauge in the center, and a small color LCD display on the right. The display can be set up (via steering wheel mounted controls) to give trip information, econ feedback and audio information, and also functions as the display for the standard rear view camera — a rarity in the economy sedan world. Shapes on the dash, including air vents, center stack shape and other architectural elements, are organic and interestingly asymmetrical. There’s plenty of give to the plastic surfaces, which enhances the quality feel of the interior. Despite the compact dimensions of the Civic, I found it roomy and comfortable as a driver, and even reasonable for rear seat passengers. The details make this interior work — like the padded surfaces on the inside of the front door panels, right where my forearms rested. I was very impressed that a car at this price point could feel so elegant.