Our Honda Civic Hybrid Masters the Art of the Care-Free Car

• Our 2025 Honda Civic hybrid has been remarkably easy to live with. 
• So much so, it makes me nostalgic for my first car. 
• While that doesn't sound like praise, it's actually a very high bar for modern cars.

That was until I spent a few weeks with the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid that's in our One-Year Road Test fleet. Much like my old Toyota, the Civic just does. It requires almost zero in the way of added attention or care; you don't have to worry about whether something's going to mysteriously break while you're asleep or what will happen the next time you turn it on. 

It's easy to assume that, by and large, modern cars are reliable propositions. But our One-Year Road Test fleet was designed specifically to stress-test this premise. We've had more than a few cars that have either left us stranded (Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe), lost the use of certain features (Ford F-150 Hybrid) or even accelerated on their own (Dodge Charger Daytona). Our Civic, on the other hand, has been faultless. 

But it's not just the reliability we've experienced with the Civic that's got me feeling so nostalgic. 

It's also almost exactly the same size inside (proof that cars just keep getting bigger) despite the Civic technically being compact and the Avalon being full-size. The Civic and my old Avalon have wheelbase measurements that are just half an inch apart. Legroom and headroom are nearly identical as well. 

But where the Avalon drove like a waterbed, the Civic is sharp. It's neat and tidy — you can fling it into corners with abandon or drive it on the straight and narrow. The Civic does exactly what you want it to, when you want it to. 

Though it has screens, they're both the correct size and well-thought-out. The driver's display doesn't change much and does a good job of only showing information you actually need to see — a stark contrast to vehicles like modern Toyotas that throw the kitchen sink right in front of you. The central infotainment display is relatively small at just 9 inches, but that means it often fades into the background and doesn't distract you from what you're supposed to be doing when you're behind the wheel. 

Lastly, the controls are just a cinch. There is a real button for almost everything — be it the climate controls, volume, seat controls and so on — just like there was in my old Avalon. You could very easily put thousands of miles on the Civic and never, not even once, interact with a screen. It's as analog as modern cars get and that, I promise, is high praise. 

Our Civic is easy to drive, easy to get in and out of, and easy to park. It doesn't matter what you do, the Civic simply obeys your commands and asks for nothing in return, only requiring the very occasional fill-up. Have I mentioned we've averaged 41.3 mpg so far?

The only place where the Avalon could lord anything over our current Civic is that it had adjustable lumbar support and the Civic (somehow?) doesn't. C'mon, Honda. But when that and some undue road noise at speed are the only complaints you can throw at a modern car, it graduates from appliance to companion. In a world where everything has to be new, what I've started to crave when I step into a modern car is a little bit of what's old. And that's exactly what the Civic delivers — a rare feat, indeed.