Used 2009 Honda Civic Consumer Reviews
Bought a car to flip. Learned to Love it!
I bought this car and owned it for a year only because I needed a truck. What a blast! The car came with two problems, which allowed for me to afford it at a discounted price. 1. Radio was crazy. changed stations by itself occasionally. Cost: $40 2. Clear coat was fading and flaking off of black paint. Cost: $0 because Honda extended their paint warranty to 7 years Unlimited miles for all affected models with this defect. WOW! I was so impressed with Honda, they repainted almost my entire car with almost no questions asked. It was so easy, and once I found the right dealer they put me in touch with customer service which went flawlessly. I can't stress enough how easy and streamlined their warranty process was. Not only is Honda great, the car was great. This was my first economy car and once gas was no object I piled the miles on, without care for my mpg's. Every drive I made exciting, because I could rely on my Honda even under hard use, and it was fun to use hard. While its not overly powerful, the motor loves to rev. The Transmission shifts well. The car is surprisingly easy to drift. E brake used on a regular basis! Steering was instant and crisp and there was 0 body roll, unless you loaded it to the brim. I definitely felt a connection to this car. Steering feel was excellent, even over 100 mph. I can't explain how much the engine just likes to go. Its not powerful, not fast, but its so reactive and fun to drive in the curves, and can cruise happily at 90 mph all day. My only gripe was the transmission. Don't get me wrong, it was a fine unit. If you ever wanted to drive and have fun you needed to manually shift it though. It was not so much a performance thing as some economy setting. I had to practically floor it to get a responsive down shift. Once the Honda decides its time, its lightning quick. But until then, your stuck out of the power band. Other then all that, the only creature comforts my car had was a base model radio (acceptable), AC (worked great), and the heater. The little aluminum block doesn't warm up unless you drive and work it in the winter, but once its up to temp....That heater is a FURNACE. I swear, it could burn you if you hold your hands too close for too long. Awesome heater. Car holds a surprising amount of cargo too. I filled so full it was practically a truck one time. Fold down seats. In summary, I really expected to hate this car, but after owning it for one year I would never have sold it had I not needed offroad capability and towing. (trust me I tried) I truly enjoyed driving it, which is really saying something for a boring economizer like a Honda Civic. I can see now why ricers like to ruin them. I brought the maintenance up to date, and the car was better off when I sold it after over 20k miles. Extremely low cost of ownership. I tried to drive the beans out of it but it just asked for more. Surprisingly tough for its size. I'd also like to add that I have drove later model Honda's that were not as peppy as my 2009 1.8.
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Battery fails, Honda won't replace
Please do your research before considering this car. I was hoping to keep this car for >5 years and get excellent milage and help save the planet. What initially was a great hybrid has turned quickly into a disaster. After 1 year, the battery stopped holding a charge. after 15 months, the check engine light came on. Honda performed an irreversible software upgrade that bascially minimizes the car's use of the hybrid battery (basically making it a non-hybrid car). My MPG has dropped 10 MPG!! The hybrid battery is now basically non-functional and Honda will not fix it despite being under warranty. There are many many simiar complaints (look online). I will never buy Honda again.
Honda does it again!
I had a 1999 Honda Accord EX 4-door that I traded in on a new 2009 Honda Civic coupe EX. Was I ever blown away by how many changes had taken place in the past decade! The premium audio system in the civic sounds like a home theater set up. The exterior stylings are crisp and flashy and give the car an aggressive look which I like. Driving around town and on the highways is a blast. At first I was worried about the little car's ability to 'get up and go' especially with the highway speeds in my area. However it's shown to be more than capable of getting up to speed and the agile handling makes weaving around traffic a breeze. Overall this is the most fun little car I've ever driven! 10/10!
buy this car
I have a 2009 civic sedan lx 5spd manual I purchased new ...336,005 miles later it has never had a single thing break (minus the a.c. somewhat recently). Mileage was always a calculated 40mpg up until it for real old and now I get 36mpg. I just had all major suspension components replaced because I hadn't ever replaced a single thing. Didn't need to...mechanic said all were in acceptable condition. I don't know what would possess ANYBODY to buy a GM, Chrysler or Ford when you can have Honda and Toyota quality. I will buy this exact same car again. Detroit cars are fine as long as you unload them before 80k and 4 years. Absolute junk beyond that. Honda is the way to go. Period. Update: 353k miles. No issues yet
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Great car... Minor complaints
I only have 54k on my LX, so long term reliability is something I'm counting on down the road at this point. As far as +'s go... peppy performance for an auto- 4cyl. Very solid tight build quality. Corners well (although I really don't drive like that). Est. mpg. 25 city (I'm actually getting 28 :o). Stock speakers thru quality stereo source, VERY impressive. My only complaints would have to be, a rather limited turn radius. Only 1 compatible tire size, and not being able to see any of the outside of the car from the inside, except part of sides thru mirrors. Makes parallel parking a real adventure at times. Over all rating ++++-.