Honda Civic 1.8S-L

After a long viewing of various cars ranging from RM70k to RM130k, finally I decided on Honda Civic 1.8S-L for my wife. I'm avid Honda supporter earlier becase my dad own at least 3 generations of Honda Accord when I'm still a kid. However that changed once I get a taste of Alfa Romeo in its raw power and handling. Anyhow, Honda still hold a very special place in my heart.


The Honda emblem is only getting bigger and bigger, I'm loving it.



This Honda Civic is the 8th Generation and facelifted version. If you track Honda's development recently, you will notice they revise the generation almost every 4 years and facelift it every 2 years within its lifespan. My new Honda Civic 1.8S-L is codenamed FD1. 1st generation is launched since 1973. The first 8th generation is launched in 2006 and till today of 2011, it's still selling. Although the 9th generation is launched in US and other market, but I heard it will not be launch in Malaysia this year, due to the Tsunami matters.



The highlight of a car is always at the heart & soul of the machine, the engine. This Civic is powered by the newly developed Straight-4 1,799cc SOHC i-VTEC, codenamed R18A, giving out 140bhp and 174Nm. Honda is always famous for its VTEC tecnology being able to push the Natural Aspirated (NA) Engine to give out over 200bhp from its crown VTEC tecnology. In this case, the i-VTEC is tuned for both fuel efficiency and performance. Since it's a SOHC (single overhead camshaft), the VTEC indicated is just a mild tuning on the camshaft shifting when it hit higher rpm.

For those that have more technical knowledge, you will know engine perform on a curve line when you will hit the peak torque or power then it will dip drop. How long can the torque or power stay on the higher area of the chart is a challenge and the most efficienct range is normally within 3,000rpm. Wider power band is always good but it's hard to achieve. With your petrol engine capable of highest rpm of 7,000 rpm, where this 3,000 rpm can fit? If you throw the 3,000 rpm at the lower and starting from 1,500rpm or 2,000 rpm, then you will run out of breath or lost power after 5,000rpm making your 5,000rpm to 7,000rpm useless. But if you put the 3,000 rpm starting from 4,000rpm, you will lost out power in low rev. It's not perfect and VTEC solve the problem.

As the name suggest, the intake & exhaust valve control is done by a single overhead camshaft but VTEC technology utilise 2 sets of cam lobes on the single camshaft. For a mild / low-end VTEC control, the cam lobes variation is only for intake. During normal driving that use low pedal movement, the opening is small as it's linked to the pedal. Small movement in pedal resulted in small opening and it will cause back pressure to losses of petrol & air flow. Inefficiency. The 1st set of cam lobes allow the intake valve to be open wider in normal drive for better inflow to increase power & efficiency.

While if you pedal hard, the 1st set of cam lobes opening will be too big, therefore the intelligent system will activate the servo to change the cam lobes to the 2nd set for normal flow which again increase the power and efficiency. i-VTEC means the new generation of VTEC where the servo control is included so that when it's not necessary, VTEC will not be activated. If you want to feel the VTEC activation, pedal hard and you should feel a surge of power in the range 3,500-4,000rpm. That's why VTEC engine will have two peaks in their power curve.



Honda technology does not stop there and additional features that's incorporated is the variation of intake manifold. In further exploiting the advantage of the low & high rpm power difference, manifold plays an important role as well. Same concept applies that longer intake manifold will help in low rpm power while shorter intake manifold will help in high rpm power. Reasoning being flow of air will have a peak resonance points where it will create a high differential power that pushes air into the engine with correct length of intake manifold. For low rpm power, longer intake manifold is use to turn the air resonance frequency to lower range, while shorted intake manifold is use to turn the air resonance frequency to high range. Both will help in air intake control to the engine and help in increasing the power & efficiency. It's the same principle as the VTEC but different area of application.

If you notice, all manipulation of power for the R18A is purely on the intake. Intake manifold and intake camshaft. There is nothing done on the exhaust to extract the power more efficiently and if you would like that to happen, that's where the Honda Civic 2.0 K20A VTEC+VTC engine come in with it's DOHC (double overhead camshaft) design to help in the exhaust throttling as well. That's not for me, so I'm not touching it here. Point to note is that if you own a Honda Civic 1.8, don't modify the intake manifold or air filter without knowing what you are doing as it will defeat the purpose of Honda engineering on the engine control.

Other improvement highlights of the engine is such as friction reduction from molybdenum disulfide coating on pistons, ion plating on piston rings, and plateau honing. Every friction reduce will contribute to a more efficiency engine operation.





Moving on the the next important criteria is the handling of the car. Honda Civic 1.8S-L comes standard with its 16" allow rim wrapped by Goodyear Eagle NCT5 205/55R16. The road noise is particularly bad for this tyres and 55 wall is not spectacular in handling as well but for those that opt for the 1.8 model, comfort is their bigger concern other than performance, so it's alright. The ride is alittle crashy sometimes but it also translate to better handling on the road than other cars. Front wheels are suspended by MacPherson Strut while the rear is installed with Independent Double Wishbone, which is all good and explained why the good handling. However, it's still a little on the soft side if you ask me. The target if general public, cannot complain.

The steering is hydraulic powered meaning it draws its power from the engine, therefore reducing the efficiency. 2.0 model is drive-by-wire that's much better but also possible problem in lack of steering feel. Comparing to any local brand, the steering is responsive and good but my opinion is it lacks responses. I'm always compring to my Alfa Romeo, so it might not be a fair comment, and you will really need to feel the best only you know how to compare.

Safety features is aplenty with Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA), All-wheels Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS), Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD), Brake Assist (BA), Dual SRS Airbags, Active Headrest, and G-Force Control Technology. Honda Civic 8th Generation is awarded 5 star in Euro NCAP crash rating with details in the specifications below. All these are the reasons of my decision.



Moving to the interior, the famous dual tier meter that's first launch in the 8th generation model. The upper tier that indicate the speed, temperature and fuel is really practical and good. I hardly set my eyes to the lower tier information, only when I start the car to check for any error. The deep dashboard also giving a good sense of space and luxury feeling to the overall experience.

As my Civic is S-L trimmed, I have full leather seats and on-steering control for both cruise control and entertainment. The air-condition system is fully automatic and it's truly powerful. I always leave the control to automatic with set temperature of 25dC and in the middle of the day, I will just reduce it to 24dC and it's sufficient to keep the cabin comfortable. Everything is within reach and all compartment for storage is covered with a sliding plastic door, my wife love it so much.

The entertainment system comes with a single slot CD, MP3 and portable connection to USB or iPod that's connected to 6-speakers with 4 speakers located infront. The sound quality is decent and clarity is good. However due to lack of subwoofer, the bass is a little lacking if you enjoy R&B. As said, for this price range, everything is good and my only complain is the missing multi-information display that tell me the fuel consumption, average speed and etc. How expensive this display can be?? I don't understand, even myvi have it.



One of my favourite features is the flat floor at the rear seat. A small reduce in the hump gives a big sense of space within the cabin. It's remarkable comfortable and luxury for those that's seating at the rear seats.

Overall View

As Malaysian, you are required to service your nation at least once, meaning buy Malaysia's made product. After that and as your financial status improve, you will tend to upgrade and for our standard here, meaning Korean or Japanese product. In the subrange above RM70k, seriously it's quite hard to find a decent car that's of both presentable, good quality and good performance. If you are looking for that, then sorry to tell that you will need to move your budget a little higher to the range of RM120k. As of myself, I find the Honda Civic is of best value for money that I can find. Although the minor defects, I will still basically recommend it to whoever looking for an upgrade. The engine is responsive, handling is good and importantly, it looks really good despite it's already 5 years old in its design. I'm sure that's also the main reason why people buy a Civic. Final point, the fuel consumption is recorded in the range of 10km/liter, in mixture of city & highway drive. Hope it helps!



Honda Civic 1.8SL
Standard Specifications

Layout: Front Engine Front Drive (FF)
Engine: Water-cooled Inline 4-cylinder
Valve Train: 16-Valve SOHC i-VTEC
Engine Code: Honda R18A
Engine Block / Cylinder Head: Aluminum Alloy
Timing Belt: Chain Driven
Displacement: 1,799cc
- Bore: 81.0mm
- Stroke: 87.3mm
Power: 102.9kW (138bhp) @ 6,300rpm
Torque: 174Nm (17.7kgm) @ 4,300rpm
Compression Ratio: 10.5
Redline: 6,800rpm
Power to displacement: 57.20kW (76.70bhp) per liter
Power to weight: 82.98kW (111.30bhp) per tonne
Torque to weight: 140.32Nm (14.27kgm) per tonne
Clutch Type: Torque Converter
Fuel System: Programmed Fuel Injection (PGM-FI)

Steering: Rack & Pinion, Hydraulic Power Assist
Front Suspension: Macpherson Strut
Rear Suspension: Independent Double Wishbone
Front Disc: Ventilated Disc Rotor Dia.261.62mm (10.3inch)
Rear Disc: Solid Disc Rotor Dia.259.08mm (10.2inch)
Front Rim & Tire: 16x6½J 205/55R16
Rear Rim & Tire: 16x6½J 205/55R16
Spare Rim & Tire: 15x4T 135/80R15
Weight Distribution (front/rear): 61 / 39

Wheelbase: 2,700mm
Front Track: 1,500mm
Rear Track: 1,525mm
Length: 4,450mm
Width: 1,755mm
Height: 1,435mm
Steering Turns Lock to Lock: 2.67
Min. Turning Radius: 5.8m
Ground Clearance: 155mm
Weight: 1,240kg (2,733lbs)

Transmission: 5-Speed Auto
Gear Ratios: 2.666:1, 1.534:1, 1.022:1, 0.721:1, 0.525:1 Final Drive 4.44:1 (Reverse 1.957)
Top Speed: 205km/h (127mph)
Acceleration (0-62mph): 10.4seconds
Drag Coefficient: 0.31
Fuel Consumption (city/highway): 10.63km/L / 15.31km/L (25mpg / 36mpg)
CO2 Emissions: 153g/km
Fuel Tank: 50 Liters

Others:
VSA, ABS, EBD, BA, G-Force Control Technology, Dual SRS Airbags, Active Headrest
EuroNCAP crash rating: 5 star (79% adult occupant, 76% child occupant, 67% pedestrian,86% safety assist)