The Civic GX's odo says it has traveled 25,611 miles, and the last posting about the car on this blog was at 19,683!
Apologies. It is hard to regularly find something new and exciting to write about when you drive the same car day after day. At least it is when the car is a 2007 Honda Civic GX. Barring a natural gas incident (the car, not the driver) , the GX is wonderful but unexciting basic transportation. Period.
This posting is occasioned by three things: The GX's first brake job, a mileage and fuel-cost update and a Honda transmission idiosyncrasy that we've discovered.
We got the brake job -- $183.85 for front pads and rotor resurfacing, after we noticed a slight noise -- not grinding, but not right, either -- when braking hard at freeway speeds.
Turned out the rotors weren't warped, but were glazed and discolored from excessive heat - the result of all the braking we do in our 100-mile-plus round trip commute in rush-hour traffic.
The service advisor at our local Honda dealership told us we were actually doing pretty good: that the range for a first front-end brake job was 5,000 to 25,000 miles, with an awful lot of people coming it at under 15k. The composition of the Civic's brake pads, he said, can make 'em wear out pretty fast.
On the fuel economy front, we're still averaging around 33 miles per gallon-equivalent, not bad for a car that's EPA-rated at 28 mpg and is usually driven in the worst of all conditions for decent fuel economy - Southern California freeways during morning and evening rush hours.
It should be even higher.
One thing I should have written about a while ago but have been too embarrassed to tackle is my inability to drive the car in the proper gear.
I'm constantly finding myself roaring down the freeway in 3rd instead of in the far more fuel-efficient "drive," which gives you 4th and 5th gears to play with.
Actually, I'm told (by guys at Honda, no less) this can be a problem with many Hondas with automatic transmissions .
The console-mounted shifter is all the way forward in "Park" and as you pull it back through "Reverse" and "Neutral" you'd think the logical stopping point would be in "D."
But Honda's engineers, for reasons known only to them, designed the shifter mechanism so that it easily pulls right through the "drive" position and locks into "D3," which locks out 4th and 5th gears.
If you shift by feel, which I do all too often, you can easily end up winding it out in 3rd, which I do and which gulps fuel .
Fortunately, with a Phil natural gas pump in the garage, our fuel costs are well below market rates - even with gasoline and natural gas prices at the retail pumps down around the $2 per gallon mark now.
We've been averaging about $2.10 a gallon all along, even when retail pump prices were nearly $3.25 for natural gas and over $4 for gasoline.
John O'Dell, Senior Editor, Green Car Advisor @ 25,611 miles
slickersdrip says:
08:13 PM, 11/21/08
Weird that it stops at D3 and not just Drive.
25,000 miles seems very, very early for a car to need a brake job. When I sold my CR-V it had nearly 70,000 miles it still had strong brakes.
estreka says:
08:27 PM, 11/21/08
Now that oil prices are down, have you gotten a new estimate?
stovt001 says:
10:26 AM, 11/22/08
Wow I can see how that shifter could be confusing. That seems an odd fumble for Honda to make. You can't tell that you're locked into 3rd?
brn says:
12:53 PM, 11/22/08
When I saw the headline and picture, I was going to blame you. Having read the post, the shifter is clearly to blame. That's pretty bad.
Did the "guys at Honda" claim they had any plans on fixing it?
bimmerjay says:
06:40 PM, 11/22/08
Practically every Japanese car I've driven in the last 170 years, column or non-gated floorshift that didn't do OD lockout with a button did this. Who knows why.
hondacura4 says:
06:54 AM, 11/23/08
Im 100% sure there is a gear selector in the Civics gauge cluster. However, I do understand the "issue" as its clear in the picture above. Certainly not a deal breaker and Hondas arent perfect.
hondacura4 says:
07:01 AM, 11/23/08
Im not sure what it is with the performance/durability (or lack thereof) with braking components these days as it seems more than a few cars from different manufacturers have premature brake wear (glazing/warping). I will say that braking performance is and has been a weak spot for Honda (for years) as the pad material isnt up to snuff.
Honda states that they dont use aggressive pads because they dont meet their standards of longevity, low dusting and low maintenence requirements. I say otherwise as this article and my own Honda vehicles prove them wrong. The first thing I do when I buy a new Honda vehicle is upgrade the pad material. Makes a big difference in performance and durability.
rlg86 says:
12:01 PM, 11/23/08
"Im 100% sure there is a gear selector in the Civics gauge cluster. However, I do understand the "issue" as its clear in the picture above. Certainly not a deal breaker and Hondas arent perfect."
Amazing. If this were a GM or Ford car would you be so forgiving? (You too Edmunds)
"I will say that braking performance is and has been a weak spot for Honda (for years) as the pad material isnt up to snuff."
"Honda states that they dont use aggressive pads because they dont meet their standards of longevity, low dusting and low maintenence requirements."
Guess those checks from Honda keep rolling in, huh? Again, if this was a GM or Ford we would be hearing from you what pieces of crap they are and how this is why they are going down, etc.
bimmerjay says:
02:15 PM, 11/23/08
"Guess those checks from Honda keep rolling in, huh? Again, if this was a GM or Ford we would be hearing from you what pieces of crap they are and how this is why they are going down, etc."
Grow up already.
firstwagon says:
04:07 PM, 11/23/08
Why is the gear selector not stopping in drive an issue?
My Legacy with go right past drive and into 3rd if I turn my brain off and just pull the selector strait back from park until it hits a stop. Bet I've done it 2 or 3 times in the past 4 years.
As soon as you start driving, you notice the car feels different and push it into 4th.
As for the pads Honda uses, every pad wears out.... don't like the OEM ones?.... just buys a different brand.
Brakes pads are cheap and easy to change.
banhugh says:
06:58 PM, 11/23/08
Isn't there a current gear display somewhere in the instrument cluster?
ahightower says:
05:56 AM, 11/24/08
A Honda with underperforming brakes? Say it ain't so... ;) Really, Hondas are best-in-class in so many other ways, it's a shame this is so common.
brn says:
06:09 AM, 11/24/08
firstwagon, it sounds like your Subaru has problems too.
I've never driven a car where this didn't work correctly.
noflash1 says:
07:32 AM, 11/24/08
Look at the dash in front of you and recalibrate your feel.
nf
firstwagon says:
08:08 AM, 11/24/08
"firstwagon, it sounds like your Subaru has problems too.
I've never driven a car where this didn't work correctly."
It is working correctly. 3rd and 4th are both driving gears. 3rd is where you drive when you want the overdrive off. You should be able to slip from 4th to 3rd and back without any restriction.
joefrompa says:
08:24 AM, 11/24/08
My 06 Civic SI went ~50,000 miles on it's front brake pads. I changed them out at that point and they still had ~10-15,000 miles left on them.
Hondas have had non-aggressive pads for a long time....but that's not a reason for them to wear out in 25,000 miles.
Honda has, for a long time, put together poor pad/rotors combinations. The pads will put deposits on the rotor, and the rotor will keep the deposits embedded, and you'll get rotor pulsation from them being out of round...
Something's pretty bad when the front brake pads don't last 25,000 miles. Can you confirm these were replaced under warranty?
Joe
oohno says:
08:55 AM, 11/24/08
the shifter's not a mistake. if you've driven other hondas you'd know they all have this feature.
brn says:
09:12 AM, 11/24/08
Feature or Design Flaw?
ahightower says:
10:07 AM, 11/24/08
Reason #326 why manual transmissions are better.
lvranger says:
11:31 AM, 11/24/08
My 00 Accord did this. If you pay any attention at all while driving it is immediately apparent you are in D3 instead of D4. Unless NG vehicles operate differently, i've never driven one.
+1 ahightower
m_thrizzle says:
12:25 PM, 11/24/08
25k miles seems awful low for a Civic doing regular commuting. If the brakes were glazed they are essentially undersized and should be a warranty repair! For sports cars, 25k is ok but for a Civic, it should be at least twice that.
I just replaced the rear pads in my '96 Accord at 132k miles. I think they were the original pads and the rotors did not need to be replaced.
hondacura4 says:
04:03 PM, 11/24/08
"Guess those checks from Honda keep rolling in, huh? Again, if this was a GM or Ford we would be hearing from you what pieces of crap they are and how this is why they are going down, etc."
Rlg86, get over yourself as your ignorant 1 demensional posts get old very quickly. Please dont make assumptions on how I think as you dont know me. Im pretty open minded when it comes to autos regardless of manufacturer. When you have proof that Im not, bring it to the surface.
Ive owned Honda products since I was old enough to drive (currently 31) so I have a great deal of experience with Honda products. Honda brakes are, have been and probably will continue to be a weak spot. Again, as I said before HONDA ISNT PERFECT, far from it!
For the record Ive been overly harsh with the current Edmunds LT Honda Accord and for the most part had only good things to say about Edmunds LT CTS, yes a DOMESTIC PRODUCT!. Yes, Im a Honda fan but I recognize a good product when I see it, Honda or not.
jodell says:
05:03 PM, 11/24/08
people,
Cupple things to answer and/or straighten out here:
1) Brakes were not covered under warranty (at least not as far as I know--I didn't ask and they didn't volunteer).
2) I didn't suggest that the shifter design is some sort of fatal flaw with the Civic, just an annoying quirk. I think I pretty clearly said it was my fault for not paying attention.
3) stovt001...the Civic GX is a faily low hp,low torque machine so it is a lot harder than you might think to hear or feel that it is winding out in 3rd..until you wind it way up there.
4) hondacura4, banhug, noflash1 and firstwagon....yes, there is a shift indicator on the IP and yes, if I was looking at the IP instead of the road ahead as I accelerated I'd see what gear I was in. Please see answer no. 2.
5) re brake wear. I've not had experience with other Hondas. All I can tell you is what the service advisor told me...front brakes on post-2006 Civics wear out pretty rapidly, especially in So Cal, where one does a lot of stop-n-go driving if one commutes.