2014 Honda Civic review: An almost-HUD without the $1,000 upcharge

by Bill Howard of www.extremetech.com

The Honda Civic advances the state of the art in dashboard technology with an almost-head-up display that costs nothing instead of the usual $1,000-plus for a HUD. Honda relocates the most important gauges to a cluster at the base of the windshield so can see your speed, fuel efficiency, and navigation prompt just by glancing down. Either way, high-end HUD or Honda Civic upper cluster, technology minimizes driver distraction.

Honda’s superior display presentation benefits Honda as well as the user. The Civic has long been a compact car sales leader but others have caught up in performance and desirability, particularly the Mazda 3, Ford Focus, and Hyundai Elantra. The easy-to-read instruments may help keep Honda number one in compact car sales, around 350,000 this year. If Honda brings Apple iOS mirroring to the dash in 2014, replicating the Apple display on the car’s LCD, that will help the Civic’s popularity, too.

How Honda’s almost-HUD works

Honda splits its instrument panel into the traditional instrument cluster seen through the steering wheel spokes, and a row of gauges and displays set back against the base of the windshield. The top row comprises a gas gauge that is a long horizontal strip, economy indicators as vertical bars, a digital speedometer, and a color LCD that can display navigation, phone, entertainment, or fuel economy information. The traditional instrument cluster is reduced to a big tachometer and warning lights. There is also a 7-inch color LCD in the center stack providing more detail on infotainment.

Every time the driver looks away from the road, it’s a distraction, and there’s a brief period of re-acclimation when the eyes return to the road. To read the center stack display, the driver looks both over and down; to read the instrument panel, the driver looks down.

A head-up display is projected onto a mirrored film at the base of the windshield and the information appears to be floating just above the hood of the car, so it’s always in the driver’s line of sight. Honda’s top row of gauges is only a little farther down in the driver’s line of sight than a HUD. If the driver’s main focus drops to the HUD or Honda’s gauges, action on the road can still be tracked.
 
The focal point for a HUD and Honda’s gauges is farther from the driver’s eyes than an instrument panel. A driver whose eyes call for reading glasses to resolve what’s on the instrument panel 18 inches away may be able to focus better on a HUD or Honda’s row of gauges that are 24-36 inches away.

With fewer gauges and indicators in the traditional instrument panel, there’s less around the edges that can be obstructed by the steering wheel. All this adds up to Honda’s top shelf gauge package being a reasonable alternative to the head-up display seen on BMW, Cadillac, Lexus and other premium cars, especially since it’s free.

2013 to 2014: A quick redesign of a redesign, but with more tech

The ninth-generation Honda Civic came out in the 2012 model year. First reviewers said handling was too soft, cockpit materials were too cheap, and overall it wasn’t much of a changes from the eighth generation. Buyers didn’t much notice and in fact made the Civic the fourth best-selling car of the year, ahead of two other competing compact cars in the sales top ten, the then-aging Toyota Corolla and the tech-heavy Ford Focus. But the early reviews stung and Honda whipped out an altered 2013 Honda Civic, which I tested.

On the 2013 Civic, you get standard Bluetooth, a USB jack, Pandora radio, a rear camera, text messages from your smartphone read aloud, and electronic stability control. The cockpit got better materials than the 2012 and a firmer suspension that is still not harsh. Honda continues the low-to-high model range of LX, EX, EX-L and EX-L Navi. Honda typically ties navigation into its costlier trim lines, ignoring people who want a simpler car but still want navigation.

Apple iOS mirroring coming in 2014 Civic

While Honda already announced specs for the 2014 Civic that comes available in December, one 2014 Civic feature was being held for early December announcement: Apple in the Car or Apple iOS mirroring. Honda appears poised to expand beyond Siri Eyes Free, which is the ability to talk to Siri using the car’s push-to-talk button and get spoken responses. With iOS mirroring, the iPhone display is replicated on the new center stack LCD. The touchscreen could control many of the phone’s applications with likely lockouts for video or games.

More than a dozen automakers support or will support Siri Eyes Free. Honda would be a pioneer with iOS mirroring, starting with the 2014 Civic. It remains to be seen how Honda and Apple handle potentially distracting apps, particularly texting and e-mail. Apple’s general description of iOS mirroring notes features already available on virtually all cars (play music, make phone calls, download phone book) and features that would be new. Apple says, “If your vehicle is equipped with iOS in the Car, you can connect your iPhone 5 and interact with it using the car’s built-in display and controls or Siri Eyes Free. Now you can easily and safely make phone calls, access your music, send and receive messages, get directions, and more.” That suggests text messaging would be part of iOS mirroring, along with navigation (“directions”), but no mention of e-mail. The screen and buttons are locked on a phone controlled by the car, so if there’s a feature that isn’t passed through to the car, the only way to access it would be to disconnect the phone.

In a conference call with investors over the summer, Apple CEO said, “Having something [iOS mirroring] is very, very important. It’s something that people want.”

On the road: calm ride, little excitement

The Honda Civic represents transportation more than lifestyle. Driving around town and also on a long highway trip, it was pleasant for driver and passengers. I tested the top-of-the-line Civic EX-L with leather trim and navigation. The 140 hp engine and five-speed automatic provided acceleration more suited to keeping up on freeways than passing on two-lane roads. I got mileage around 33 mpg in mostly highway driving; you might get 35-plus mpg on the highway with more conscientious driving. The car was quiet except when struggling to accelerate quickly. The back seat was spacious, but then the current Civic at 179 inches long is bigger than the first generation of Honda Accords.

Highway cruising was especially pleasant with the row of gauges always within my peripheral vision. The speedometer was a good size. The LCD display or i-MID (intelligent multi information display to Honda) would switch from the audio or phone display to a navigation arrow when a turn came up, so I didn’t have to look over and down to the center stack LCD display. The horizontal fuel gauge, 20 illuminated segments in a long row, wasn’t very helpful because the eye can’t tell at a glance if there are 7 or 11 segments still lit; a semicircle would have been better, that or replacing the blank segments with empty, framed segments. The vertical fuel economy indicator can be useful or distracting, depending on how concerned you are about fuel efficiency. The i-MID is controlled by buttons on a steering wheel that is approaching button overload. The tachometer seemed almost too big and too colorful.

Everything about the car was okay: navigation display, controls, seating comfort, fit and finish. Nothing was spectacular. This is transportation, well done. The 2013 Civic lacks high-tech driver aids that are filtering down to the compact car class: adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, blind spot detection, forward collision warning, and automatic parking assist. Adding satellite radio is a costly $367 dealer option, plus installation. For 2014, the Civic sedan gets half a blind spot warning system, on the passenger side. To be without a fuller suite of Civic driver assistance features will hurt Honda after 2014. Honda can’t wait for the next Civic cycle in 2017 or 2018.

Should you buy? First, shop around

The Honda Civic is one of the better choices among compact cars but it may not be the best. You need to look also at the Mazda3, Ford Focus , Hyundai Elantra and similar Kia Forte, Chevrolet Cruze, Subaru Impreza, and the recently redesigned Toyota Corolla. The Civic’s upper row of gauges makes it easy to see your speed or the distance to the next turn while still keeping the road and traffic in view.

The majority of buyers opt for the gasoline-powered Civic sedan. There is a two-door coupe with the option of a manual transmission. Honda also sells a natural gas Civic with just 110 hp and even gentler acceleration, a Civic hybrid with more power than the mainstream Civic and a 46 mpg EPA combined rating, and a high-fuel efficiency Civic HF with low rolling resistance tires, extra aerodynamics, and 35 mpg EPA combined fuel economy. If you need more power, look to the Civic Si sedan and coupe with a 205 hp four-cylinder engine. The Civic Sedan sells for about $19,000-$24,000 including freight for the 140 hp model.

Wait for the 2014 model if you want blind spot detection (passenger side only) via Honda Lane Watch, a rear-facing camera on the side mirror that was introduced with the current Honda Accord. The right side view looking backwards appears on the center stack LCD when you flick the right turn signal. The automatic transmission for 2014 will be a CVT (continuously variable transmission) and fuel economy will be up 1-2 mpg to 33 mpg (combined EPA rating). The 7-inch center stack LCD on all models except the entry LX is now a capacitive-touch pinch-tap-swipe Display Audio screen you can manipulate like a tablet and the radio volume knob is now an up-down button. The 2014 Civic will be the first Honda with HD Radio.

As for used Honda Civics, the 2012 model that kicked off the current generation isn’t as desirable, so you should expect it to be discounted a bit more than most year-old cars. It does have stability control. The previous generation of Civics, 2006-2011, is a good deal with one important exception: Only high-end Civics offered stability control. That’s an important safety feature, it can’t be retroffited, and if the Civic is being used by a newer driver, ESC is something you really want.

Bottom line: The Honda Civic will likely continue as the sales leader among compact cars. It has few weaknesses. But shop the competition, too, even if they don’t have the unique gauge packaging of the Civic and the possibility of iOS mirroring. The smaller Honda Fit and larger Honda Accord are class leaders in desirability and sales where the Civic leads in sales.

Source;
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/171812-2014-honda-civic-review-an-almost-hud-without-the-1000-upcharg