While it's just one example, my brother in law is at 18k miles and 10 months with his Civic EX 2.0. He still loves it and hasn't had a single issue.

As for Toyotas from the 70s, my first car was a 77 Corolla. Hated it but it wouldn't ever die...

 

Good post. I doubt there are reliability issues, Honda didn't all of a sudden forget how to make reliable cars.

 

From an excerpt from the CR report in today's paper. Accurate or not is up to the individual I guess:

"By contrast, Honda fell in this year's survey because of its 2016 Civic small car, which has two new engines, a new steel underbody and a new CVT. Cue the problems. Shortly after the Civic went on sale, it was recalled for engine failure. CR said Civic customers also have reported problems with the car's infotainment system."

 

I checked out CR's profile of the Civic. Projected reliability is "much worse", lowest rating. Only sore point for 2016 was the audio system. I think that's more than a little harsh.

 

I was very impressed with the interior build quality of the new Civic.

I've heard people love and hate the exterior design. I personally find it to be an over-complicated design with awkward proportions. However, looks aside, it's a solid car.

 

I thought the interior was superb. Very nicely done!

As for the exterior, it has grown on me and I actually really like it.

 

it's only been on sale literally just a year, so the sample set of cr subscribers responding to surveys, driving a 2016 civic, is probably pretty tiny. regardless, sounds like the audio system had issues.

not sure how that makes the car 'unreliable' (oh noes i can't drive to work without listening to my spotify!).

yes they definitely ran and ran - the problem with 70s japanese cars typically was major rust issues. anyway, sorry i mentioned about 70s toyotas... hardly relevant today.

 

C&D ranks the segment 1. Golf. 2. Mazda3. 3. Civic 4. Cruze. Probably not a bad one in the bunch.

 

Basically, I agree with you. Honda still, for the most part, assembles vehicles like a Swiss Watch (I know, I'm using that term so much it's like cliche LOL). But, at the same time, never underestimate the power of cost-cutting. Some of those lighter, thinner, cheaper parts being used now on the latest Hondas may not hold up as well as in the past, no matter how well they are assembled. Mercedes, in particular, suffered through that, back in the late 90s/early 2000s, when increasing competition from Lexus forced them into material cost-cutting.

 

I agree with you are saying.

When I drove it we could not get carplay to to work. It was because the app needed to be downloaded. I wish CR could elaborate what the issues are. Same thing with the Tacoma

 

I had got one of those CR surveys before. If I remember correctly, the survey asks how bad the problem is (such as scale for minor inconvenience to safety issues or have to drive to dealer to be corrected).
Reliability is the only reason that CR no longer recommends Civic. The blog complains about things that CR actually states as Excellent (the highest rating) for the control and display, and overall comfort and convenience as Very Good.

 

That is ridiculous, how do you give poor projected reliability for a car mainly because the stereo is more complicated to use? It is auto journalist fault too with these annoying touchscreens and auto makers getting rid of buttons and switches more and more, auto journalist thought they sounded clever complaining about a lot of buttons and now auto makers responded with a far worse solution, getting rid of buttons and controls for annoying needlessly complicated touchscreens.

 

if all 'problems' reported in the survey are considered 'reliability' related, does that make sense, to anyone?

regardless, CR should rename it "the completely subjective subscriber survey".

 

Exactly....

 

I agree....