[jwoertz]

My First Day! (2006 Civic EX Sedan with Navigation)

Well, I've had my Civic EX Sedan in gray metallic with navigation for a full day now and I must say, I'm TOTALLY impressed. For about $20,000 this car can't be beat. Everyone keeps saying "THAT'S a CIVIC???"

The navigation functions and voice recognition are amazing. Not only can it find the closest things like hospitals, etc...You can also ask it what time it is, how far to destination, what's the time to destination, control all audio functions, etc...

I loaded up a CF card full of my favorite albums and now use that instead of the CD player. Awesome! Less moving parts. One note is that the card reader requires a PC Card (PCMCIA) adapter to fit in the car. The jack is actually PCMCIA.

As far as the ride, it's smooth and very responsive. Breaking is wonderful. The pick-up is great. It's about the same as my friend's Volvo S70, which is pretty impressive for an engine that supposedly gets 30-40 MPG.

How can this car be so inexpensive? It's almost too good to be true.

Some minor annoyances: There's no easy way to get the full clock back on the screen as far as I can tell. The plastic around the key hole on the steering column is already scratched up from the end of the key. The interior plastic worries me because it looks and feels like it will scratch easily. There's no protection on the sides from other car doors (no molding for protection). There's no MPG computer, although there IS some kind of strange vehicle conversion section in the calculator function on-screen.

Right now I'm waiting for wheel locks and the gray all-season floor mats to top things off. Overall, so far I'm really impressed. It's a keeper!

Jeff

 

[jwoertz]

We have the same car, Jake! I love this car so much, I can't stop driving it. I think I love it too much-I'm already dreading the first scratch or ding. I already have some interior scratches on the plastic. Wish is was a little more scratch resistant.

This is my first in-car navi system and I've noticed that I'm already a more confident driver. It's a great feeling knowing that I CAN'T get lost. A trip to the shore, the mountains, Washington DC, wherever...no problem. Maps.....that's so "20th century"!

I agree about the placement of the navi joystick. Another annoyance is that nag screen. It's gotta go. I can't stand hitting that same spot every time I start the car. Plus, won't there be a worn spot on the screen after several years of pressing "OK" in the same spot every time we start the car???

I'd be interested in seeing a photo of your car with the mud flaps. I'll be installing mine sometime next week.

Enjoy! Jeff

I first played with a Honda voice activated Navi system in my dad's 05 Accord Hybrid. I liked it so much that I wanted to find a 06 Civic EX sedan with the Navi as well. When we saw a Galaxy Gray one yesterday at the dealer, we almost literally jumped on it. I just wish the little joystick input was lower and centrally located like on the Accord. The upper right corner is just a bit of a stretch from my seating setup. But the motorized fold down face is very cool looking!

The dual tiered digital gauges took some getting used to as well. I found that it's best for me to actually turn down the brightness a bit a night because the glare on the angled windshield was a bit much.

But these aren't so much complaints as they are personal preferrence issues from my first day of driving. Overall, the car is so incredibly sleek, smooth, and responsive for its class that I consider these issues pretty trivial in that context.