yes, believe it

i get to drive all sorts of cars in my job as a test engineer for a Tier 1 automotive Air Conditioning supplier. for example, next week i'll have a supercharged v8 range rover and in the past i've driven such things as aston martin vanquish, bentley arnage black label, lotus exige etc, etc.

but last night i had a go in a new civic 1.8 and i can honestly say that it is the best car that i've ever driven. obviously not the fastest, or the best sounding, or best handling, but the best overall package.

for the money, and for the size/class of car it was just superb. the interior was fantastic, with a superb dash board with multifunctional digital display in the centre of the rev counter. the digital speedo can be switched from mph to kmh at the press of a button. it has cruise control, you can set warnings at different speed limits, the multimedia screen is huge and has superb dvd based sat nav, as well as an mp3 cd player, and dual zone climate control.

the ride is superb, very quite. handled well in the pouring rain last night with stability control for safety that can be switched off to allow for a bit of fun the 1.8 engine is typical honda, ie smooth and powerful to the red line. feels more like a 2.0 in terms of performance. the HID headlights were superb.

the only fault was the rear screen that doesn't have a wiper and the base of it is quite high restricting visibility.

can't wait for a go in the 2.2 diesel

here's a couple of pictures, focus and golf don't compare imo.