22 May 07
There are other things that I'll miss now that Honda has reclaimed my Civic. Take the felt-like seat covering, which is so much warmer than leather (and cooler on hot days). And the six-disc, dashboard-mounted CD changer; once used, it's difficult to conceive of life without it. Having previously developed a deep-seated mistrust of automatic headlamps, the Civic's have made me into a true believer. I didn't touch the headlamp controls once.
Things I won't miss? The lack of rear visibility created by that rear spoiler. I never got to grips with the voice-activated Bluetooth handsfree thingamabob either. Or rather, I gave up trying. Turns out that you have to manually input the phone numbers (up to a maximum of 10) - it doesn't pull them straight out of your address book, but simply uses your phone as a transmitter/receiver. Pretty much useless in my opinion.
Then again, none of us is perfect. Having managed to avoid collecting any dings or scrapes, I went and scuffed the driver's front wheel on the kerb outside my new flat the day before collection. Typical. Scuff or no scuff, I have been seriously considering making Honda an offer it can't refuse for this car. But the less rational, less financially astute part of me inevitably returns to thoughts of the Type-R I drove earlier this year. The more I think about it, the more the loss of a few miles per gallon, two doors and a small degree of ride comfort seems like a small price to pay for such a fantastic machine. See how quickly those tears dried up?
