base LX CIVIC long term reliability?

[flinter]

Hi, For all you open minded guys that are not necessarily Honda fans or owners, will the base trim 2020 Civic 2.0 LX model, with NO turbo, NO GDI, just naturally aspirated and port injection, last longer than the Civic EX trim with turbo and GDI with normal conservative driving habits and following all the maintenance?

 

[nickaluch]

Good question but I can't honestly answer from experience but I would guess non turbo would be less prone to problems down the line.

 

[mk378]

My concern would be the CVT, which is the only transmission you can get with the LX (or the EX-L for that matter). Honda has never made a very good automatic or CVT.

 

[flinter]

From what I always read and hear, Honda and Toyota make the more reliable CVTs, particularly the 2016 to current year model.

 

[skyactiv]

I'm going to put a different spin on this The GDI-T engine is built more robust than it's 2.slow counterpart. So the GDI-T should hold up just fine with a "church lady" driver. I had a VW GTI I bought new with a GDI-T engine and sold it to my brother with 166K. I floored the car all the time to 7K. Had to add 1/2 a quart of oil at 4K into the OCI, big deal. I'd rather have a base Subaru Impreza over a Civic LX in New Jersey.

 

[2010Civic]

I would sure think the NA 2.0L engine would have fewer issues than the 1.5T. The 1.5 engine has serious fuel dilution issues and I don't believe Honda's fix actually fixed the problem. The 2.0 engine has been out for 5 model years now. You could do some research and see if they have any issues. I don't believe there is.

 

[Mr Nice]

2.0L is reliable. People that buy a Civic are not interested in power.

 

[madRiver]

They will last the same.

 

[meep]

We've got a couple of CVT Honda's in the family. No issues. We've had probably 8 or more Honda's and Acura's in the extended family, including the dreaded 5spd auto. No failures. We bought a used gen 1 crv which developed a trans issue after I flushed it with max life. Restoring it to oem fluid slowly brought it more back to normal but was never quite right. I'm wondering if the PO had previously filled it with something that didn't do well with max life following it. We bought a used accord and it had a mild 1-2 shift flare. Sold it years later with the same flare. We have a 2004 civic with about 350,000 miles in it, carrying kayaks in CO. It can be floored for extended periods in those mountains. It's needed a new HG, and an alternator. My son has a 1.5t. Yes, it has shown signs of fuel dilution. We change the oil early with synthetic and I might splash some 10-30 into it. He drives it like a manual should be driven, and it's been trouble free. Early OC is probably the ticket there. I'd buy whichever suits you better on a daily basis. The turbo is a fun little motor with a better torque curve to my driving. My wife currently has a 15 crv with the cvt. Honda tuned it well for daily driving, nice low, torquey engine/trans programming, and that thing averages 27mpg. I changed the CVT fluid around 50k and it looked good coming out. M

 

[deoxy4]

My vote would be for a naturally aspired, port injection, 6 speed manual transmission. Gone forever.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

They will last a long time with no problems

 

[thrace]

Originally Posted by flinter

Hi, For all you open minded guys that are not necessarily Honda fans or owners, will the base trim 2020 Civic 2.0 LX model, with NO turbo, NO GDI, just naturally aspirated and port injection, last longer than the Civic EX trim with turbo and GDI with normal conservative driving habits and following all the maintenance?

. Engine-transmission, part of a car. A car is also an electronic device with an engine. CR noted that 2016 Civic had a significant model change and had significant problems with in car electronics. Hopefully improved now. Failure of major displays could prevent reading normal gauges or prevent using important systems such as climate control system, among others. In warranty, a headache. Out of warranty, an expensive lesson that could lead to trade in time.

 

[ondarvr]

So let's get some real world perspective here. I had a 2017 civic, great car, no oil dilution, that was more of an early CRV thing. It was pretty much resolved after the first few years in the CRV, and didn't affect a huge number of vehicles. Honda recalled some early 1.5s due to bad fuel injectors, this was one causes of the fuel dilution. The CVT has been a pretty good transmission, I'm on several honda forums and not much is posted about problems with them, and they've been around for a long time in other models. Some people just hate CVTs, I've had 4 of them with no problems, and for a car they work very well. I went with a 2016 CRV because it didn't have a turbo, after 2019 the 1.5 turbo in the CRV has been very good. My Civic averaged 42mpg, sold it my brother in law because I went back to driving a company car, he loves it.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Originally Posted by ondarvr

So let's get some real world perspective here. I had a 2017 civic, great car, no oil dilution, that was more of an early CRV thing. It was pretty much resolved after the first few years in the CRV, and didn't affect a huge number of vehicles. Honda recalled some early 1.5s due to bad fuel injectors, this was one causes of the fuel dilution. I went with a 2016 CRV because it didn't have a turbo, after 2019 the 1.5 turbo in the CRV has been very good.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Bought two new vehicles in the past 1-1/2 years. Every time I looked at a new vehicle on the new vehicle lot, if it had a turbo, I turned around and walked away. Now I have moments where I regret not turning away from all GDIs and instead bought two MPIs.

 

[DGXR]

Are you including the life / replacement of the turbo? I suspect that will need replacing before the engine expires. Still, even if the engine components are reinforced to compensate for turbo stresses, the basic engine will probably wear faster in the turbo model due to higher cylinder pressures and more stress / breakdown of the oil. My $0.02

 

[wemay]

Originally Posted by DGXR

Are you including the life / replacement of the turbo? I suspect that will need replacing before the engine expires. Still, even if the engine components are reinforced to compensate for turbo stresses, the basic engine will probably wear faster in the turbo model due to higher cylinder pressures and more stress / breakdown of the oil. My $0.02

LX is the 2.0 and has no turbo.

 

[NoNameJoe]

Honda's CVTs are actually reliable. Aside from the 2014-2015 Civics needing a software change to lower the stress on a brittle component, I never hear anything about any failures. Not even close to the massive number of failures the Jatco CVTs used in Nissans had. Those things were an unmitigated disaster, fluid changes or not those will slip and fail. Honda isn't new to the CVT game either, they've been doing CVTs since early Civic hybrids.

 

[SeaJay]

Other than Nissan's of a couple of model years ago, most of the CVTs have been holding up quite well.

 

[Char Baby]

Originally Posted by deoxy4

My vote would be for a naturally aspired, port injection, 6 speed manual transmission. Gone forever.

I would say the same. The 2.0L w/6spd manny(if still available).

 

[madRiver]

Originally Posted by SeaJay

Other than Nissan's of a couple of model years ago, most of the CVTs have been holding up quite well.

BITOG says CVT and DI car will be a ruin in a few years no matter who makes it.