I bought a 2006 Civic EX Coupe

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Very nice. I just turned 103,000 on my 2003 EX Sedan and it's still runs like a new car. I'm hoping to get 200,000 out of it. I would without a doubt purchase another Civic. I think you made a great choice, especially since that vintage has a timing chain.
 
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Congrats on the purchase!

Originally Posted By: Patman
I ordered a Scangauge, so I'm gonna hook it up in the Civic and I'm gonna see if I can get 45 MPG on the highway at a steady 100km/h. (I can get 32 MPG+ in the Vette, so I'm sure 45 will be easy for the Honda)


You just might be able to hit that target. Don't forget to calibrate your scangauge with a couple of fill-ups before trusting its numbers, though. IIRC I had to apply a small fuel and speed adjustment to my SG2 with my Civic to get it to report within a tenth of an mpg or so vs manual calculations. I've gotten up to 43 or so MPG on an extended highway trip in my 07 EX coupe, but I had to go slooowww (55-60 mph). OTOH that drive was fairly hilly and my car is a stick shift which is geared lower than your AT so that might cancel out and let you hit the target at 100 km/h. I average 33-35 mpg in mine year round but my commute has a lot of hills and I do not baby the car.


Originally Posted By: Patman

For those of you with 06+ Civics, what kind of oil consumption do you see? With my ex-wife's 2000 Civic it didn't use any oil at all until 80k, and then all of a sudden it started using a lot and now it uses about a quart every 2500 miles! (she's lucky I still top it up for her every once in a while otherwise it would run bone dry on her!)


You don't want to know. Mine's used a little since new and while I haven't kept detailed enough records every time, it has been getting worse over time. In my last OCI, at 70k miles, it burned about a quart per 2k miles. Not sure if it's repeating that pattern this time yet but I think it probably is. Hopefully yours will be more like everyone else's because most people's don't seem to burn measurable amounts.
 
Originally Posted By: rationull


You just might be able to hit that target. Don't forget to calibrate your scangauge with a couple of fill-ups before trusting its numbers, though. IIRC I had to apply a small fuel and speed adjustment to my SG2 with my Civic to get it to report within a tenth of an mpg or so vs manual calculations.


Does the SG manual explain how to calibrate it, or is this something that people have figured out afterwards? I figured it would be good to go right out of the box without any need for any kind of calibration.

I never fully trust manually calculating my MPG because there is no way of knowing for sure if you've stopped the gas pump at precisely the same level as the previous fill up.
 
Originally Posted By: Patman

Does the SG manual explain how to calibrate it, or is this something that people have figured out afterwards? I figured it would be good to go right out of the box without any need for any kind of calibration.

I never fully trust manually calculating my MPG because there is no way of knowing for sure if you've stopped the gas pump at precisely the same level as the previous fill up.


I think the manual explains it. Technically all you're supposed to have to do is:

1) Fill the car up.
2) Drive it until it needs a fill up.
3) When you fill it up (ideally at the same tank as you did the first time), the SG2 will show how many gallons it thinks you've burned. You adjust that number to the amount you actually put in, and the SG2 remembers that percentage adjustment.

It's just a calibration to the car. I believe the SG2 uses airflow to compute fuel used and that's probably why the adjustment is needed.

I think I ended up making some minor speed adjustments too after I noticed that the SG2's recorded distance would differ from my odometer by a few miles every 3-400 miles and that might've improved the MPG accuracy too.

Once it's calibrated you should be good to go, is my understanding. I want to say that my adjustment was 5-8% but I don't remember. All I remember is afterwards it was pretty accurate.
 
I guess I have no one to blame but myself for not researching this, but when I went to the insurance company today to add the Civic to my policy I got a HUGE SHOCK! This car is going to cost me $290 a month to insure! My Corvette is only $109 per month! Turns out the Civic 2 door is one of the highest stolen cars and has a bad accident rate too. This sucks! I was fully expecting the Civic to only be $100 a month.
frown.gif
So the money I save in gas every month with this car doesn't even come close to covering the monthly insurance bill, as I had expected.
 
That REALLY sucks Patman
frown.gif


I had the opposite experience, when I priced the insurance for the M5 prior to buying one, I discovered it was the same price to insure as my wife's Focus. Which is ~$700/year less than the Expedition.

Have you tried shopping around? I use Wawanesa.
 
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
That REALLY sucks Patman
frown.gif


I had the opposite experience, when I priced the insurance for the M5 prior to buying one, I discovered it was the same price to insure as my wife's Focus. Which is ~$700/year less than the Expedition.

Have you tried shopping around? I use Wawanesa.


Shopping around wouldn't help, because I had a big insurance claim ($10,000 worth) a few months ago with State Farm, and they forgave it since I've been with them for 25 years now and was accident free since 1988. But if I switched companies, they'd see that recent claim and jack up my rates even higher! So I'm in a no win situation
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Patman I found the exact same thing with my Civic.
Very frustrating indeed.
One of my Saturns would cost me $90 a month, and the best price I could get on the Honda was $150 (no big claims like you though)
Makes me sick. I hate insurance.
 
What I don't understand is why have I only been paying $80 a month all these years for my wife's 2000 Civic? Do they only consider the 2006 and newer ones as the highest risk ones?
 
Originally Posted By: Patman
What I don't understand is why have I only been paying $80 a month all these years for my wife's 2000 Civic? Do they only consider the 2006 and newer ones as the highest risk ones?


There has to be something like that behind the reason for the higher rates. It's really lame. The funny part is, I paid almost the same price (single digits more per month) for each separate time I had one of my 2 Nissans. Both with VQ35 and over 250HP. The most expensive car I've ever insured by a mile is my 2011 Civic.
 
Originally Posted By: Patman
This car is going to cost me $290 a month to insure!


Ouch. I was going to applaud you on your decision to stay out of debt, but since you will be paying an insurance bill that is almost $2,300 per year more on your Honda than we're paying for all three of our vehicles combined, I'll extend my sympathies.
 
Originally Posted By: Patman
I guess I have no one to blame but myself for not researching this, but when I went to the insurance company today to add the Civic to my policy I got a HUGE SHOCK! This car is going to cost me $290 a month to insure! My Corvette is only $109 per month! Turns out the Civic 2 door is one of the highest stolen cars and has a bad accident rate too. This sucks! I was fully expecting the Civic to only be $100 a month.
frown.gif
So the money I save in gas every month with this car doesn't even come close to covering the monthly insurance bill, as I had expected.


I know I've posted about this before! Same thing happened to me. Although my insurance has come down to something way more reasonable than $290 a month. But I'm under 30, and my car is 1 year newer and just slightly lower mileage than yours .. I'd expect your insurance to be better.

OTOH I have my deductibles set at something like $2000. And I never had luck with quotes from State Farm.

Best of luck... I feel your pain.
 
Originally Posted By: Patman
This car is going to cost me $290 a month to insure!

Whoa! That's insane. Sorry to hear. I'd fall off a chair if I heard that.

Both our cars combined cost about $115/month to insure. My car has a $500 collision deductible. My wife's has a $250 ded.

I'm guessing the 2-door civic is popular among young crowd which treats it as an entry level sports car and gets into accidents often, thus ruining its safety record.
 
If I recall the 2006 Civics had engine block cracking issues. Did Honda expand warranty coverage on the engine blocks?
 
I'm gonna have a chat with my State Farm agent again tomorrow, because I got an online quote that was more than half of their price! So if they aren't willing to do something for me here, I'm taking my business elsewhere, and forgetting the fact that I've been with them 25 years! It just sucks that the agent I dealt with for 24 of those 25 years retired last year, I bet she would have found a way to help me out here, but this new guy doesn't know me at all.
 
Originally Posted By: GMFan
If I recall the 2006 Civics had engine block cracking issues. Did Honda expand warranty coverage on the engine blocks?


Yes -- 8 years and unlimited mileage on the short block I think.
 
Originally Posted By: Patman
Silly question but, how can you tell if you've got a cracked block?


All the complaints I've read have either been people noticing a coolant puddle (or a dropping coolant level) or overheating due to loss of coolant. Ugly.

EDIT: I've tried to find statistics but nobody seems to know (outside of Honda I assume) what percentage of vehicles it's affecting. Tons of these cars out there though so it's easy to find reports even if it's a very small portion of them that are seeing the problem.
 
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Congrats on your Civic!

I bought a 2007 EX and it was great to me!

The only problem I had was the clear coat was cracked on the hood. Turns out being a bad batch of paint. I sold the car before I went to war with the dealer. I had the extended warranty, but I'm not sure if the paint was going to be covered.

Yeah, too bad insurance is so expensive. I remember my Civic being just a little cheaper than my 450hp Jeep SRT8.

OP: The idle turned horribly rough at 58k. I went to the dealer under warranty and of course couldn't replicate it. I decided a new set of plugs might do the trick and it idled so smooth and quiet you'd have to look at the tach to make sure it was still running. Those stock Iridium NGKs aren't good for 100k like Honda says they are. They were toast when I pulled them. I went with NGK platniums and planned to swap them more often, but ended up sellng the Civic.
 
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Originally Posted By: Patman
What I don't understand is why have I only been paying $80 a month all these years for my wife's 2000 Civic? Do they only consider the 2006 and newer ones as the highest risk ones?


I doubt there is any real reason behind it, except that Ontario's insurance companies can get away with anything, so they can charge those outrageous prices. They can base their prices on anything, color, location, number of doors, anything.
 
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