Great little car

We've owned our 2008 Honda Civic LX for three months now, and we LOVE-LOVE-LOVE-LOVE-LOVE it. I'm not an engine person, so this is something of a "girls' review".

My husband and I have heard of so many people driving Hondas for hundreds of thousands of miles -- we thought this'd be a perfect car for us.

It isn't an expensive car (well, all cars are expensive, but I mean it isn't expensive as cars go). We paid $19,500 out the door (meaning that included taxes, tag, etc) for our Honda Civic. We have the four-door model EX with the sunroof.

Unlike some other cars, you won't find a whale of a lot of decisions with the Civic. Basically, it comes in four models: The DX, the LX, the EX, and the EX-L. The DX is the basic, basic car that you might've been stuck with just after college graduation (I was); it has doors and wheels, but that's about it -- not even air conditioning. The LX is a middle-of-the-road option with a few more luxuries like power steering and air conditioning -- it's still a pretty basic car though; however, since this is viewed by most people as an "entry level car", they still sell a ton of these. I bought the EX edition, which has nicer wheels, a sunroof, an MP3 hook-up, and a few other niceties. I've not actually seen an EX-L edition (except online); I suspect people who want "more" than the EX version tend to move on up to the slightly larger Accord.

Once you've chosen the DX, LX, or EX, you really have only a few decisions left to make: color, manual or automatic transmission, and 2-door or 4-door. Honda doens't make a wide variety of options on these cars; you can't, for example, find an LX model with a sunroof.

Comfort
I like the seats in the car; they're easily adjustable (manual adjustments -- not electronic), and everything's within easy reach for me (it might be worth noting that I am only 5' tall; this car might be a little less comfortable for a larger person). The backseat leg room is moderate, but it's fine for my children (they aren't much taller than I am).

Safety
One reason we chose the Civic was all the airbags! They're not just in the dashboard; the Honda has curtain airbags in the door. Since one of our children will probably learn to drive on this car in a couple years, this was very important to me.

Nice features
I love the MP3 hook-up; it's easy to plug an ipod into the dashboard. On our recent trip to Florida, we uploaded books on tape to our iPod, which was very enjoyable.
I also love the sunroof. It's automatic and can pop up at the back for just a little air, or it can open all the way. Oops -- I said something untrue -- Honda sells this as a MOON ROOF, but I don't know the difference.
The cup holders in the front seat are particularly nice; they're hidden under a retractable thing between the driver/passenger. It's nice to be able to make them disappear when they're not in use.
The car has plenty of storage; there's a short, narrow spot just under the gear shift that's perfectly sized for a cell phone, and there are four "hidey-holes" in the front seat area that are good for a wallet, CDs, change, etc. All four doors have a storage pocket that's good for paper items.
In the back, the two drink holders are on the back of the fold-down arm rest. My kids like the "division" between them in the car.
I particularly like the Maintenance Minder feature. You can punch a button to see how much "time" you have left before your oil needs changing. Right now I know that my oil has 70% of its life left.

Trunk space
We can carry four 22" wheeled suitcases plus a large tote bag and a medium-sized cooler in the trunk (could fit in a little more if we tried).
The trunk also has that escape-from-the-trunk feature, which I guess is a pretty good thing.
Oh, one more thing about the trunk: The dealer gave me a free plastic trunk liner, which I like a whole lot more than I thought I would! It's just a piece of plastic the same size as my trunk, but it has a 5 or 6 inch "lip" all around the edge to prevent things from spilling down into the spare tire area.

Driving
I'm not specially a car person, but I think the Honda drives very smoothly; however, doesn't every three-month old car? It doens't have a big engine, but it seems to do just fine even with four people inside and the air conditioning running. You won't win any races -- unless, of course, you're racing to see who can avoid the gas station for the longest period of time!

Cost of operation
This brings me to the point where the Civic really shines: COST. Isn't that why we all love the Civic? I kept records of my first few tanks of gas, and I found the mileage around town to be 34-36 miles per gallon -- pretty respectable. We made a trip to Florida, though, and the Civic really did well. We drove from North Carolina to Florida AND BACK for $70 (24 gallons of gas), which was a little better than 40 miles per gallon!
It's also fairly cheap to insure.
We could've bought a 2007 Accord for the same price as this 2008 Civic, but we chose to stick with the smaller car because of the gas and insurance -- for our family, it was the right choice.

Looks
A car's appearance, of course, is somewhat subjective, but I think the Honda's a cute little car. It isn't specially outstanding, but the 2008 models have some nice colors. We chose the royal blue, which has an undertone of silver sparkle. I was very tempted by the silver, but I'm afraid metalics are on their way "out", and I don't want the car to look "old" in just a year or two. I wish Honda had a decent red for the Civic; their dark burgundy is rather drab.

As I said earlier, I love this car and I expect to drive it for years.