What You Would Expect and Should Expect

Here's what you expect: great gas mileage, great Honda build quality, industry leading styling.





Which is what you get. There are nit-picky things, the most glaring is a bad blind spot where the rear window pillars are - but if you're careful with mirror aiming that's not really an issue. But you do have to bother with setting up your sideview mirrors right.





Mileage: around 36-37 hwy. That's not driving "conservatively", and that's through very mountainous terrain - as tested on a honeymoon across the Blue Ridge parkway of North Carolina/Virginia, into Washington D.C..





As usual, everything seems very well thought out. The controls well placed, well made, with great practical details in the design. Refined and progressive. The speedometer is interestingly placed at the edge of the windshield - almost a "heads up display" look - which means you don't have to move your eyes from the road.

The windshield wiper control speed is continuously variable, which is obviously as it should be - but the fan speed on the HVAC system is as well, which is something that should be implemented in all cars. You can dial in just the right amount of air blowing, not just "a puff or gale force".

Simple steering wheel mounted audio controls work great.

Small diameter steering wheel makes the handling feel sporty while increasing handling feedback.

The handling is relatively neutral, tending towards the front. Shocks feel very cleverly progressive; not sports-car stiff, but they don't dive either.

Acceleration isn't great, but it's suitable for such a car. The automatic transmission seems to be electronically controlled; the rpm range seems to be favoring undershifting but not in a "slipping automatic" way.

One minor quibble is that the automatic gearshift lever tends to want to land in D3 instead of the main drive position when shifting from park.

Get the Potenza tires; they'll last longer and handle better.



If you're short, and have the seat pulled all the way forward, you have to learn to be careful to duck your head under the low-slung front windshield line - but that's no big deal.





I love the styling; sort of an updated take on the last gen Toyota Celica.





It is what it should be.