Honda's baby grows up.

If you're reading this review, it's a good bet you're trying to narrow down your choices before buying a good small car. For comparison's sake, here's a little about me before we begin. I'm a 38 year old male, and I'm 6'1" tall. I needed a car that would be appropriate for my age bracket, large enough to fit into at my height without feeling cramped, affordable, fun to drive, and durable--meaning it could run relatively trouble-free for at least a decade if I decide to keep it that long.

I test drove the Civic, as well as the Ford Focus, Nissan Sentra, Volkswagen Beetle, Mazda Protege, and Hyundai Elantra. The Civic had the highest fuel economy ratings (39 Highway, 33 City) and meets Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle standards for all 50 states. My latest fill-up after mixed highway/city driving confirms these numbers--I got 37.4 MPG. It is a more environmentally-friendly automobile, and in this age of needless SUV gluttony, that makes me feel good. It also has a quadruple five-star safety rating.

The manual transmission is wonderful in this car. The clutch pedal and shifter are smooth and easy to use, and I don't feel tired even after stop and go driving in town. The engine is very quiet for a car of this class, and has just enough power. I wouldn't mind having about 30 more horsepower just for kicks, but the engine revs happily in all gears and you never feel as though you're causing gridlock behind you.

The brakes are tight and do a fantastic job stopping the car with assurance and control. Steering is extremely crisp and precise in this car, almost making the car a bit "darty," at times to the point of making me feel that if I sneezed the resulting shoulder twitch might make me change lanes. But when you're merging in traffic and need to make quick moves, you appreciate its sporty handling capabilities.

Inside, the Civic LX had just enough of everything to make it a good value for me. Some other cars I drove had more gimmicks and gadgets, but this car feels as though each feature was designed to work harmoniously with every other one. The LX comes with air, power windows, mirrors, and door locks, cruise, tilt wheel and intermittent wipers, among other niceties. All controls are within easy reach, and operate flawlessly. I didn't want the next step up EX model, which had a moonroof. Tall drivers take note: The moonroof eats up 1.5 inches of headroom, and I found that my head just brushed the ceiling in those so equipped, so I bought the LX. Unfortunately, if you want the car in Honda's magnificent Eternal Blue color as I did, you have to get the EX model, which has the moonroof. This is a shame, because that meant I couldn't sit comfortably in the car with the color I wanted. Instead, I settled for the LX model in Nighthawk Black. Mine is still a handsome car, but Honda needs to work on making their cars more accessible to a wider variety of body sizes.

The seats are comfortable--a pleasant surprise for Honda. My partner had a 1993 Civic and still owns a 1990 Accord, and his sister owns a 1998 Civic. The seats in my 2002 are much more comfortable than any of theirs. We drive from Indianapolis to various parts of California each year, and long-trip seat comfort is a must. These feel great.

I have only two complaints about the car: A minor defect, and the dealer from whom it was purchased. When I took delivery of the car, the trunk cable was sticking, so that when you used the trunk release lever inside the car it would not reset itself right away, making it impossible to close the trunk without shutting it several times until the cable reset and the latch would then catch. The dealer replaced this cable right away and at no cost. This is an almost unheard of thing when buying a Honda, and was an extremely minor flaw when you consider the overall quality of the car. The dealer, Honda West in Indianapolis, was another story. I've never heard a bad thing about them, which is why I chose to buy my car there, but I would never buy another from them. I won't go into details, but it was an exasperating buying experience filled with their incompetence and a total lack of professionalism. I wish I had some advice on how to pick a dealership, but I'm at a loss over my experience with them because they did come highly recommended. If only all Honda dealers were has high quality as their cars.

A note about some other cars I considered, i.e. Ford Focus ZX3, Nissan Sentra, Hyundai Elantra, and Volkswagen Beetle. The Beetle is too expensive, is well known for being plagued with electrical problems, and represented poor value in my book. The Sentra was a good car, but the rear end was just too unattractive for me--totally a styling decision. If you can live with the styling, the Sentra is a great car. The Elantra comes with an impressive list of features, but felt cheap and even had a front-end shimmy when I test drove it. Resale is also poor on their cars. The Focus ZX3 was a terrific value on paper, but at least seven recalls that I know of, plus very poor side impact crash test ratings, made it an unacceptable car for me. It was supposed to have 130 horsepower (15 more than my Civic), but the engine was loud and felt as though it was under duress, while the Civic revved happily, as though it wanted more. Also, and this is for all you gearheads out there who might want to know, the manual transmission's clutch and the brake system in the Focus both share the same hydraulic setup, meaning that if one leaks or goes bad, you lose the other, and repairs may be expensive. Check under the hood and you will see the hydraulic lines running from the one unit to both the clutch and the brakes. As I said, I plan on keeping my Honda awhile, and I feel they shy away from this sort of cheap cost-cutting and build a more quality product. The first service interval on my Civic is 110,000 miles. The idea of any of the other cars I test drove making it that far without some considerable repair bills makes me laugh.

The Civic isn't the most flashy car on the market, but it makes up for its relative lack of style with proven reliability and durability. I guess it all boils down to priorities. Personally, I have better things to do with my time than read months-old copies of Field and Stream in the waiting room of some smarmy car dealer's service department, and better ways of spending my money than by fattening the wallets of big oil company CEOs.