Honda Civic Sport - perfect except for...

That's right, the Honda Civic Sport made our new car short list.  In the end, there was only one thing stopped us from signing on the dotted line.  But first - what were the stand-out features of the Civic Sport? Well, it's hard to go past the dash with its cool futuristic shape and digital speedo.  Before seeing the dash with my own eyes I presumed it would be gimmicky,  however it's really not.  The dash felt like it belonged to a newer generation of cars, and it made its competitors look pretty bland in comparison. 

The interior is quite well done in general, with leather seats and plenty of storage space.  Of course the Honda engine is good, being a 2.0 litre i-VTEC with 114kW.  Not excessive, but powerful enough to be fun.  We had the 5-speed automatic, which was a big improvement over other autos I had driven.  

The Sport looks good in my opinion- much better than the standard Civic VTI.  Having said that, take a look at the two images of the Mugen Civic.  What a fantastic looking car.  What a pity it's not available in Australia (as far as I know).  So, what was the one thing that prevented us from buying a Honda Civic Sport?  The size of the car- frankly, it's huge.  This didn't bother me so much, but my wife was adamant that we buy a smaller car.  And you can't argue that the Civic has grown significantly in size over the years.  Still, all-in-all, the Sport is a great car, and great value as well.

(images from www.honda.com.au and www.mugen-power.com)