Honda Civic vs Competitors
Overview
The Honda Civic Sedan has effortlessly risen to the top of its automotive segment and is holding strong. With over 18 million vehicles sold since its introduction in 1972, there’s no doubt that it’s a fan favorite. Those massive sales are due to its affordability and longstanding reputation for reliability that is hard to compete with, as well as its generous lineup of standard features.
The industry at large has noticed, too: Kelley Blue Book Awarded the Civic with the 2019 Best Buy: Compact Car award, and Edmunds gave it the 2019 Buyers Most Wanted Award. In short, Honda’s been doing right by their staple Civic; however, it still must contend with other four-door sedans, namely the Toyota Corolla, Mazda3, Hyundai Elantra, Kia Forte, Chevrolet Cruze, and Nissan Sentra. Despite the healthy rivalry, though, the Civic doesn’t have much to fear as it manages to stay well above the rest by leading its class in a number of areas.
VIEW HONDA CIVIC INVENTORY
Standard Features and Safety
When you look at the Civic’s base equipment, it shows the clear advantage. For one, all trims have automatic climate control and keyless entry, which the Corolla lacks, as well as cruise control and steering-wheel mounted controls, both of which are not found on the base Cruze. The Civic also has the advantage over these two vehicles as well as the Mazda3 sedan and Toyota Corolla sedan in trunk space, with 15.1 cubic feet (matched by the Sentra).
The Civic is also unrivalled in active safety features, thanks to the technology provided on all trims through the Honda Sensing Suite. This exceptional standard package includes adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and lane keeping assist, road departure mitigation, automatic high beams, and forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking. Most of the other vehicles in this segment leave off these advanced features on their lower-priced versions, only putting them on higher trims or within optional packages. What’s more, the Civic was awarded with the NHTSA five-star safety rating for the 2019 model year. In contrast, the Sentra, Elantra, Forte, and Corolla were only give a four-star rating. The 2019 Civic is also a fine performer, with great fuel economy and better handling than most – if not all – of its competitors.
Pricing
While the Civic is not the cheapest in its class, with a starting MSRP of $19,550, it’s also not the most expensive: the Mazda3’s starting MSRP is $21,500. Nevertheless, most of these vehicles are priced in the same ballpark, and the Civic is still a fantastic deal, especially considering all of its superlatives, including its high resale value and reputation for long life: there are many accounts of Civics lasting well beyond 200,000 miles.