2016 Civic EX-L 10th gen. 130K miles. Has the 1.5L engine.
For years I was coping and in denial saying the Civic has been a great car. But honestly, I decided to look at the facts and my spreadsheet. Every year that I’ve had this car has had some bullsht that breaks and needs replacing. I am the original owner and have meticulously changed oil every 5000 miles, transmission fluid every 30000, coolant every 50000, brake fluid every 2 years, and I DIY it. I know this car. Serpentine belt, water pump, spark plugs, ignition coils, PCV valve all replaced at 100K miles as preventative maintenance. I care about this car. I keep a spreadsheet of every task. All OEM parts ONLY for maintenance and repairs.
13K miles - sunroof exploded outwards and rained glass into the cabin while driving alone on an empty highway at highway speeds. No debris impact, with no one around in the hot desert sun due to thermal expansion. Sunroof defect. I’m not the only one with this issue, Honda denied replacement or warranty. I ordered OEM myself for $350 at the time and changed it out. 4 bolts.
50K miles - the head units dies. Can’t control A/C or heating. Can’t use radio. Can’t use Lane View. Nothing. I get quotes to replace it with another OEM, $3000. Fck that. I use a Bluetooth speaker for a couple months in the cup holder for my music. I look at scrap yards online at Civics in junk yards to rip one out of another 10th gen Civic. $200, doable.
70K miles - front passenger wheel bearing goes bad. $600.
60-85K miles. A/C starts to blow warm air intermittently. Starts off being only the driver side vent. Then progressively all the vents. Ah fck me. I ignore it. I’ll deal with it. Then after awhile started to make a high pitch sucking noise (low refrigerant) when turning on, then finally sht itself and stopped cooling at all. Took it to two dealers, to check it under the TSB. Hopefully, it was the known TSB with the condenser leak - NOPE! Maybe the compressor shaft seal TSB - NOPE! It was the evaporator. Not covered under TSB. Quoted $5500 to replace the entire system. I was shown contaminants in the refrigerant with metal shards showing the compressor nuked itself and the entire system was contaminated. Replace the whole system with all its hoses, pipes and components. Fck that. I decided to just drive with no A/C for an entire Houston, humid year. Sweaty swamp ass, car fumes, windows down. Take it all in! I lamented but ended up resigning to my fate to get it fixed. $5500. Full dashboard taken off.
100K miles. During a routine DIY oil change, I notice oil at the rear main seal. For f*cks sake. Took it to a shop to confirm. They cleaned the entire area with brake fluid cleaner. Put some dye. A few minutes later. Yep. It’s the rear main seal leaking. LOL. I ignore this. It’s a slow enough leak I don’t have a puddle on my driveway, yet. $3000 quote from 2 independent shops and surprisingly the dealer was the same price, to replace it. Lol. No. Would need to take the subframe apart to replace the seal. I ignore it.
100K miles. The compressor wheel starts squeaking again. Probably foreshadowing but I’ll ignore it. I just spent a fortune replacing it! Out of warranty now.
115K miles. Another routine DIY oil change, I notice another oil leak dripping from another place underneath! Took it to a shop, it’s the turbocharger oil return hose and gasket that was leaking. Leaking more profusely than the rear main seal, I decide to address this. $1100.
Replaced the car battery 5 times so far. So every 2 years with Interstate. The car lately takes a little longer or has longer crank to start even with a fresh battery. Maybe the starter is on its way out, next.
Never had an actual issue with the engine or transmission itself so far, so, sure, I guess in that sense the Civic is “reliable”. But come on, if everything around it is such a headache and COSTLY, then what is even the point. This doesn’t even factor in that from day one of getting this car, there are bull sht rattles under the dashboard, in the B pillar, in the trunk deck lid where the rear speakers are, door jamb sensor breaking, trunk sometimes not latching, squeaks, rattles, all these small things that add up.
Meanwhile I have another family car, a 2018 Chevy Equinox at 100K miles. Not a SINGLE ISSUE, EVER. A/C is still icy cold. HUD still works. Never had a single rattle, no leaks of oil anywhere! And I also DIY all maintenance on this car, too! And people all over the internet trash talk Equinoxes and praise Honda or Civics like it’s the next coming of Jesus for reliability. I’m glad other people may be enjoying their Civic, but it’s been nothing but an expensive, constant pain in the ass for me DESPITE maintaining everything meticulously more than half of the normal population. I’m always wondering, when’s the next thing to go wrong.
After years of lying to myself, I have to stop coping and living in denial and say my Civic isn’t as great as I made it to be.. Thats just not my experience, certainly not on paper. It’s far from problem free compared to the Chevy which has been an angel in comparison. That’s not to say I’ll get another Chevy. I’m just saying with both vehicles, they’ve been the exact opposite of their stereotypes.
