2016 Honda Civic Touring Manual, Buy It?

Fellow co-editor Paulo Acoba’s heavy interest in the Honda Civic has me drooling to own one.

More from Art of Gears

I have said before in other pieces that I have test driven over 7,000 cars. That may sound absurd, but I do qualify short 10 minute trips, a test drive. It wasn’t for my own interests really, but for the purposes of evaluating and appraising vehicles at my workplace. Ah, you got me. You can bet I learned a lot about driving a car from almost every manufacturer available in the United States over a wide time period. I’ve been fortunate enough to drive 95% of the cars I see on the road.

2016 Honda Civic Touring Sedan /

The interesting part is, it’s the mainstream car that keens my interest. If I could afford a super car like a McLaren or a hyper car like a Koenigsegg, by all means, I would. But frankly, getting that much attention on the road isn’t that much fun. Sometimes I want to drive and not worry about scratching a lower front lip. Sometimes I just want to gas up a car and not have two or three conversations while doing so. Anonymity has its place too. In fact, I enjoy mainstream cars so much, that I have an odd fascination with the Mazda2, which I still think is a steal buy for someone who is interested.

2015 NACOTY winning 2016 Honda Civic Sedan /

Fortunately, I have driven a 2016 Honda Civic before. No, it wasn’t a manual. No, it wasn’t the turbo 1.5-liter. Honda has a great engineering team and I have utmost faith in how slick the shifter is and how responsive the 1.5-liter turbocharged engine is. Instead, I was evaluating ride comfort. I was thinking about chassis rigidity. After driving a few MR2s and a convertible, it’s surprising how much chassis rigidity is to me. I mean, who wants to hear unusual suspension squeaks and dash rattles with the chassis is flexing oh so slightly over California roads? I certainly don’t.

2016 Honda Civic Touring Sedan /

So, what did me in? Paulo wrote about the increase in horsepower after a simple modification. The fact that the Civic Touring is available with a manual transmission with a bit of time helped swayed me over. Honda has a very rigid platform and has all of the ease of daily driving comfort. Personally, I can’t help but think how going plus-one on wheel size, upgraded brakes, a proper air intake, and a thick rear anti-roll bar would be just enough to make a daily driving experience, a more sporting one.

Would I do anything else? No. Doing too much takes away from the original character of the car. The only competition I see is the Mazda 6, which already comes in manual and in my opinion, looks far more striking. At just over $20,000 for the Mazda 6 or Honda Civic, it’s really difficult to turn down such a good deal.

More cars: 2017 Honda Civic Hatchback Concept Leaked Before Geneva

Would I want a hatchback? Not this time. I do love hatchbacks, but can’t help but think about the people that would pull up next to me, asking for a race at the lights. I don’t play that way. I prefer to have more of a sleeper.

Maybe, the 2016 Honda Civic Touring, with a manual transmission, is the perfect sleeper for me.

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