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Toyota Corolla Altis vs. Honda Civic This topic has been beaten to death. What more can I add here? But for three years, I have been thinking, debating, considering, pondering ... on which one to buy.
The Honda Civic with its mind-blowing design, futuristic looks, state of the art dashboard, aggresive sporty style, etc. seems to be the winner all the way. But before declaring the winner, I will lay down all the goodies and baddies on each one of them (never mind if these are repeated somewhere else).
A] Honda Civic
Let us list the Highs first ...
Now let us list the Lows ...
- Cab forward design gives it slightly more room inside.
- The front grille, the cat-eye shaped headlights and the low aggressive style gives it a super sexy look. The Altis really pales in comparison.
- The same is true for the rear end. The twin hexagonal taillights give the Civic the looks of a fighter jet afterburner.
- Inside, the high mounted digital speedometer and the whole instrument takes the breath away. Are we sitting inside a sedan or on the bridge of the USS Enterprise?
- Lots of cubby holes to put small things away.
- And now the Civic comes with Cruise Control even on the manual transmission - a first in India.
- The latest Civic (V-MT, V-AT models) even come with Rear Parking Sensors as standard fitting.
- Twin reading lights on the rear seat bench.
- USB interface to the audio system.
- Floor and Trunk Mats are standard.
- In fact the Civic (V-MT, V-AT) will not need any accessory.
- 0 to 100 kmph in sub-10 seconds
- Opposed windshield washers effectively clean much more area than standard uni-directional wipers.
- The new Civic has a much improved ground clearance (170 mm) and suspension but still low. This is because its wheelbase is quite long (2700 mm). When riding fully laden, you are bound to scrape the humps.
- The 2-DIN music system comes with a single CD changer.
- The driver seat has manual adjustments and no lumber support.
B] Toyota Corolla Altis
The Altis offers more features ...
And the Altis is not without its cons ...
- HID Xenon headlamps. These twin headlamps have the newer Xenon lamp (white light) for the city and traditional halogen (yellow light) lamps for the highway.
- Headlamps turn on automatically during low visibility.
- Headlamps have washers.
- Driver seat has 8-way electric power adjustment.
- Driver seat has electric lumber support.
- The interior rear view mirror is automatic day-night type - does not have the lever to switch between day and night modes - it does so automatically.
- Rear windshield has a pull down sun shade.
- Rear passengers have a better seating position (I felt that).
- 60-40 rear split seat very useful if you have oversize luggage.
- The trunk is visibly larger and deeper. Deeper trunk means that suitcase fit in standing.
- 176 mm ground clearance and 2600 mm wheelbase means that it will avoid most bumpers easily even when loaded.
- The instrument panel, gear knob, steering wheel, window controls are garnished by fake wood panels that make it look polished. Here Civic is a let down with the plasticky feel.
- The steeing wheel has audio controls. On the Civic, these are provided on the rear arm rest in the Civic. This is very strange because most car experts comment that the Civic is meant to be self driven while in the Altis you sit back and enjoy the ride, i.e., driven by your driver.
Young people will like the Civic obviously. It is slightly more expensive. I too think the Corolla Altis looses out by a small margin - it will make heads turn definitely but Civic will give a neck cramp for sure.
- For a car costing 12.5 lakhs and above (ex-showroom), it does not even provide floor and trunk mats.
- The rear parking sensor is not available. Genuine Toyota make is nearly 20K.
- Experts say that the Electric Power Steering does not give a good feeedback at high speeds. Civic has hydraulic PS which is much better, they say.
- Slightly sluggish; 0-100 kmph in 10+ seconds.
- Very practical but traditional looking.
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