We Bought a Civic: One Year with Our Favorite Car

We owned a Honda Civic Hybrid for a whole year. Is the best hybrid car on sale really as good as it seems, or did 10,000 miles expose some flaws?

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00:00 Intro
00:41 What We Got
01:27 What We Liked
04:02 What We Didn't Like
08:02 Maintenance & Repairs
08:57 Value
10:11 Edmunds' Take

A year ago, we added the new Honda Civic to our One-Year Road Test fleet. After declaring the Civic Hybrid our Edmunds Top Rated Best of the Best, we had to know: How does it hold up to real-world ownership? We bought a loaded Honda Civic Hatchback Sport Touring Hybrid for our One-Year Road Test fleet to test its car reliability, fuel efficiency, and everyday usability over 10,000 miles.
For the most part, this hybrid car delivered. It’s incredibly smooth, with effortless torque that makes it drive almost like a fully electric vehicle. As one of the best hybrid cars on the market, it’s spacious — especially the Honda Civic Hatch, which swallows gear with a low liftover height and excellent cargo clearance. Plus, on highway road trips, some of our editors saw well over 50 mpg.
But it wasn't a completely flawless year of testing. On longer trips, the Civic Hybrid suffers from noticeable highway tire noise and seats that lack adjustable lumbar support, making it less than ideal for covering heavy mileage. We also ran into a few tech gripes, like a blurry backup camera and a finicky adaptive cruise control system. And while some drivers achieved stellar highway fuel economy, our overall average for the year settled at 41.1 mpg — far shy of the EPA's 48 mpg combined rating. Finally, all the advanced driver assist sensors behind the front glass meant replacing a broken windshield cost us a steep $2,239.
Even with these quirks, the Honda Civic holds its value phenomenally well, and it depreciates far less than its rivals over a year. It remains a premium-feeling, efficient and highly recommended compact car that we'd happily buy again. Check out our full car review to see why it's still our top pick!

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Disclaimer: This video's description was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy by the Edmunds editorial team. The video itself was created entirely without the use of generative AI.

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