Hello all,
I am about buying a naija used Honda civic 2009 from a dealer. I am skeptical about Honda cars due to the negative reviews from my friends and colleagues, even though they have not owned a Honda car before, lol. This will actually be my first car. So, I will need advice if getting this ride will be a good choice. I don't want to buy what I will regret tomorrow. Please kindly give me your honest review on this. Thank you.

Hmmmm...

Honda civic is a nice car but we have too many abused ones around.

I recently sold mine and I can give you a few note or two from my experience.

Pls note: my experience is not in any way the general operations or running of the car.

1. Based on the ones (2) I bought, drove and sold. The engine can't carry load for a long time as it tend to drag afterwards..

How do I mean?

When driven with ac or without for a while let's say 30mins drive , it tends to have issues firing up better. Another thing is issues climbing hill.

So pls take note of this..

Test drive well, this car can hide issues till you take home before it begins to show up.

Again, that's my experience, not in any way the general issues with this car

2. Get a Bluetooth scanner for quick check or diagnosis of car issues. You may face plug or coil issues.

3. Buy extra car fuse and keep them handy in the car as you never can tell when a fuse might cut and you'd be needing a replacement.

4. Download online the fuse diagram to help you with little knowledge of locations of fuse responsible for each components of the car and being able to know likely issues when they arises as most of the car problems are electrical or fuse related.

5. Get original recommended Honda oil for gear please.. very important, engine may already have sludge so it would be wise to continue with same engine oil being used by previous owners or you may ask here if you can possibly change to Honda original engine oil.

Btw. It's a nice ride, though on the first I used, I enjoyed slightly good fuel efficiency, I literally drove around with AC always, but then nothing compared with the 04 Corolla have driven. On the second civic I bought, didn't get to enjoy the widely claimed fuel economy.

So thats it from my side

Again, just my own user experience.
Shalom!

Not a bad car if you buy a good unabused unit, as for performance it is fantastic, acceleraton is on point and handling and shifting are fine, the ac is very good.

Yes it is prone to coil issues, hence you will get one or two misfires, but change the bad coils and you should be fine for another year or two.

Hondas generally are packed full with sensors, one faulty sensor can throw your fuel trim off, so I will advise you to keep a OBD scan tool handy always and check your fuel trims at least once a month even if you do not have a check engine light.

I have also driven corolla, to me the honda drives better, but need more attention due to the sensor numbers (not that they occur all the time) and suspension component are not as rugged as the corollas though on the good side they are cheaper, parts like tie-rod ends, shock absorber rubber, shocks , control arm bushen tend to fail at least once or twice a year.

However if given a good Nigeria used Honda civic 8th gen for 1.5m and a good Nigeria used corolla at 2.4m, I will go with a Civic, keep the 900k set aside 300k of this amount to take care of the suspension component as they come up.

Buying a Nigerian one is the issue here. There might be hidden issues the sellers won't tell you. All in one it's better than corolla in many ways, even in fuel economy. Once yoi do due diligence, you're good to go