In the 100-plus year-old history of the motoring press, countless cars have been panned. Their makers have reacted in one of three ways: they have either refuted the verdict, often trying to “punish” the offending reviewer, ignored it and went on with their business as if nothing happened or made improvements when the time came to revamp the car.
Honda got pretty upset about the press’ reaction to its 2012 U.S. market Civic to the extent that it gave it a makeover just in time for the 2013 model year. Introducing a significantly improved model 18 months later must be an industry first – but then again, reviews like the one published by Consumer Reports apparently were too much to bear, even if sales soared.
Barely a few days after the revised Civic made its debut at the LA Auto Show, Honda gave Consumer Reports a 2013 Sedan for a first drive. This goes to show that a. the Japanese company is confident that it has fixed the 2012 car’s shortcomings, and b. it’s eager to find out what they think about it.
Mind you, this is just a first drive in which CR’s engineer Tom Mutchler shares his initial impressions of the 2013 Civic with viewers. The definitive verdict will come a little later, after the publication has bought its own car, as it always does, and conduct a full test.
Still, you only have one chance to make a first impression. You can find out whether it was a positive or negative one in the video that follows the jump.
By Andrew Tsaousis
VIDEO