Spy Pic: Production Civic interior

[ifcar]

What were they thinking?

[Tom]

So that's the final design?  It certainly looks different, but not necessarily bad IMO except for the ricer steering wheel and placement of the shifter.

[giant_mtb]

What are they on?

[ifcar]

Here's the entire series of undisguised shots, BTW (huge pics, so beware):

http://home.comcast.net/%7Ejaggrey/civic/one.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/%7Ejaggrey/civic/two.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/%7Ejaggrey/civic/three.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/%7Ejaggrey/civic/four.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/%7Ejaggrey/civic/five.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/%7Ejaggrey/civic/six.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jaggrey/civic/seven.jpg

My thoughts:
The exterior appears attractive overall, though the headlights are borrowed from the Ion coupe and the taillights from the A4. But the interior. How do they possibly expect that to be praised? They don't remember what reviewers thought of BMW's interiors, or the Nissan Quest's, or the Toyota Echo's, do they? They expect praise whatever they do, primarily because they've gotten good press for their previous cars, and this isn't going to get it.

Maybe if they put the shifter back down, put in a conventional gauge cluster, and gave it a normal steering wheel, it could be serviceable, but this is simply unsuitable for the high-volume thoroughly-mainstream car that the Civic is. Anyone over 40 looking for nothing more than a small car with a good reliability and resale history will be automatically directed to the Corolla.  

[BMWDave]

My main gripe is with the horrible steering wheel...nothing else is strikingly bad in any way.

[Colonel Cadillac]

Hahahaha that looks horrible!

[giant_mtb]

Hahahaha that looks horrible!

[280Z Turbo]

A Nav screen in a Civic? WTF?

[bobwill]

I have to say, the steering wheel is ugly, the shifter's too far away, though who knows it might feel natural when you sit in it, and the fact that it only seems to have 1 gauge all weigh against it.  The rest seems good.

[BMWDave]

It looks like it will have digitals readouts as the main guages.

[ifcar]

A Nav screen in a Civic? WTF?

The Mazda3 has an available nav, I suppose Honda wanted to keep up.  

[TBR]

And I thought this interior was bad:

[93JC]

What were they thinking?

Funka?.

Looks French.

[giant_mtb]

And I thought this interior was bad:

That interior is sweet, IMO.

[BMWDave]

And I thought this interior was bad:

That interior is sweet, IMO.

It looks like it came out of a cereal box.

[dave998]

IFCAR is it just me or do you feel the average consumer will like this interior? Im sure auto enthusiasts will love it, but I feel they went to the opposite extreme on this vehicle.

[Raghavan]

rear looks like an a4...

[BMWDave]

IFCAR is it just me or do you feel the average consumer will like this interior? Im sure auto enthusiasts will love it, but I feel they went to the opposite extreme on this vehicle.

It is far too radical for the average consumer to 'like' it.

[ifcar]

IFCAR is it just me or do you feel the average consumer will like this interior? Im sure auto enthusiasts will love it, but I feel they went to the opposite extreme on this vehicle.

It is far too radical for the average consumer to 'like' it.

Especially the average Civic buyer, that car has a rather high median age, not too much lower than the Corolla IIRC. They're isolating all of their older mainstream customers, who may or may not forgive the radical design for the fact that it's the Honda Civic, but I forsee a spike in Corolla sales.

[BMWDave]

IFCAR is it just me or do you feel the average consumer will like this interior? Im sure auto enthusiasts will love it, but I feel they went to the opposite extreme on this vehicle.

It is far too radical for the average consumer to 'like' it.

Especially the average Civic buyer, that car has a rather high median age, not too much lower than the Corolla IIRC. They're isolating all of their older mainstream customers, who may or may not forgive the radical design for the fact that it's the Honda Civic, but I forsee a spike in Corolla sales.

Same here.  This interior is just too radical to be fully accepted by the mainstream buying public.

[mazda6er]

Stupid freakin' Honda. Looks like a mother-effing space ship.