When the transmission went out on my SUV, we were facing a car payment unexpectedly. I immediately took to the internet to research the most cost efficient and reliable vehicles, because I travel a lot with my children. We landed on the Honda Civic and have not been disappointed. The car rides smoothly and the seats are comfortable for those long trips between our Navy duty station and "home." My kids (8 and 11) are comfortable in the back seat and have plenty of room for their blankets, pillows, art supplies, and electronics. We have spent many hours in this car and the gas mileage is fantastic. We can get 42 mpg on the interstate, if we drive efficiently, but we usually average 36 mpg. When we traveled to a conference recently, we stayed in a hotel with valet parking, and I was grateful to have the valet key available. This enabled me to lock up our items in the trunk, making them inaccessible with just the valet key. While this car has been a great family car with all of our trips back home, my 6'2" husband doesn't have a lot of room to stretch out. This is a smaller car, so if you want a lot of leg room, this is probably not the vehicle for you. It's perfectly acceptable for my 5'4" self. The car is five years old and we have had no major issues needing repair. Not only did this car save us money initially, with its reasonable price, but it has saved us money along the way, thanks to its great gas mileage and dependable construction. I am so glad we settled on this car five years ago. I highly recommend the Honda Civic.

I like the dependability. I've been driving this car to and from work at my current job for about a year now. My current job is about 75 miles away, so I've added a lot of miles to my car. However, my Honda Civic is still running very smoothly. One thing that is wrong with it now is that whenever the air conditioning is on, a weird squealing sound comes from the engine. I think it's some kind of belt. It mostly happens when I first start driving, or when I accelerate after a being at a red light. When that happens, I have to turn off the air conditioning, then turn it on again when I get above a certain speed, which is usually about 45 miles per hour. I've notice when I do that, my car accelerates faster without the air conditioning. I like how long the car lasts too. I bought this car about seven years ago, and it has 200,000 miles on it, and it still runs great. I have a coworker that has an older version of this car, and it has 300,000 miles on it. It still runs just fine. It makes me feel like my car will last a lot longer.