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FN2 Why did you buy a FN2?

I'd had my EP3 for nearly 10 years when that thing smashed the front out of it. I now drive below the speed limit at night during the summer months where high populations of deer live. Sometimes you just can't see them until the last second.

All I knew was the RED 'H' and I'd got so used to the Civic that it was the natural choice to buy an FN2. I wouldn't know where to start with a car from another manufacturer.

Mark
 
i had a deer jump out on me for the first time the other night whilst enjoying a spirited drive. can honestly say I struggled to not s**t my pants!
 
3-year old thread but oh-so-relevant

For me it was pursuit of RELIABILITY in a 3-door hatch

Wherever you look there are fancypants designs claiming fancy power/torque numbers, silly-low mpg and save-a-whale credentials. Fake vents/exhausts/sounds may come as a bonus. Don't get me started on the fancy autoboxes that self-destruct after a few years (go well when they're new though!)

In reality they are all heavily compromised designs expected to meet ever-tightening emissions/noise/consumption regulations at an unrealistic price point.
So you go stage1 gain 60bhp (whoohooo!) and risk breaking a string of items in the chain because you've assumed that the safety margins are the same as they used to be in the old days.
But they are not, are they. Cars today are only meant to last until the longest manufacturer warranty expires, then you are meant to dump it and buy a new one.
Like a fridge or a washing machine. Cars are not built to last for generations, everything is made as cheaply and flimsy as they can get away with.

In my eyes the FN2 may be the last of the dinosaurs, a design balanced for an honest mix of performance, reliability, longevity and ease of maintenance.

/rant
 
I had looked at ST's when i was looking at my Type R (bought 3 weeks ago) as they were really the only 2 cars that were sticking out to replace my BMW with, the ones i wanted were just out of reach on my budget, or if they were in budget they had the tacky/gaudy cloth seats, i much preferred the leather Recaro's to the cloth on the ST, the CTR interior is a much nicer place to be IMO, really slick shifting in the box, The CTR has better fuel consumption and ST is a bit nose heavy with that Volvo T5 lump in it, any of the R32's and GTI's i seen when looking around were also out of budget or had higher mileage on them than i wanted(100k+)

Suppose it depends on what you like, i also ride motorcycles so quite like a revvy engine, have also had a few petrol turbo cars as well so understand the appeal of both, best thing is to get a test drive of each and make your mind up from there, also check for signs of accident damage as 3 of the ctr's i looked at all had signs of repair work, and not to a high standard either.

Well seeing as this thread was brought back from the dead and I'd only had the FN2 a couple of weeks when i originally posted i will give more of a long-termer review, I still own the car, Its been fairly reliable, the only thing i have had to get replaced was the exhaust, and i had to get a custom exhaust shop to do the work, mines had rotted out at the resonator box under the drivers seat, the reason i had to go custom was because the only place that does exhausts for the FN2 Type R is Honda themselves, there are no pattern replacement exhaust parts for the FN2 Type r made by the likes of bosal, Honda UK wanted £230 for the centre Section, the custom place charged me £120 to build the same thing without the resonator box, still in stainless like the OEM, I didn't want to go aftermarket cos I'm 40 and i knew the noise on a daily driver would just end up ****ing me off, its a little louder than stock but its easily livable with.

I've Previously owned Japanese built EK model civics before and i would say the UK design/build quality isn't as good as a Japanese built/designed civics, there's also things that i believe the Japanese would never have let slide as well, for instance the seats, they are comfy, and look good, but they are also annoying as f*** as when you let someone in the back they all need to be re-adjusted again, if its a sunny day and you clean your windows with your washer bottle you end up with a wet inner door handle cloth/window switches or a wet arm if you rest it on window sill as the water rolls up onto the roof and right over the edge of the top of the door, the info screen on the dash is also known to fail quite commonly, and the radio on mines decides to **** itself a few times a year by overheating and sending a high pitch whine through the speakers, even if you turn it off it turn itself back on and off like its caught in a thermal shutoff loop, their all "niggly" little things but they do add up, its still a reliable car, nothing has went on it that stopped me from using it in 3 years other than the battery going slightly flat cos the interior light somehow got left on and i hadn't used it in a couple of days. the ride overall is harsh for a standard car especially on crap potholed UK roads, but it does have pretty sharp steering to go with it when the spirited driving comes into play.

Would i miss it if i sold it tomorrow? honestly? I don't think I would, I miss the BMW that it replaced, but i think if i sold it tomorrow i wouldn't miss it, I don't think i would stay with Honda either, there isn't anything in my price range in their line up that would take my fancy, I do like the newer type R's but they are so far out of my price range that i don't even bother looking at them, and even if i did have £15k+ to spend on one that can get you a hell of a lot of car from other manufacturers...Honda lost their way a long time ago as a manufacturer of good, fun, performance based cars IMO.

I also tend to now be along a few farmers roads/tracks for multiple disciplines of shooting so would want something with a lot more ground clearance and AWD as a minimum, had looked at Ford Rangers and Mitsubishi Warriors as they have the option for 4X4 drive for getting to where i need to be in a field in middle of nowhere instead of hiking it. only reason i haven't pulled the trigger is cos the Civic is bought and paid for and costs/owes me nothing.

So yeah to summarise...its an decent reliable all rounder hot hatch with a few niggles.

PS..Anytime I've done work on the car most things have been awkward or fought me, the oil filter is in a really awkward spot right next to the drive shaft and you need a double jointed wrist to reach it, to replace the spark plugs you have to disassemble the cowl assembly at the windscreen first, doing the front brake discs fought me and my brother like no car we have ever crossed before, the discs were almost welded to the hub with rust as the hub mounting face is quite tight with the discs hat and after x amount of years the disc corrosion grows around it making it a nightmare to get off (I'm an ex mechanic and my brothers been a mechanic 30 years) it took an hour of relentless pounding on each disc from the underside of the car with a lump hammer to get them off, we tried winding bolts into the tapped face on the discs hat to act as a puller from the hub and it broke all the surrounding metal on the mounting face around it...never seen anything like it, rears were no problem, they were on and off like any other car.
 
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I'd agree re: oil filter location, well-hidden plugs and ground clearance. And seat settings of course. (we'll see about the others lol)
I'm hoping the firm ride will get better with new tyres and new shocks.

However I've found the engine bay condition a revelation compared to other 11-year old cars I've seen.
A Calibra turbo I sold 15 years ago for example had rusted to bits in the same timespan. Every plastic was tired and cracked, metals were rusty as hell, electrics were rotten and playing up. The bonnet was dripping rust, both doors were beyond repair.
The Honda looks like the Calibra must have been couple of years after it left the factory.
French cars aren't much better, and Germans don't do a much better job lately either, do they.

Maybe Honda will follow their example, who knows with this race to the bottom.
In my view Toyota and Honda rule the roost in build quality - sold a SupraTT with 120K on the clock and it was still kicking @ss despite running a lot more boost than stock. Nothing had fallen off, everything was still working.
Try that with EuroCrap

/rant
 
I had a Calibra back in 2000, it was a 91 H plate and had some rust spots here and there, nothing structural but it was already there, the engine bay condition of mines wasn't bad to be fair, I probably wouldn't buy a Vauxhall now and i would have said I was a vaux guy in my early driving days, have had quite a few of them at one point, my dad has an insignia and he recently had to get the timing chains and guides all done due to excess stretch and it throwing cam timing codes despite it having a FSH and under 30k miles. French and Italian cars I've never owned cos i used to work on them, worked for a dealer that did a mix of Renault, Lancia, Alfa and Pug, owned a few of BMW's cars and can't really fault them, they have been solid vehicles IME, I was never into Merc's but one of the girls in work has one that's about 6 years old and its never out of the garage getting stuff done, but my mum's 2006 c160 coupe has been a decent wee car for the past 7 years she's owned it

Part of the issue why i haven't bought another car is because i haven't found anything that i actually really "want" to justify spending the money, the Ford ranger was about the last thing i considered seriously but they are just out of reach for a privately owned one that hasn't been run into the ground cos its been used as a tradesman's vehicle, fancied a Forester Turbo too but the chocolate ringlands and bottom ends always kinda kept me at arms bay from them
 
Thanks for all the replies, I thought there would be a lot of different reasons out there.
Do you get the GT version without satnav? And what's the edition with the 19" rage wheels called please?
Still learning and looking to see what's out there for sale.

Their isnt a edition with the rage alloys, but honda did do a massive recall.....
To replace your backbone..after that they got fed up and supplied you one as a extra with the car. Its under spare
Wheel, not many know that...:p
On serious note, It was between type r, vxr and st. Went with reliability and I think the styling is along way ahead off the other two. Plus storys of vxr gearbox being made of chocolate and cracked liners on st. It also comes down to cost, I think you get alot more for your money and mileage..
But god do the rage alloys ride crazy hard still got them ***, but honda fed up with me, on my sixth backbone..
 
We now hear of fancy new cars losing big ends and piston rings for no apparent reason, even when not really stressed. I think design/manufacturing standards are dropping year by year, yet people think they are still the same as when their parents were buying cars. Engine bays get smaller and smaller to save weight and preserve crumble zones, but hotter and hotter with all the cats/turbos/what-have-yous.
Adequate air intakes are now an anathema because they increase fuel consumption, so they fit fake vents and you end up with a cooked engine.

Manufacturers are not penalised for shoddy designs that deteriorate within a few years, I don't think they care much about reputation any more, just short-term sales.
My Pug206 has autobox 'sealed for life', so you are told to forget it's even there. Really? After 60K miles the oil is in appalling state and they still claim it's all good. They want you to buy a new car, maintenance and longevity *loses* them money.

/grumpy ol git
 
We now hear of fancy new cars losing big ends and piston rings for no apparent reason, even when not really stressed. I think design/manufacturing standards are dropping year by year, yet people think they are still the same as when their parents were buying cars. Engine bays get smaller and smaller to save weight and preserve crumble zones, but hotter and hotter with all the cats/turbos/what-have-yous.
Adequate air intakes are now an anathema because they increase fuel consumption, so they fit fake vents and you end up with a cooked engine.

Manufacturers are not penalised for shoddy designs that deteriorate within a few years, I don't think they care much about reputation any more, just short-term sales.
My Pug206 has autobox 'sealed for life', so you are told to forget it's even there. Really? After 60K miles the oil is in appalling state and they still claim it's all good. They want you to buy a new car, maintenance and longevity *loses* them money.

/grumpy ol git

That is replicated across the board in all aspects of manufacturing just not cars, cheap materials charged at high prices. Just the way of the world, supply and demand, if people are willing to pay it then it will just carry on and on and on. I see this in my job everyday....
 
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We now hear of fancy new cars losing big ends and piston rings for no apparent reason, even when not really stressed. I think design/manufacturing standards are dropping year by year, yet people think they are still the same as when their parents were buying cars. Engine bays get smaller and smaller to save weight and preserve crumble zones, but hotter and hotter with all the cats/turbos/what-have-yous.
Adequate air intakes are now an anathema because they increase fuel consumption, so they fit fake vents and you end up with a cooked engine.

Manufacturers are not penalised for shoddy designs that deteriorate within a few years, I don't think they care much about reputation any more, just short-term sales.
My Pug206 has autobox 'sealed for life', so you are told to forget it's even there. Really? After 60K miles the oil is in appalling state and they still claim it's all good. They want you to buy a new car, maintenance and longevity *loses* them money.

/grumpy ol git

I don't think we can solely blame manufacturers, they have to try and meet constantly changing tighter and tighter legislation on emissions and ever increasing independent safety standards like euro Ncap, and they have to do all of that and still be able to sell it for close to the same price as their current/previous models...not to mention cramming in things for entertainment/navigation and connectivity, so it only makes sense that somethings gotta give somewhere, especially if its relatively newer engine technologies, there's less room for error for things to go wrong...but i do think in general cars have got better in the modern age, nostalgia does **** with peoples opinions and if you took a performance model car of today and drove them back to back and compared it to one from 1995 or 2000 most people will probably chose the new car for being the better machine...cos they are.

Hell, lets take a bog standard cooking model car for example....say a KIA Ceed... according to KIA their 1 litre petrol engine pumps out 118bhp...118bhp a litre...for a bog standard shopping car...some of the best performance model Honda's we all love were doing well to put out 100bhp a litre, when you start having to finely tune things at that level then you have to lighten everything in the whole reciprocating mass, pistons, rods, rod BOLTS, crank etc, everything is considered from an efficiency standpoint, even oil pumps on some cars nowadays are variable just to help keep excess drag off the engine to help emissions and MPG, but they still has to maintain enough of a margin of safety so that it lasts beyond the 7 years warranty, so yeah there probably isn't enough of a margin of being able to boost these newer engines to produce much more power without having to change a lot of stuff...its the way of the modern world, but do you really need to given the fact the range already has decent BHP per litre figures? i think we just need to change our thinking when purchasing the car as modifiers and just buy the model with the right amount of power in the first place than thinking if can turn up the boost and get xxx increase in power.
 
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