D R I V E N

Okay, I change my mind.  I’ve always said that there would be nothing more memorable than driving the Porsche 911 993 Cabriolet or lapping the BMW Z4 3.0i.  I am so wrong.  With just an asking price of 780,000 pesos, the refreshed Honda Civic VTi with a five-speed manual transmission can offer a much more exciting experience than any German car could ever offer.

Joining Nissan Motor Philippines in the morning for the X-Trail Media Drive, which is an event all to itself, I had to rush back to finish taping the last part of The Rev Challenge and pick-up a couple of motoring journalist buddies.  Of course, I was blessed to drive the X-Trail 200X with cooperative weather.  It wasn’t meant to last.  By the time the director wrapped up the shooting, it was already drizzling.  When we headed back to Caylabne to join the group from NMPI, it was raining cats and dogs.  Despite the weather, I obliged Vernon and Lester to have a go in the X-Trail.  In exchange, I drove the Honda Civic VTi that Lester brought.

It takes a careful eye to notice the differences with the 2003 Honda Civic.  The changes are limited to lower front bumper, which features a rather ubiquitous smiling mouth cut-out; a new grille that’s been chromed up, new circular clustered rear lamps and sportier split-spoke alloys.  Like before, the VTi’s interior is underwhelming—the gray and black trim still abound.  Minor changes include the champagne silver trimming that now extends to the cup holders and the area between the front passengers, a rather misplaced wooden manual shift knob, and a harder to operate CD player system.  It’s not all negative in here however.  Honda has added LED gauges that great improve the readability of the Civic’s dials.

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