The Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla are big-time sellers in the United States. Buyers go after the Civics and Corollas when they need a compact car with great gas mileage.
With several different models of the Civic and Corolla, this article does a side by side comparison of the 2014 Honda Civic HF and the Toyota Corolla LE Eco because they are the most fuel efficient gasoline engines (best gas mileage excepting the respective hybrid models).
It was an interesting side by side comparison, but here’s the gist: with basically the same gas mileage, horsepower, and size, there were really only two objective and definite differences safety and transmission.
“he Toyota Corolla achieved a Top Safety Pick rating from the IIHS, but the Civic beats it with a Top Safety Pick +. The new “+” rating from the IIHS addresses how a car reacts to a “small overlap” front crash, for example, when an oncoming car veers out of its lane and hits another car head-on, but with only a 25 percent overlap. It’s difficult to manage all that energy with such a small crash area, but the Civic managed a “Good” rating, while the Corolla only achieved a “Marginal” score.”
The 2014 Honda Civic has a standard five-speed transmission versus the Toyota Corolla’s two-speed CVT, “and that would be a deciding factor in choosing between the two.” The two-speed CVT makes the driving “experience even more foreign by maintaining engine speed, giving you the sensation that no matter how aggressively you step on the throttle, the engine isn’t spooling up the way you think it should.”
Stop by Apple Valley Honda, Sims Honda, or Northwest Honda dealership to take the 2014 Honda Civic HF (or any other Civic) out for a test drive!