Honda Civic Problems

A good tip, thanks.

Both cars are good ones, and I’m sure you would be happy with either of them. If I had to choose I would probably go for the Mazda, for its economy and servicing costs, and I believe it would be a little more comfortable. The Civic is a very good car, though; it’s well built and a delight to drive.

Those symptoms definitely point to something amiss in the auto, so head to a transmission specialist. You'll get expert service and it's also likely to be cheaper than at a Honda dealer.

You could use a 0-30W oil, which is readily available.

Things have changed since you bought the Civic, with most Japanese carmakers going backwards through the GFC. As for our Euro bias, we actually think the Koreans now make better cars than most of the Japanese brands.

People have always bought Alfas with their hearts and they are behind the Japanese on reliability and resale. There is an updated Giulietta coming next year, which I recently drove in Italy and enjoyed. Try it.

If you only had to spend $452 on repairs over the 12 years you've owned your car you've had a very good run out of it. You really need to decide if you're going to keep it or not. If you're going to keep it get the dents knocked out and tidy it up. If you're going to move it on don't bother. A dealer won't give you any more for it if it was undented than he would if it has a few bumps and scrapes. Given its age it's probably best to trade it in on a new car.

So you still have to consider the Mazda3, which definitely gets The Tick. Forced to choose, I'd take the Focus because it's a nicer drive and the Civic is really nothing special in 2014.

I doubt that it's related to the automatic gearbox, the engine is running roughly and is sluggish when cold. That points to a problem with the cold enrichment of the engine, and I would be getting it hooked up to a diagnostic analyser and checking things like the sensors that supply information to the car's computer.