compact car shoppers have an age-old
choice between two popular name plates
the Toyota Corolla and the honda civic
and we have the latest vintage of both
cars here in a 20-17 honda civic ax and
a 20-17 toyota corolla fe so both of
these cars are twenty-three thousand
dollars with destination so let's take a
look at what are you getting one and on
the other but most importantly which one
should buy well start here with the
styling and I don't know about you Joe
buts the front end of this corolla which
is just refreshed for the 2017 model
year is just really bizarre looking just
a very big kind of almost dash of an
open bumper here just a lot going on
it's a really aggressive look but what I
like up front are the standard LED
headlights and also the LED daytime
running lights it has a very distinctive
face but it's kind of like putting
lipstick on a pig because while from
here forward looks great from the front
fender back it's just your regular old
Corolla I mean this thing is in need of
a big redesign to get the kind of
styling cohesiveness that you find in
the Civic yeah and that takes us over
the Pacific which with this redesign
here the current generation Civic is
actually just a really interesting
looking car to look at in terms of its
profile a lot of kind of body back here
over and around the rear fender I know
about you but this kind of looks like a
hatchback more than a sedan which is
strange because they also offer a
hatchback of this now and it looks very
similar up front what I really like is
this low hood it slow and why it has
almost sports car like proportions to it
so we're in the corolla right now
electro civic it's got a four-cylinder
engine a little bit smaller than the
civics engine though and i'd say power
is adequate yeah you know it has 132
horsepower and it feels like a hundred
exciting here but at the same time
almost more importantly it doesn't feel
underpowered yeah I feel adequate I mean
there's a continuously variable
automatic transmission year as well as
in the Civic and this kind of tries to
mimic a traditional automatic
transmission sometimes was kind of up
shifts and downshift it's just kind of
wandered around trying to make you feel
like you're zooming around even though
you aren't ya the car can be deceiving
if it has been very aggressive front
styling and he's very aggressively
bolstered seat but there's also not
really a shred of sporting them in out
hands let's talk about these seats for a
second so these are really really
heavily both your seats I think you
mentioned those are sort of confining
and they kind of crampy end okay yeah I
mean I'm a skinny guy look at me but
they feel like they are just really
hugging me like a real sport thing and
they also have these sort of leatherette
or vinyl bolsters here with actual cloth
down the center so you didn't actually
get a real leather seat but your
passengers might think you did because
these bolsters which stick out a ton
they're obviously quite of some kind of
premium material here now in contrast to
kind of the royalty is a very normal
multimedia system now you've got your
volume knob you've got your cleaning
knob you've got you know some buttons
around your very large display here
reasonably responsive digital controls
mail that crisis gets volume up got a
tuning knob that's what we asked for
because you do have those capacitive
controls where they do away with
traditional
Dobson's Isles so while this gets the
pass on the tactile function of what we
want the software the digital portion is
just really not up to the Civic yeah
pretty much a lot of small cars these
days even offer apple carplay android
auto to smartphone integration systems
you plug in you either android or apple
iphone into and they work immediately a
Toyota wants you to download their Scout
navigation system and I don't know just
give me carplay let me plug in something
I have to download it works right away
yeah I agree you know carplay and
android autos are using the native
navigation apps on your phone and you
can buy a car without navigation and
with those have navigation now the way
Toyota does with a scout GPS you have to
download the Scout half and then you're
using that app which have used and it's
fine but I don't think it has smart for
sleek as Google Maps or these Apple maps
all right color the Civic now and it has
a whopping 150 horsepower but of course
about all about horsepower that
transmission make a huge if yeah it's
also a CVT like in the corolla but not
all CVTs are the same and i'm going to
say the civics really does a lot with
the power that it has just have makes
you feel like you're actually doing
something with your right foot in terms
of getting the Reds to change and this
much more fun to drive this is the
basement so 2.0 liter yes I the option
of a turbocharged 1.5 liter def Enda you
want yeah there's no question there if
you can swing the 1.5 liter yeah
it's a really fun car to really kind of
throw around actually as a steering the
one is excellent i mean it's just a
superbly quick steering ratio you just
get into the corner and what that means
is you know even just a few degrees of
turning immediately kind of read points
the nose it just makes it a lot of fun
to toss them out on winding road yeah it
is I obtained it rotates really nicely
on the corners and the greatest part is
I mean I love driving this car I think
it's a blast to drive he wants the CVT
and the base engine missing handled so
well it really just kind of dialed up a
higher degree of ride quality you know
we talk about comfort versus quality and
ride quality and its really really good
one thing not so good this thing right
here the center stack the multimedia
system it's a touchscreen here in our
test car reasonably responsive in terms
of just getting around the menus and
stuff but there aren't actually any
physical buttons next to the screen
instead you get all this capacitive
touch junk right here like a volume
slider there's capacitive touch buttons
for a bunch of other shortcuts there's
no tuning not know now there is a
workaround you have the volume thumb
wheel on the steering wheel and that
very quickly you swipe it fast and and
then you slice it again in the volume
so not because the need for that
actually I think it works fine but the
fact that he don't work alone just in
stereo I mean I'm just not a fan of it a
very cool visual part of the Civic's
interior is this instrument panel here
it's got a very cool animation to start
up but shows a lot of useful information
from the big old digital speedometer
tells you how fast you're going to kind
of a sweeping needle for the tack and a
lot of reconfigurable excretes very rare
that you get this outside of the luxury
realm and that it's this well done in a
car as inexpensive as the Civic the
anesthetics interior as a whole is just
a lot more stylistically impressive and
that visual dashboard is the highlight
because the corolla has a traditional
analog tachometer and speedometer this
is not only digital with a digital
subtle right now the corolla certainly
has some value things going for it first
of all all those safety features that
forward collision warning the lane
sensing all that stuff is actually
standard now in the 2017 corolla and you
get two three years of maintenance
alright but for twenty three thousand
dollars it's your money what are you
gonna spend it on I don't know I got to
say I think the civic still has more
utility better quality and it just rides
better so for my money I think I'm going
for the civic what about you do if we're
talking just these two it's going to be
civic hands down I mean this thing is a
right to drive and I mean for 23 grand
you're getting a lot and you add into
style yeah its objective but it's just
interesting that digital dashboard and
then you put the CVT in sport mode and
it doesn't really feel like a CVT Civic
you have questions not even a close call
here pretty much Civic in agreement
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