akshay_d

I couldn't find any previous discussion on this topic so posting it. Please excuse me or redirect me to a thread that already discusses this.

I am in a dilemma to choose between these two cars as I am a PhD student and am constrained to keep my budget within 20K OTR. I found many articles saying that the civic SI was a better buy but couldn't get hold of one on to whether the LX is a better VFM package?

What do you guys think is the better Value For Money packaged within $20K OTR?

Thanks in Advance.

brian

I'll tell you right now just about everyone on this board will tell you to get the tc, this IS a scion board, but I will suggest you something else. What you SHOULD do is take an afternoon and go test drive both cars BACK to BACK and see which one you like better. The civic from what I can tell is in fairly high demand so I'm not sure how much they are haggling on them, but I'm sure you can get a great price on one while Scion's are pure priced (no haggling, you pay sticker).

Nonetheless, I love my tC

Zebman

You're obviously going to get a lot of bias here. Ask on a general car forum for straight-up opinions.

To be honest though, i'd get the Civic, because I can't imagine the tC being fun with an automatic transmission. Just my opinion though. Plus, being a student, the mileage is not going to help you. At all.

exige

just my two cents...in reply to the last post, i have an AT tC and couldn't be happier with it. its a very fun car to drive and im very satisfied. im sure the civic is a great car too. id test drive both and do some reviewing on edmunds.com and see what you come up with.

akshay_d

I haven't driven the civic yet but did test drive the AT and MT tC and it is greattt ... and that the reason I posted this Q here. Nut I will surely try posting on some other forums too.

What I really wanted is if anyone who got a tC recently since the Civic 06 released and had the Civic among his options?

exige

i cant respond to that specific question, but i can tell you on a side note, what really got me hooked onto the tc was the ability to customize and make it your own. from the simple stuff, like the rear lip spoiler, or the lights in the footwells, to the in depth stuff, like the superchargers and turbos, there isnt a better car to have.

i noticed in the first post that you mentioned the civic si. you cant compare the base tc to civic si. first off, the si is 21 grand i think, but secondly, if you wanna compare higher-hp tc's and civics, you have to do the supercharger vs. the si.

i remember a magazine article a while back that did that. the tc got whomped because scion sent a tc loaded with stuff like rims, a sub, interior lights, a spoiler, etc, etc. yet scion has a lot of great handling improvement stuff and none of it got sent. on the other hand, the si came loaded with springs, strut and sway bars, and performance stuff to boost the handling. the fight would have been a whole different ballgame if scion had done that.

Tc4Real

I must agree with the previous poster. Value for money and having driven both cars I would go with the Tc. When comparing equally equipped/hp cars (which would be the civic si and the Tc w/ supercharger, struts/shocks, tie bar, springs) the Tc will walk all over the si. They put out equal amounts of hp but the Tc will boast 200 lbs feet of torque where as the civic only boasts in the ballpark of 140. The Tc also comes into its power band much earlier than the Si, the Si doesn't hit full hp until about 7800 rpm with an 8k rpm redline. I believe the Tc redlines around 7k (don't quote me) with a 6500 or so max power band. You'll also be looking at approximately the same amount of money involved. If you go with just the base cars you should purchase the civic if you want pure gas mileage as they boast about 8 greater mpg than the Tc with the gas conscious motor. Hope I helped and didn't make an idiot of myself with all the info.

akshay_d

Thanks Tc4Real. This is the kind of response I was looking for and it confirmed some of my power and torque related beliefs. I am a bit biased towards the tC now having driven it.

But I may think of making modifications in future when I save some money. So I will start of with the base model for now and then maybe later more to add.

But still I will surely test drive the Civic and I did hear that it slugs a bit due to its low torque. And I also did see people getting 33-34 best mpg with their tCs on the highway. So the tC maynot be that bad either ..

Here is something you should look at though
http://www.autoweb.com/content/share...le_id_int/1971

brian

yup, the new rabbit is pretty sick.

TrafficinLA

Valuewise, the LX Civic and tC are about the same depending on what you want out of a car. For speed, torque, moonroof, wheels, etc. The tC is better. For number of doors, mileage, interior fit and finish, fuel economy etc., the LX Civic will serve you better.

Oh, and look at the new VW Rabbit as well. They have good standard options and a 150hp/170tq 5-cyclinder engine. Just make sure that you have a dealer nearby with good VW service because VWs have a history of bad electrical systems.

CuRiOuSfIsH

1 thing that stands on the CIvic over other cars is the flat rear floor if youre in need of back leg room. But it's about what you want and how you feel in each car. If youre planning to have a family in the near future, I would highly suggest a Civic sedan. 6 air bags standard! tC has more toys and more power but Civic is arguably the better investment in the long run.

06CStC

The tC got its ___ handed to it. Too bad it was outfitted with a bunch of stuff that didnt help on the track or the street as far as performance goes, except for the s/c, almost makes it unfair. Although, non of the other cars had much add-ons anywayz.
________
Dodge kahuna history

mdkflip

I was in the same situation recently when I was deciding on what car to get. My two top choices were the Scion Tc and the Civic Si. If it's price were talking about they aren't much different when equally equipped, but what sealed the deal for me was the fact that the Civic Si requires premium gasoline. I don't know about you, but I am paying around 3.30 a gallon for gas, and the last thing I need is to fill it up with premium. Of course if you opted for the regular Civic then you would obviously have better gas mileage, but you would lose the performance that the Si has. I ended up getting myself a Scion Tc and couldn't be happier with my choice.
Of course other people who don't have the problem of paying for their own car or insurance would probably tell you to go with the Civic Si, but in the land of reality you might want to take that into account.

Mosi

While out shopping for an around town car, we test drove the Mazda 3.. nice car but they are everywhere. Then the Honda Fit... cool little car but WOW that's a buzzy engine! Looked at the new Rabbit but the dealerships are charging a 2-3k markup because there are very few. Test drove the xB and really like that. Then drove a Civic LX and they only had one because of another shortage. Out of all of the cars I drove, the Civic was by far the most boring and linear. It felt like a big car and had a very unresponsive throttle feel.
Then we went back to the Scion dealership directly after the Civic test drive and drove the tC auto. WAY WAY more fun to drive! My wife and I both cracked a big smile as we drove off the lot. Sporty, econinomical compaired to our other 91 octane gas guzzling cars (G35x and LR Discovery II), and there aren't a butt load of them on the road. Also, we had an RSX-S 2.5 years ago that we got rid of because of the complete lack of torque... had to be in VTEC to get anything done which sucked down fuel.
Anyway, the next day I cut them a check for the tC... nuff said

akshay_d

Heee Hee , thanks for the replies guys. I felt the same thing when I test drove the tC out of the parking lot. Its peppy and handles very well. Also its so easy to park too and does feel like a sports car on the inside.

yesti

The manual tC is geared way low which might be fun for pulling away from stop lights, but for all other street driving having 2 'useless' gears seems a little silly. Put boost in there and the first two gears become useless (notice the absense of quotes). And the manual gets worse mileage than the auto on the tC.

We have two autos and get ~24 mpg driving the ____ out of the cars and high 20's to low 30's freeway. The manual needs one more gear or better ratios overall.

The auto tC makes great use of the engine's torque band. It definately is a slushbox, but it is also a rather smart tranny when it holds gear going up hills. And the 60-80 passing ability is always a pleasure.

I had an old civic before the tC and was going to buy another civic until I saw what I could get in the tC. Toyota quality, 'camry' engine, 4 wheel disc brakes, no haggling at the dealership. So we bought two.

krdshrk

Value for the money wise, I say get the tC. If you priced the Civic LX with comparable accessories that you would get stock for the tC, you'd be paying much more.

brian

You have to keep in mind that there is haggle room while on Scion there is NONE. That is a huge factor because a car that has a sticker price of $18k can most likely be had for $15k or less.

roflitzjinno

PERSONALLY id say get the honda fit, toyota yaris, or nissan versa. ALL cars under 20k and are gas savers since gas is going up and not want to come down anytime soon. so id say stick with a car that is great on gas. my .02 =]]]

also <3 honda fit

QK5ILVR

I'm sorry yesti but when i went and looked at brand new tcs it seemed to me that the milage ratings on the manual were slightly better than the auto. I check my gas milage every time i fill up and im getting close to 27-28 average each time i fill up. Correct me if im wrong but i believe that the manual gets better gas milage then the auto