2004 Honda Civic Review: Possibly the Very Best Value Compact Car You're Going to Find on the Market Today

Karl on June 23, 2024

I have been driving this Civic for 20 years and it is the longest running of all my cars. I paid $13,000 drive out from a dealership here in Texas. The present mileage is 203,000 miles. It has been very dependable with the main items needing repair were a hub bearing, starter, and about a year ago the blower fan motor. a/c still works and compressor is original. Spark plugs lasted 100,000 miles twice. Oil changes at roughly 3,500 miles. I work with a mechanic who wants the car as he has an Acura engine he wants to put in it. He's got a long wait!

Zippy on September 13, 2022

I bought my 2004 Honda three years ago. I love this car Great gas mileage, dependable. I have it regularly maintained. I actually got it from my mechanic. I was tired of being married to car payments. It only had 46,000 miles on it Happy Girl with her little Zippy ! And yes she can burn rubber ! Laugh at my 2004 used car But, I bet you can't say it costs me only 40 a week for gas. I travel 2 hours a day !

Eazy moneyy on May 17, 2021

Car was compete trash. Paid $3500 for it and had it for less than 1 month and it broke down. After that it was 1 repair after another. Had the car for 2 years, put 5k bucks worth of repairs on it and it was still breaking down. Unless it's the VTEC version don't waste your time or money.

FrugalityBear on March 21, 2021

This car is amazing! It is great on gas and keeps on going with just giving it the most minimal maintenance. My car is nearing 300,000 miles and I have yet to have any engine, transmission, or A/C issues since I bought it new.

Cman6 on November 1, 2020

This car was great for me. Very nice driving experience, and fast. I love the way it looks. It never gave up or broke down, I love driving hondas.

Curtis "Owl" on October 11, 2020

I love this car. Its perfect for me. Room for customization. The motor is dependable. Fuel efficiency is excellent. I will be making this car custom over time. I know I got a good deal.

Jj on September 2, 2020

No worries with this car. Just maintain by the book and it will do its job. It's actually gotten more endearing aS the years go on.

MonicaB on July 21, 2020

I want to sell my car. Its a Honda 2004. Its black and its in good condition. The size of the car is good. The inside of the car looks comfortable and its new. The car is in good condition.

ty.cd on May 7, 2020

I bought my 2004 Honda Civic Coupe DX Special Edition 5 speed manual 1.7 non vtec in October 2019 for $500cad. The car at the time had 258,000km (160,000 miles), I sold the car in march of 2020 with 264,500km. The car had unfortunately been neglected. The tires were bald, no tread left at all, the brake rotors were warped, the trunk had no spare tire. The wipers were falling apart, the rear tint was turning purple, when you let off the gas in gear there was a very loud grinding noise, the ac didnt work, the power steering fluid was burnt, there was not very much coolant, the oil was very very black, and there was a mouse nest behind the glove compartment in the cabin air filter and in a box in the trunk full of spare cv axles. The car didnt have any options, it had a/c and an upgraded stereo though. I still thought it was pretty comfortable. I was surprised to see the base model didn't have a height adjustable driver seat, but I was fine with where it was. There was no center armrest, which I got used to pretty easily and didn't mind anyway since it was a stick. No cruise control on the DX but I didn't really take it out of town much anyway. Manual windows, no keyfob or anything, but it did suprisingly have power locks. Basically an (almost) bare bones economy car. Which is completely fine. The stereo was actually suprisingly good and bassy. The interior design was very good in my opinion. I had previously owned a 2004 focus and think that this civic looks alot more proffesional and stands the test of time alot better. Onto performance - this car was definetly slow. Like I said I had a 04 focus, and that had the 2.0dohc zetec engine, it was alot quicker and I definetely noticed a difference switching to this car. I live 3500ft above sea level which does not help my acceleration, I timed my 0-60 at about 15 seconds. Which even for a 4 banger is bad. This could just of been my civic though. Either way, the lack of acceleration was completely made up for in the gas mileage. For the time I owned this car, I got 5.7l/100km (41.3mpg) average at best and 10.5l/100km (22.0mpg) at worst. Overall my average throughout all my refuellings was 7.5l/100km (31.4mpg) which is very good considering 90% of my driving is in town. Gas cost me about 7 cents/km to drive this. Also, this is a very good looking car in my opinion. No its not a ferrari but compared to its competition in 2004 (focus, corolla, aveo, cobalt etc) I think it has stood the test of time the best and still doesnt look too old. So reliability wise, all those issues I said, I fixed them. I spent a total of $687cad fixing this car. I pulled the whole engine and transmission out of the car and replaced the, timing belt, water pump, input/output shaft bearing, clutch, brake pads and rotors, transmission fluid, cabin and engine air filters, and oil n filters and misc stuff. This is a very easy car to work on. Everything is very simple and theres not alot of wires, covers, hoses, blocking off your view from the engine. Unfortunately, the engine developed a rod knock after I mustve pushed it a little too hard trying to merge into the highway. It was probably from the lack of care for the vehicle from the previous owner. But I ended up selling the car for 800$ cad. I'm now deciding between a manual civic sedan, or a manual focus wagon as my next winter beater.

Fizerack on April 5, 2020

It went 250,000 with just regular maintenance. Then a radiator leak. Now 300k and still runs like new. EX manual with 127 HP V-Tech is preferable IMO. Original alternator, A/C, power steering and more. I'm 69 and this is the most reliable car I've owned.