Find Reviews by Make:
The Honda Civic and Volvo XC90 took home another set of awards Monday morning in Detroit, this time for North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year.
The Civic, now in its tenth generation, is built in Indiana and Ontario. The XC90 is manufactured in Torslanda, Sweden.
32 Comments on “Honda Civic, Volvo XC90 Take Home North American COTY, TUOTY Honors...”
Read all comments
Honda doesn’t need the accolade and Volvo’s in hospice care.
And Rideheight makes yet another tossaway comment.
FYI, Volvo had their best sales year ever in 2015.
“FYI, Volvo had their best sales year ever in 2015.”
Go here, thou silly person, bottom table:
http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2012/10/volvo-brand-sales-figures-usa-canada.html
Boom! RH bringing facts to a nonsense post.
Volvo’s sales grew 8% last year to 503,127 worldwide. That’s the first time they’ve ever been over a half million.
Sweden was up 16% to 71,200, the rest of Europe up 8.7% to 198,049, the US up 24.3% to 70,047. China was flat at 81,588.
So, they did have their best year ever in 2015.
You must be a foreigner. Nobody here cares or calculates about the junklands across the Big Waters.
Don’t mind RH,
He hates being wrong and hasn’t gotten over the fact that the US is only the #2 car market these days.
That’s me!
It amuses me that the new Civic gets so much love where the Accord Crosstour, which was the exact same shape, was panned as being ugly.
And the Crosstour at least had a hatch to go with the bulbous shape.
My local Honda dealer has both on their lot…completely different size and shape. Don’t go by internet pictures. The Civic does NOT look like a hatch in person. I’m a Honda fanboy, and even I absolutely hate the way the Crosstour looks.
I like the Crosstour’s looks. And this Civic’s. To be honest, the Civic looks more like a shrunken and more tasteful BMW GT than a Crosstour.
What was the Civic up against? The XC90’s award is yet another that will live in infamy when the CUV’s compound supercharged engine becomes synonymous with disappointed know-nothings.
Naaah, it’ll be fine! Volvo is very good at making engines and drivetrains without issues, since 1995.
How many years had the engines they sorted out in 1995 been in production? Physics is a thing. This is by far the hardest engine they’ve had in terms of potential thermal and lubrication issues, not to mention sheer complexity.
I was TOTALLY being sarcastic. 1995 was when their general reliability fell off a cliff, and they’ve not recovered.
Last time Volvo had a problem engine was the infamous inline 6 they put in the early gen 960s (think 1992 or thereabouts). After that, the engines were trouble free. They did have transmission issues in 2000-03 years, when they were marketing “lifetime” fluid in the transmissions, which obviously didn’t work. Just like it didn’t work for other brands that were doing same thing.
Volvo shot their sturdy ‘whiteblock’ straight six in the kneecap when they reengineered it with lower friction in mind. The low tension oil rings on the pistons and thinner oil wreaked havoc, these things are oil burners. An otherwise million mile motor (understressed, inherently balanced, gear-driven(!) valvetrain) ruined in one fell swoop.
My recollection is that both of my XC70s (a 2008 and a 2012 both bought new) burned/used oil. Both of them had the 3.2 liter (non-turbo) 6 cylinder engine. Also, my recollection is that the dealer service department did not provide me with an explanation/reason for the problem, nor did they make repairs to solve the problem. I no longer own either of these two vehicles. I now own two other Volvos which are driven on a day-to-day basis. One, a 2014, has the 5 cylinder engine and the other, a 2015, has the 4 cylinder engine (both turbo-charged). So far, these two engines are running fine.
Rather have Golf than Civic which is getting too big. The unproven 1.4 is in GTI price territory. The only thing I’d pass on is Golf DSG.
That’s a tough choice because there really isn’t an equivalent engine/transmission comparison between the GTI and top trim (non-Si/R) Civics. The Civic 1.5T is CVT only. In terms of cars that will easily spend two decades on the road, the lower trim Civics with the NA 2.0 K-series and a stick should be bulletproof.
The 1.4T has been in the Jetta Hybrid for some time, and has been used in Europe for years, so it’s not an all-new engine.
Kyree for whatever reason, that logic does not seem to translate over to VW. Their gen 3 EA888 (1.8T) is supposed to be a tried and true motor, but they bring it to the US and suddenly we’re seeing recalls for sheared camshafts and reports of main seal oil leaks.
Where is the American version of the 1.8T engine manufactured and where is the European version of the engine manufactured (asking out of curiosity)?
The Euros have always had a thing for making perfect cars for perfect people. Which have, also always, met their match when confronted with The People of Walmart.
very disappointing with the MPGs of the Volvo. Looking at them last week while my car was in the shop.
The XC90 gets 20/25, vs. 16/22 for the Q7 and 17/21 for the GL. What were you expecting?
If that was the most exciting car there, I’m glad I didn’t spend the time, effort or money to attend the show.
Two many doors (and too high a tail).
We checked out a row of new Civics this weekend. The first words out of my friend’s mouth was “it looks like one of the ugly Crosstour’s in the back. The base plastic hubcaps look terrible and the interior was both cheap and odd, especially the fake cloth covered center console and the lowest supply bidder carpet. Mileage ratings were impressive enough at 41 highway for the 2.0 and 42 for the little 1.4T. The prices seemed reasonable at a little over 20K for the base sedans and around 22 for the EX with moonroof.
Does trash talking everything that isn’t a Chevy help you to sell more Chevys?
He’s jealous because the Civic beat out the Malibu.