It was a tough call - MORE tough after I drove the Civic and (except for the "Removing My Kneecap" thing) LOVED the car.

After driving the 03 and now the 06 I see there's a lot of improvement in the road noise and ride comfort in the HCH. It's a lot quieter car and feels a lot more roomy (I'm not sure how much of that is the illusion of roominess with the gigantic side windows and windshield.)

The good news is that the two cars (HCH and HAH) have bascially the same-sounding radio (ah... priorities!)


I actually like the "grip" of the Civic seats a little better than the Accord - they really hug my back and make me sit in a more comfortable position. We'll see how the HAH does on a long trip when we start the holiday orgy of driving on the highways. I took the HCH on a long driving trip from NC to Ohio and it was a pleasurable drive. The BMW would start throwing out my back in about 2 hours.


I didn't do a ton of in-city driving in the HCH test, but I hope that Honda steps up the auto-stop to match that on the HAH. It seemed to have kicked in a lot earlier and did its thing more frequently, and was not fazed by creeping forward in stoplight traffic. That would probably make you crazy if you did ALL your driving on busy city streets, but it was cool to have the auto-stop kick in again, after I inched forward and stopped again.