The Civic is indeed a good buy. I got a 2nd hand EJ last year and i'm enjoying the ride. The stock standard performance is pretty good enough to bring you some pleasure on the road and on the highway. Besides this car has got some good potential to be upgraded and its only a matter of money.
As for spare parts and servicing, yes i've got to admit that servicing the car is a little pricier than my old Sentra but thats partly because i go back to the Honda Service Centre for all servicing, except for items like absorber, springs, ICE upgrade and other small performance upgrade. At the moment, i'm even using their own Honda engine oil. But trust me, its a good drive and well worth the money you spent on servicing.
As for fuel consumption, i really don't understand why are there rumours saying Honda engines drink petrol. Trust me on this, IF you're an average driver who doesn't full throttle like 10 times a day and rev till VTEC range, there should not be a big issue over fuel consumption. Lets face it, you won't have good fuel consumption for whatever car you drive if you were to drive fast and accelerate like mad. One more point to note, a B16A pushes 180HP. Logically, a high horsepower engine WILL definitely burn more fuel thus the higher fuel consumption. Bear in mind, this is only a 1.6 litre engine. Try comparing with another 2.0 or 2.4 litre engine that churns out 180HP and see if you can get back the same fuel consumption.
Just to let you guys now, my company gives us a petrol card and by the end of every month, we have a statement on how much petrol we use and all those statistics calculations. Believe me, i've compared my consumption with all my colleagues who drive Iswara, Wira and Altis, and my car gives the best fuel efficiency and highest KM/LITRE. From the statement every month, i'm averaging RM 0.13/litre and that gives me about 12.46KM/litre. My colleague wira only giving them about 10.9/litre and some even 10.2/litre. Maybe its my driving style coz i don't normally drive that fast when i'm on time and maybe i'll hit VTEC only like 2 or 3 times per week. But what i'm trying to say here is that Honda engines are probably one of the most petrol efficient cars so don't be worried that they'll milk you wallet dry.
