Video: 2010 Honda Civic EX

We've got a 2010 model here and believe it or not, the current generation came out all the way back in September of '05. Since then a lot of competitors like the Toyota Corolla and the Nissan Sentra have been redesigned, and we've even got some new players, like the Kia Forte hitting the market. The Civic though has aged pretty well, and I think for a budget car, there's a level of quality here not seen in a lot of its competitors. Early on some people didn't really like the design of the dash, and I got to admit, it took a little while to get used to. It's sort of space-agey. You've got the digital speedometer right up here, near the top, and a tachometer that's separate down here, near the steering wheel. Over time though, I really, I'm getting to enjoy it. It puts the speed right up in your line of sight. So you're always going to know how fast you're going. And the tach is low enough that you can reposition the steering wheel wherever you want, and it's not really going to cut off any of the numbers. Let's talk about quality, because there's a sense of it here that's not quite evident in a lot of other competitive efforts in this class. You get things like a nice woven headliner here, soft touch materials along the arm rest and upper doors, places you actually touch, and a sense of hefty substance to a lot of these controls from the air conditioning to the automatic gear shifter, even to the turn signals, not every competitor sort of hits it out of the park with all of these areas together. Honda still does. (upbeat music) It's a space-efficient design as well. The dashboard slopes up toward the windshield, which is pretty far away from you, and it gives the cabin a sense of space that really does a good job of hiding the fact that, according to actual EPA interior volume measurements, the Civic is one of the smaller cabins in this league. The gearshift sits nice and low, so your knees have more room to spread out. It doesn't make the car seem so narrow. And for a small car, the backseat actually has quite a bit of leg room and no center floor hump, means your feet can spread out a little bit wide too. Trunk volume for the sedan is about 12 cubic feet. That's competitive for the segment, though, if you really want to pile those golf clubs or grocery bags high, you're going to want to think about the Forte, or maybe a Hyundai Elantra. Both of those have more than 14 cubic feet. (upbeat music) Thanks to a responsive five-speed automatic transmission, the Civic's 1.8 liter four-cylinder feels pretty peppy and its 36 miles per gallon highway and EPA ratings is impressive. So is the car's reliability so far, it's been very, very good. And I think down the road, even though you may not get as many standard features for the money as some of the competitors, you'll appreciate the level of quality for years to come. <v Narrator>For more car related news, go to cars.com or our blog KickingTires.net.