Honda Civic’s history is one of a superb, exciting, economical, easy to drive, long-lasting commuter car that has challenged or beaten the competition for years. To be fair, in the last four to five years some of the excitement has been lost. The Civic became a little boring.

In 2006, Honda redesigned the Civic with a whole new look and disposition.

The new larger shape would look good as an Accord. In fact, this is the biggest Civic of all time, as big as earlier Accords. To fill the small car category, Honda introduced the smaller “Fit.”

2008 Honda Civic

The Civic comes in a number of models and variants. The basic car has three trim levels: the $15,010 DX, the $16,960 LX and the top of the line $18,710 EX. All three trim levels can be bought as coupes or four-door sedans. Add $800 to all of these prices for a five-speed automatic transmission, and about another $1,500 for a navigation system.

A sporty version with more horsepower and other improvements is offered as the $21,290 Si. A gasoline/electric hybrid version is offered for $22,600 and a natural gas-powered Civic, the GX, has an MSRP of $25,185. This is the only natural gas-powered car offered for sale in the United States.

The DX, LX and EX models are powered by a 4-cylinder VTEC, OHC, 1.8 liter, 140 hp engine with a standard five-speed manual transmission. The Si has a 2.0 liter, 4-cylinder, OHC, 197 hp engine with a six-speed manual transmission.

The GX natural gas version has a 1.8 liter, 4-cylinder, 113 hp engine and the hybrid has a 1.3 liter 4-cylinder, 100 hp engine assisted by an electric motor.

All of these cars are fun to drive. They are easy to handle, easy to park. The higher horsepower, crisper suspension Si, however, is a blast for those with race track genes. It really goes, and sticks to the road no matter what you do.

If we were to criticize anything on the Civic, it would be that the interior is too plastic-looking.

The GX and the hybrid were not tested, but you might expect sluggish performance from the GX and a lot of difficulty finding natural gas, and the hybrid should be perky enough with both motors working together.

Fuel consumption is a strong point for all these Civics. The basic models are EPA rated at 30 city/40 highway, the Si is rated at 23 city/32 highway, the hybrid at 49 city/51 highway and the GX natural gas-powered model at 28 city/39 highway.

The warranty on the Civics is 36,000 miles or 30 months and for the power train 60,000 miles or 60 months.

This tester has owned two Honda Civics, a 1980 model and a 1990 model. Both topped 150,000 miles with minimal maintenance and one of them made 200,000 miles before it was sold. The longevity of these cars is astounding. Low depreciation, minimal maintenance and repairs and good fuel consumption allow these cars to offer the lowest cost motoring available.

Don’t expect much in the way of sales incentives on Civics in these days of expensive gas.

Motoring since 1952, Austin Lynas has owned 55 cars and at one time raced mini-sedans in England. An aerospace engineer, he was instrumental in developing the anti-skid systems used in British military aircraft that preceded today’s ABS systems. Lynas can be reached by e-mail at austin@sandiegometro.com.