2023 Honda Civic: Features That Will Change The Way You Use Your Car

Cars are more than just simple mechanical devices these days. A slew of gadgets and features on modern vehicles tends to make driving easier and increases the range of things we can do with our cars. The 2023 Honda Civic is no exception. It comes with a bunch of life-changing features that may make you drive further, drive easier, and drive safer. The vehicle itself comes in a number of trims. The LX, Sport, EX, and Touring trims, to be precise. 

Not every feature is available on all trims, and you may have to buy a specific version of the Civic to get the configuration you want. Some of the features also crop up on every trim above a certain tier, or can even be added to a basic vehicle as an optional extra. Either way, if there's a feature you simply cannot live without, discuss it with your dealer and they should be able to talk you through your options. Who knows, if vehicle prices keep dropping, they may even toss the option in for free. Still, so you know exactly what it is you're looking for — here's a list of the most game-changing features available on the 2023 Honda Civic.

One of the main selling points of the 2023 Civic is its outstanding fuel economy. While 33 miles to the gallon in an urban environment is respectable, the Civic is ironically at its best outside of the city. On the highway, the EPA estimates the vehicle can achieve a very impressive 42 miles to the gallon if you opt for the Civic Sedan EX trim. The other trims offer decent fuel economy, too, with the cheaper Sport and high-end touring sporting 37 and 38 mpg on the highway, respectively. 

So even with gas prices climbing towards $4 per gallon again, long road trips are pretty practical in the Honda Civic. While it doesn't quite make our list of most economical cars this year (though it would if we rated vehicles on highway mileage alone), it's still an excellent option for people who regularly find themselves driving down the interstate, those who live rurally, and anyone who wishes they had the chance to go on longer jaunts but is holding back because gas prices are heading back towards the stratosphere.

If you're an American driver, there's a fair chance you've never encountered a non-classic car with a stick shift. As a result, you may not have ever driven a stick and have never experienced the benefits of a manual transmission. Certain trims of the 2023 Honda Civic offer a gearing system that has many of the benefits of a stick shift with none of the learning curve.

Opt for the "Sport" trim and your vehicle will come with paddle shifters. These give many of the benefits of a stick-shift, while taking away pretty much all of the difficulty. When using the paddles, drivers won't need to dip and control a clutch. Despite this, they can still select exactly which gear they want at any given time. So if you need an extra burst of fast acceleration, you can drop a gear or two and blast off. Equally, if you want to focus on fuel efficiency, you can work your way up to a high gear and cruise along with minimal acceleration. Automatic gearboxes do all of this but tend to have more "thinking" time than the average driver. So the paddle shifters may give you an edge over other road users once you've gotten used to them. You can set it to auto and not bother, or at the very least it will hold your hand and shift for you if your RPM is getting too high or low for your current gear.

The 2023 Honda Civic may be the perfect car for people who actually hate driving. It's easy to enjoy certain areas of the driving discipline — like blasting down a winding country lane, or flooring it the second a stoplight goes green. But most of the time, driving is fairly monotonous. This is most apparent during heavy traffic or a repetitive commute and is the reason Tesla's self-driving software is so hotly anticipated.

But you don't need a high-end electric car and full self-driving to remove a bit of the burden. Honda's driving aids are pretty good, and one particular combination can make a burdensome commute an absolute breeze. Cruise control has been around for a long time, but at a basic level, it involves adjusting your speed or hitting the brake and taking control if traffic builds up. Adaptive cruise control solves this issue by detecting how fast the car in front of you is going and adjusting your speed to match it. Drivers can select the distance they want to leave between their vehicle and the car in front, just as they can cap their max speed. Low-Speed Follow takes things even further. Because of these features, the Civic can slow to a complete stop if it appears the driver in front has done the same. This makes one of the most useful driving features practical in urban environments and heavy traffic.

Connectivity is somehow an issue in many vehicles. Despite it being something most drivers probably want, not all manufacturers make it easy to interface our smartphones with the vehicle that gets us from A to B. Luckily, the two biggest names in cell phones have stepped in and started to standardize things.

The 2023 Honda Civic is one of those vehicles that comes with both Apple Car Play and Android Auto. The systems offer an easy way to connect and get the most out of your phones via wire, dock, or wireless connection where that is supported. The connection also goes way beyond simply blasting tunes from Spotify through your car's audio system. You can send text messages, manage calls, and use your phone's maps system instead of your car's. This last point, in particular, offers a wider array of options. You aren't stuck to your car's default maps, and you aren't just choosing between Apple or Google Maps, either. You can use popular third-party mapping apps like Waze, instead, if that's what you prefer. The benefits also go beyond the driver. The software can be used to run streaming apps through your car, so passengers can watch live TV or binge-watch Netflix while you're on the road.

Traffic signs are a common sight along the road. They tell you how fast you can go, warn you of potential hazards ahead, and let you know when it's time to stop and take a look around before proceeding. Unfortunately, mistakes happen and you can miss a sign from time to time. This can land you in serious trouble if it results in you breaking the speed limit or tearing through a junction with a stop sign. 

The 2023 Honda Civic reduces the chances of you missing a sign by informing you about the signs it spots. It will clearly display things like posted speed limits, stop, and yield signs, giving you a greater awareness of the road you're on. You can still speed or blast through a stop sign if you want to, the system isn't going to wrestle control of the vehicle from you to ensure the rules are followed. But it will reduce the chances of you being unaware that things like the speed limit have changed.

You don't need something like Tesla's Full Self-Driving system to make long trips simpler and all trips a bit safer. The 2023 Honda Civic is packed with features that can keep you right on the road. One major bonus is "lane assist" which uses sensors to detect the edges of the lane your vehicle is in. If the car feels you're drifting out of that lane, it will automatically steer to keep the car centered between the lines. You can still change lanes with lane assist enabled, but it has to be a deliberate movement of the steering wheel and not your car gently and unintentionally drifting out of its boundaries. 

Auto braking is another feature that can help keep you, other road users, and pedestrians safe. If the vehicle detects something in front of you and decides there's a danger of you hitting it, it will apply the brakes automatically. This can range from the car slowing down a little to a full-blown emergency stop. While it won't prevent all accidents, it is yet another safety net and could bail you out if you're distracted, fail to spot something, or just fail to react in time to a road hazard.

Remote start is nothing novel, and can actually be retrofitted to older vehicles for a few hundred dollars. That doesn't change the fact it's one of the most useful features you can have on a car. Few people live in an area where the weather will be just right all day every day. For most of us, there will be vast stretches of the year where it's way too hot or way too cold. Worse still, the car's AC will take a while to drop cabin temperature to something tolerable — and the heater has to warm itself up first, so it will take even longer to warm the inside of the car. 

With remote start, you can give your vehicle a head start by kicking up the engine from range and, in turn, allowing it to get the heater or AC going. Remote start functions usually have a good amount of range on them, so you can start the car by pointing your fob out of the window a few minutes before you leave. Then, when you eventually get to your vehicle, its internal temperature is just the way you like it. For safety and security reasons, remote-started cars won't drive if someone breaks into them, they have to be started properly once the door opens. So don't worry about someone making off with your Honda while it's warming up.

Leaving your car unlocked is a pretty dangerous thing to do. Not only could the car itself be stolen, but an opportunistic thief could see it as a golden opportunity to pilfer valuables from within the car. Popping a window can draw attention, but subtly testing the door handle is something many criminals may feel comfortable with. Luckily, with certain 2023 Honda Civics, you don't have to worry. 

The vehicle has an optional "walk away auto lock" feature that will lock the doors as soon as it detects the driver, or more precisely the car's key fob, has left the area. Enabling the feature is easy, but you'll have to do things a little differently depending on the trim you opted for. On both the Sport and EX trim, you'll need to press the home button, rotate the selector wheel until you get settings, then select door setup, walk away auto lock, and finally choose "on." For the Touring Trim, you'll be using the 9" touch screen. The path is as follows: Settings > Vehicle Settings > Door/Window Setup > Walk Away Auto > ON.

Reverse parking and parallel parking are two of the more difficult maneuvers that drivers are expected to perform. Luckily, the tech inside a 2023 Honda Civic makes both tasks a lot easier. The car benefits from the presence of a multi-view rear camera, so you can see an accurate picture of what's behind you, as well as an enhanced view of vital spots, instead of relying on your mirrors and the view from your rear window. 

Some trims take things even further and include parking sensors that will alert you if your vehicle is getting dangerously close to another object — like a bollard, pillar, or another parked car. While it doesn't take things as far as self-parking cars, it makes things about as easy as they can be while the driver is still manually parking the vehicle. Beyond parking, the rear camera is incredibly handy for other maneuvers — like three-point turns and reversing around corners.

If you're not fond of digging through your pockets or a bag for your car keys, or have ever accidentally locked those keys in your car, then a 2023 Honda Civic may be a sensible purchase. The car offers features that will streamline the process of getting into, and ultimately starting, the vehicle. The features in question are "smart entry" and "push button start," both of which involve the Civic detecting the presence of a key fob on the driver's person. If the key fob is in the vicinity, then the car can be unlocked by simply touching the handle. The driver can then start the vehicle by simply pushing the ignition button. The key, or key fob in this case, never needs to leave the driver's pocket. 

Similarly, locking the vehicle is easy. Just tap the "lock sensor" on the door handle with your finger and the car's locks should engage. If you need access to the trunk, there is a release button above the license plate you can tap to unlock and open it, provided you have the key fob on you at the time. As for locking your keys in the car, that's less likely to begin with as you can simply keep them in your pocket. Even if you do mess up, the vehicle will sense the key fob within range and you can unlock the car with a touch of the handle and retrieve the fob.