Honda is one of the most recent car manufacturers to adopt the technology, and they have just expanded it to the Civic for 2022. I recently had the chance to drive the new Civic, which has a familiar experience with several handy additions.
The top-end Touring trim had a 9-inch main screen with satellite radio and built-in navigation, compared to the 7-inch screen found in other trims.
The Honda informationtainment.
I took a look at the Accord with wired CarPlay a few years ago, and the overall look of the Honda system is remarkably similar with a Home Screen with tiles based on function, such as blue for audio, yellow for system functions, and green for phone/messaging.
One change over the past few years is that the Honda system now has six larger tabs at the bottom of the display that will take you to your most frequently used apps from wherever you are in the native Honda system.
The system uses your past listening, music, and navigation behavior to predict what functions you might want to use at any given time. You can give feedback on suggestions and they will improve over time as they gather more data about your usage patterns.
Honda says it has improved the responsiveness of the system in the Civic, but it still felt sluggish to me when I first opened an app. The navigation app was slow to launch the first time I accessed it after starting the car, but it was much better the second time I accessed it, after I had left the car.
Hard buttons for home, back, and audio forward/back offer some quick-access controls that don't require using the touchscreen, while a conveniently placed volume knob is nice for quick adjustments.
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Only the highest-end Touring trim has wireless CarPlay, with all other trims limited to wired. It's an unfortunate limitation, as the upgrade to wireless makes it much more convenient for short trips where you don't want to take your phone out of your pocket.
The setup for Wireless CarPlay was very easy to set up, with the usual prompts appearing after connecting my phone to the system viaBluetooth, and from that point on, connecting automatically and seamless every time I started the car.
The 9-inch screen on the Civic is plenty large, and the entire screen is taken up by CarPlay. The Home button next to the screen makes it easy to leave the native Honda system and use the same method you use to get into the other system.
The large 10.2-inch digital driver's display on the Touring trim can be used to display some data from either the built-in system or the new Apple CarPlay, which can be helpful if you want to know more about your audio and navigation.
Apple Maps directions are on the driver's display.
The Bose audio system on the Touring trim has 12 speakers in the cabin. The speaker behind the screen is where the audio prompt comes from. The audio stops a bit while the speaker is speaking to make sure they can be heard.
There are wireless charging and ports.
The wireless phone chargers seem to be hit or miss, with different designs coming from different manufacturers. I'm surprised that some of them fail to work consistently, but it feels like it should be a straightforward concept.
Honda has done a good job with its wireless charging in the new Civic, despite the fact that it has been difficult to support an array of device sizes and keep them positioned properly. The phone charger is limited to the Touring trim.
The Civic's charging solution is a simple rubber pad in the center stack. A pair of plastic rails helps to keep the devices centered over the charging coil in the cubby, and my phone had some room to spare. The phone stayed where I put it, and the charging station had no issues with it.
There are two charge-only ports on the rear of the Civic and one charge-and-data port on the front of the car. The lower-end trims have a single port up front for wired CarPlay and Android Auto.
Wrap-up.
The feature is accessible on one of the most popular cars in the United States, the Civic, and it is a welcome addition. It's only available in the Touring trim, so you have to add more than $7,000 to the base price to get it.
The same thing can happen for the wireless phone charge. It's not unusual for wireless CarPlay and wireless phone charging to be on the same trim level, so it would be nice if they were available on some lower trims.
The 2022 Civic is within the range of many mainstream new car buyers because it comes in at under $30,000. I wish it was accessible to the crowd who were looking for something under $25,000.
