The Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla are among the most entrenched competition in the automotive market. These two small cars are vital not only to their manufacturers but also to the millions of Americans who rely on them for direct and reliable transportation. Both new redesigns are expected to disrupt the compact car segment, which is still strong despite the popularity of SUVs, and neither company wants their cars to go wrong. Putting them together for a comparative test should herald a knockout, but the 2022 Honda Civic Wagon is much better than the 2021 Toyota Corolla XSE, and it's not even funny.

Now, this is not what we should do. We should write these things in a way that allows you to focus on the screen, balance the success and failure of each car, and keep you in suspense until the finale. But sometimes, this kind of introduction is dishonest. This is one of them. This is not a close comparison. One car is obviously better than the other, the only thing to do is to tell you directly.

This is a line in the notes submitted by our judges in this comparison: "Apart from some elevated internal noise, I am trying to think about what the Civic did wrong. This is a very solid effort."

To be honest, both cars can use some work in the internal noise department. The Civic, as it has been with Honda for a long time, makes loud noises inside the car when it works hard with the engine on bad roads. At the same time, the Corolla has a noisier engine. When the city speed is high, a lot of wind noise will be generated around the door mirrors. As the speed increases, this noise will only get worse. However, it is quieter than Honda on bad roads.

Which interior you prefer depends largely on who you want to be happy. If it's just a driver, Corolla will play well. If it was everyone in the car, Honda would win. Toyota earned points for its very comfortable front seats, but this was the only complete victory. The internal space of the Civic is more spacious, with better ergonomic design, looks and feels great.

"Here, in the competition with its main competitors, you start to feel Corolla's shortcomings," said MotorTrend en Español editor Miguel Cortina. "Although it is only 3 years old, it feels older-especially when the Civic is brand new, not to mention the almost as fresh Hyundai Elantra and Nissan Sentra."

The most obvious difference lies in the feeling and impression of things. Corolla's outer door handle feels very fragile, and when you close the door, it sounds hollow. When you use it, the turn signal pole feels and sounds like it will break in your hand. At this price point, these materials are good for cars, but Honda is not satisfied with it. Everything you touch, pull, push or twist in Civic feels like borrowed from a more expensive car.

Then there is space. Corolla is comfortable at best. The inner knee of the front passenger always rests on the center console, which is narrower than the Civic, but somehow it is still on the road. According to a tape measure, the amount of space in the rear seats of the two cars is roughly the same, but the Corolla feels tighter because you sit too high, and it feels like you have to look down at the side window as if you were on an airplane. No matter which seat you sit in Above, the Civic feels spacious and airy, with excellent sightlines and plenty of space for expansion, even though it is one or two inches away from Corolla in all dimensions, both inside and outside.

Then there is the question of how the internal design provides services to the people on board. Honda has achieved another clean victory here with controls, cup holders, chargers, and all other things that are conveniently located and easy to operate. The wider center console allows the cup holders to be placed next to the transmission instead of behind, like Corolla, they are under your elbow. The cordless phone charging board is larger than it needs and is easy to reach in, while Toyota puts its pad under the dashboard. The two USB ports are directly above the Honda charging pad, and Toyota inserted a port under the dashboard next to the glove box, as if they didn't forget to include one until the last minute. The Civic also has a pair of easy-to-use USB ports for the rear seats, while Toyota does not, but there is a USB port on the center armrest that you will never use. Didn't Toyota know that people like to charge a large number of devices from each seat at once?

Like the USB port, the Civic has more features in terms of technology. In theory, both cars are equipped with passive and active safety function kits as standard, but the functions are different in practice. Toyota's Safety Sense 2.0 system includes lane keeping assist that has existed for years, intervening when you actually leave the lane. Civic's Honda Sensing kit is more similar to what Tesla does with Autopilot. Not only will the system display all the vehicles around you that it can see in the digital dashboard, but it can also follow the Tesla, center you in the lane and help you steer, which is almost the same.

We would say that it would be great if the Civic's all-digital instrument cluster was more customizable in appearance, but it certainly looks more technological than Toyota's semi-analog and semi-digital layout.

Similar criticisms apply to infotainment screens. Neither is our favorite, but both have improved recently-even more so with Honda. The tile system for arranging apps is highly customizable, but there is a little learning curve. We are very happy to see some hard buttons return to common functions. Toyota has invested in more hard buttons, but despite the improved screen interface, its look and feel are still outdated.

Although it is not a high-tech feature, we would be too negligent if we did not mention Corolla or even provide dual-zone climate control, and the overall price of the Civic is the same as the test price.

Driving experience is a category where Corolla has performed well. When it was launched, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the driving performance of this generation of Corolla was much better than its recent predecessors, and it was still a good car. The engine is responsive enough to make you think that the car is faster than it actually is. The gearbox is smart and can immediately provide you with the power you need. For a compact car, it has good handling and good driving.

"Acceleration is okay, CVT is okay, and handling is okay," Cortina said of Corolla. "When you are trying to attract a large audience, this is the way to go."

Unfortunately, for Toyota, the driving performance of the Civic is better than any compact car. It's faster, its transmission is smarter-we like how it automatically accelerates the engine to help slow down your speed on large mountain slopes-it rides a bit better, and it handles better than any other product in its class It's all good. You don't need to know anything about cars other than how to drive them to recognize how well the Civic feels from behind the steering wheel.

This was also confirmed in our instrument test results, where the lighter and more powerful Honda reached 60 mph faster and passed the quarter mile with a considerable margin, not surprisingly. It also kept the road better in our anti-skid pad and figure-of-eight tests, pulling a higher average lateral g on the former, and posting a significantly faster lap speed with a higher average g on the latter. However, Corolla did win in one category: braking. Toyota slammed the brakes at 60 mph and stopped for 3 feet.

The trunk of the Civic is larger, and the rear seats can be folded more easily to get more space thanks to the release handle located in the cargo area. Toyota put the release handles on the seats, which is good, unless for some strange reason they place them close to the center of the car instead of coming out of the door so you don’t have to climb into the back seat. To them.

Honda's blind spot warning system can also calm people down. Unless there is a huge gap available, it will sound an alarm, which is not always realistic in heavy traffic.

As we said, the Civic escaped in this comparison. It is better than Corolla in almost every aspect we can think of. "The Civic feels closer to the Accord than to Corolla's feelings for the Camry," Cortina said. "Honda feels like a more mature car-overall quieter, more comfortable, more modern, and more comprehensive. It shows a strong quality atmosphere in the compact car segment. The previous Civic was the best in its peers, and This 11th-generation car goes a step further. The competition is far from that."

In the car in this particular test, the Civic sticker was $210 more than the Corolla. If it is more than US$2,100, it is still worth choosing Honda.

Second place: 2021 Toyota Corolla XSE Sedan Advantages: solid handling, comfortable front seats, and powerful brakes. Disadvantages: Stupid ergonomics decision, the interior feels very tight and it feels older than it. Conclusion: Corolla is a good car, but it cannot touch the greatness of the new Civic.

First place: 2022 Honda Civic Touring Sedan Advantages: The weight of the chassis exceeds its weight, excellent internal packaging and materials, and higher refinement. Disadvantages: too eager blind spot warning, road noise may be a problem. Conclusion: It's hard not to think that the new 2022 Civic is the best small car in the United States today.

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