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I’m thinking of getting a 9th-generation Civic to replace my current 2005 Civic. I’d be keeping the car stock—tuning potential doesn’t mean diddly to me. Given my budget, it will probably be model year 2012, 2013, or 2014. A few questions:

I know the 5-speed automatic went away in favor of a CVT in 2014. Is the CVT trouble-free? The guy who made this Youtube video ranks the Honda CVT 4th out of 7 CVT’s he discusses. The discussion of the Honda CVT starts here:


In the last few days, I found a video saying that 2012 and early 2013 Civics had thin piston rings in the interest of low friction, the engines tended to start burning oil, and Honda started using thicker rings sometime during 2013. Is there anything to this, and is there a cutoff VIN after which the thicker rings were used? Unfortunately, I didn’t think to bookmark the video, or I’d give the URL.

Anything else I should be aware of? Thanks for your thoughts.

 
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No idea about the rings, but i wouldn't touch any cvt with a 10 foot pole, honda or not