There’s a first time for everything, and that includes buying a new vehicle. When shopping for your first new car, two amazing options to compare are the 2022 Honda Civic vs 2022 Toyota Corolla. Who will win? Which vehicle deserves your hard-earned money? And most importantly, which vehicle will save you the most money in the long run? We’ve got all the answers to these questions, and keep reading because we’ve got some interesting news to tell you.
First, we must talk about the starting price of each vehicle. Starting with the 2022 Corolla, it has an MSRP of $20,075, which is a higher price than last year’s model. The 2022 Civic starts at an MSRP of $21,700, but as you’ll learn, just because a vehicle has a higher starting price, that doesn’t mean that the cheaper option is the better value. There are four trims for the Civic and five for the Corolla. These trim levels will offer you a wider set of features for each succeeding trim, but what this ultimately means for the Corolla is that Honda can cram a greater feature set into a smaller number of trims. Just how different are these two cars, and which one is the best choice for a first-time buyer? Let’s find out.
Efficiency is Money
As I mentioned earlier, just because a vehicle starts at a higher MSRP, that doesn’t mean that it’s the more expensive vehicle at the end of the day. Vehicles require gas, and gas costs money, so how do you get around the cost of constantly filling your tank? The answer is to buy a vehicle that offers excellent fuel efficiency so that you’ll be taking trips to the gas station far less often, and in turn, saving you more money.
Keep that in mind as we talk about the available engines for both vehicles. Starting with the Corolla, the base engine is a 1.8L four-cylinder that comes paired to a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT). With this engine, the Corolla will pump out 139 hp and 126 lb-ft of torque. When you’re not comparing it to anything, this engine gets the job done and is also quite fuel-efficient with EPA-estimated ratings of 30 mpg city and 38 mpg highway. However, not only is the base engine inside of the Civic more powerful, but it’s also more fuel-efficient.
The base engine inside of the Civic is also a 2.0L four-cylinder engine, and it also comes paired to a CVT. But as I said, it’s more powerful, with 158 hp and 138 lb-ft of torque, which is a 13.7% increase in horsepower over Corolla’s base engine. Since the engine is larger than the Corolla’s, it’s unsurprising that the Civic’s engine has more horsepower and torque. What is surprising, however, is its better EPA-estimated ratings of 31 mpg city and 40 mpg highway.
Each vehicle offers a more powerful engine than its base offerings. The more powerful engine that you can get in the Corolla is a 2.0L four-cylinder engine. Sound familiar? There’s a difference, however, as this engine can be paired with either a CVT or a 6-speed manual transmission. The 2.0L engine for the Corolla is also slightly more powerful than the one inside of the Civic, with this one getting 169 hp and 151 lb-ft of torque. But it’s important to remember that the Civic comes standard with its 2.0L engine, while you’ll be shelling out extra money to get the Corolla’s 2.0L. And while the Toyota engine’s performance may be slightly better, the fuel efficiency with this engine remains the same 31 mpg city and 40 mpg highway as the Civic.
The more capable engine for the Civic is a turbocharged 1.5L four-cylinder that’s both more powerful and efficient than any engine we’ve talked about thus far. This engine will allow the Corolla to utilize 180 hp and 177 lb-ft of torque. If you’re thinking about how much money a vehicle will cost you in the long run, this is the engine that will save you the most on gas with its EPA-estimated ratings of 33 mpg city and 42 mpg highway.
Not Your Grandpa’s Vehicle
Vehicles today aren’t like the Honda and Toyota vehicles that your grandfather was driving around back in the day. While radio was the fad, and eventually eight-tracks, cassettes, and later CDs, things are a tad more complex nowadays. There are far more ways of accessing your favorite media. Both the Civic and Corolla feature an infotainment center, which is a touchscreen that’s situated in the middle of your console. How do the infotainment centers in both vehicles compare?
For starters, we’ll talk about screen sizes, and for the Corolla, your choices are between a 7-inch or 8-inch panel. The Civic also comes standard with a 7-inch screen, but the optional upgrade is a larger 9-inch screen. In addition to a larger infotainment center, your Civic can also have a 10.2-inch digital information center that sits on your dashboard. Any information that you want to know about your trip, whether it’s your current tire pressure or even navigation, you can display on this screen. The Corolla doesn’t have a feature like this.
A few features that we want to mention because of their popularity are Bluetooth support and both Apple Carplay and Android Auto. Bluetooth allows you to stream music from your phone to the vehicle’s speakers like any other Bluetooth speaker, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are available for a wide range of Android devices, and of course, iPhones. Both vehicles feature these technologies, and when you plug your phone into the infotainment center, the software will boot up. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto allow you to do things that would otherwise be unsafe while driving without taking your attention from the road. Features such as making or taking phone calls, reading or sending text messages, or getting the latest weather – it’s all available here, and all you need is your voice.
Tough Decision? Not Exactly
Compared to one another, we feel that the Civic is the better choice over the Corolla this year. While it’s ever so slightly costlier, the Civic undoubtedly offers the better bang for the buck. And, if you remember when we mentioned the ability to save money in the long run, the Civic is more likely to do that for you too. For first-time buyers, it’s not always easy to determine which vehicle will be the better buy in the end. However, we whole-heartedly agree that the 2022 Civic is generally the better vehicle in comparison to the 2022 Corolla.
The first time you buy a vehicle isn’t only important for you, but for the manufacturer as well. This is because manufacturers are constantly waging war on one another to generate the most appeal, and the way this is accomplished is by providing better vehicles than their competitors. Manufacturers such as these know that if they make a strong first impression, then your second and even third vehicle may be one that they developed as well. So then, there’s your winner, the fantastic 2022 Honda Civic. But don’t just take our word for – go out and test drive both cars to see for yourself.
