The 2012 Honda Civic is an IIHS Top Safety Pick

Leading online resource for car shoppers, Kelley Blue Book (KBB), awarded the 2012 Honda Civic the Best Resale Value award for the Compact category.

Named as one of the "10 Best Family Cars" for 2012 by KBB.

The Ecology Center praised the 2012 Honda Civic for having the least toxic interiors of all new vehicles for 2012.

Kelley Blue Book named the 2012 Honda Civic as one of the 10 Best Redesigned Vehicles for 2012.

Creature comforts like power windows with driver's one-touch up and down, a one-touch open and close power sunroof, a 350-watt audio system with six speakers and an eight-inch subwoofer, an auxiliary input jack for an iPod or other portable music equipment, and red ambient lighting for the center console -- just like in a BMW.

This Honda Civic Si is a slick piece of work for less than $20,000.

Whichever model you choose, it's pretty hard to go wrong with the Civic.

It's packed with safety features, everything from compatibility-minded body structures (helping to protect occupants in collisions with heavier, higher vehicles such as SUVs) to an energy-absorbing hood to help lessen impacts to pedestrians.

Such a car was the stuff of science fiction 10 years ago.

It has a sleek new aerodynamic body with a sweeping roofline, rakish windshield angle and low, wide stance. Interiors are blessed with more style and function.

My test Civic was pretty much a fuel miser, delivering an estimated 30 mpg in the city and 40 on the highway with the automatic transmission -- or 30 and 38 with the manual gearbox.