I have been having issues with the stability of my Honda civic for the past year and a half. my mechanic has looked at it 3 times and says he can't find anything. but the vibration, the swaying, the thumping, the loose rear end and the feeling of the car sinking is getting worse every time I drive it. I had the control arms done, the front struts, the bearings and now I am told I need to spend another 750 dollars for the upper rear control arms cause freaking Honda made a car with a design flaw but wont make it a damn recall. I just want my damn car back and want it working like it was when I bought it. tired of dumping money into this damn thing.

Car feels like it is about to lose control when going around corners. Even if you're only going 20 mph on an interstate exit ramp, you feel like the car is about to completely lose control. I lost control once and was able to correct it after swerving for 3-5 seconds. Same thing happened to my wife while driving the car. Luckily neither of us hit anything and were able to continue driving. The tires on the car are all Goodyear and have plenty of life left. Hitting bumps also feels like the car is about to lose control. As if the rear end is off the ground. I'm strongly considering trading the car for something else.

It appears that what I thought was just bad luck is a known issue that Honda is ignoring. My rear control arms are out of whack (the technical term) and causing my tires to go bald on the inside. It is so bad that my mechanic could not/would not rotate the tires as it was a waist of time - tires were already shot. As my vehicle was out of warranty by 3000 miles when diagnosed, this one will be out of pocket for the repair and tire replacement. OUCH!

I have ONLY own Honda cars for my entire life, but my loyalty is now in doubt. Honda can not NOT know about this, yet to turn a blind eye to the problem is poor, poor, customer service and does nothing to encourage customer retention. It appears they learned nothing from their Toyota brothers.

i have that sideways shimmy when you go over bumps even if you're going straight. worse around a bend. it was better after they replaced the upper control arms, but only for a while. maybe it has something to do with bushings? and it does feel like the rear suspension is going to drop out if you hit a large crack in the road or new pavement line

Update from Oct 8, 2010: update - I was debating getting rid of the civic. spend alot of money for a different car, or try something with the current car. I spent $1400 and replaced the suspension - shocks (Tokico), springs and sway bars (Eibach kit) - what a difference. It's only been about 1000 miles, but I've driven on everything from back roads to the pa turnpike. no shimmy, i don't feel like the rear is going to drop out when i hit a bump, and the car now handles like its on rails. I actually need to upgrade wheels and tires to take advantage of the new suspension. They are waiting for the suspension to settle in before they realign the wheels, i.e. - all this improvement before the wheels are even aligned. now if only i could take advantage of the engine recall notice sitting on my desk - i wouldn't mind a new engine at 71K.

I've been trying to figure out this problem for years. Turns out all my efforts to fix it were a waste of time and money. Recently learned from the dealer that i had to replace my rear stablizer arms @ my cost... ridiculous! This is the SIXTH brand new honda my wife and I have owned... I've always been a faithful, loyal and mostly happy Honda owner. I'm very disappointed but I'm holding out hope that Honda will be as loyal and committed to my happiness as I have been to theirs over the years! I have replaced my tires.... paid for alignments... tried putting weight in the back... bought snow tires...yet the rear end of the car fishtails terribly...when I hit even small bumps in the road the car shifts to the side. It is terrible and is NO DOUBT a design problem that Honda should fix! I plan to contact them and I'll keep you posted.

We received our first snowfall in October of 2006, I packed up the family and headed into town which was a 14 km drive on the highway. As soon as we hit the highway (speed limit was 100 km/hr) I knew there was something wrong, the back end of the car was fishtailing all over the road and felt very �loose�, I was only traveling 60km per hour, other drivers were passing me like I was parked. If I was to go any faster I felt as though the car was going to fly into the ditch. I seriously contemplated turning the car around and making the trip into town the following day after the road was a little clearer, but decided to tough it out. So we traveled the 14 km into town and back home again, all the while traveling at 60 km per hour. Upon arriving back home I decided to jump into my other car (1998 Neon) to make sure that it was not the car that had the issue but the road was really that bad. To my disappointment I discovered that I had absolutely no problem traveling in excess of 100 km/hr! In short, I now refer to our 2006 Civic as a �death trap�!!

After getting a wheel alignment to try and fix the problem, we were told that we need new tires. We were also told Part of the problem with the Civic is that the upper control arm on the rear of the vehicle is too short causing the top of the rear tires to tip in excessively which in turn causes the tires to wear prematurely. I don't know if replacing the arms will fix the problem, This will be done under warranty . However, the "ALMOST BRAND NEW TIRES" are not covered under warranty, and WILL NOT be replaced by Honda? Does not make sense to me for the control arms caused the uneven tire wear, and the costume should flip the bill for uneven tire wear caused directly from the control arm that Honda knew was an issue, but neglected to tell its customers.