I persuaded myself that getting a Japanese car would make sound financial sense in the long-run, because of expected better reliability and better fuel consumption, than that expected in a 'typical' Ford or Vauxhall.

I chose a Civic because it's a reasonably small car, but has a lot of space inside, and comes with lots of extras included in the price. I didn't buy new - the car had done only 6K as a dealer loan car, but still had 2.5years warranty left. This meant I saved £1.5K off the usual OTR price.

First the good points
Fuel consumption is excellent: driving carefully in mixed traffic (town, motorway) I have achieved up to 48mpg quite often. Using harsher acceleration and cruising at 75 (indicated) I still manage 46mpg, which I consider superb.
Outside and in, finish and quality are very good.
Mirrors are extremely good, with no noticeable blind spots.
Outside paintwork was blemish-free when the car was purchased, and little deterioration has occurred over 9 months, although there are a few small paint chips onthe lower bonnet. This would be expected with any newish car where water-based paint is used, because the finish is slightly softer than it used to be with organic solvent-based paint.
Performance is good, although there is not much 'go' until the revs build up. I found this very noticeable compared with a Ford or Vauxhall, where power is available at lower revs. So the car demands a slight change in driving style.
The car is almost silent at tickover, and initially, several times I thought it had stalled when I had braked in traffic!
Gear changing is a delight - very smooth.
Steering seemed very light when moving slowly in traffic when I first drove the car. I did get used to this after a few days, but when compared with previous cars (e.g. Ford, Vauxhall), lowspeed steering is lighter, but it stiffens noticeably by the time you're doing 30-40.
Handling was pretty good, with some roll around corners.

Now for the points I don't like about the car:
First, the stereo is, at best, mediocre. Radio speech appears quite natural, but 'pop' music can sound harsh/boomy, and I found it difficult to get natural sound without constantly tweaking the base/treble/rear-front balance; what sounded good when stationary wouldn't sound right when moving.
Classical music, though, sounded better, and needed less constant 'tweaking'.
CDs sometimes sounded very harsh and unnatural.

At speed, ride was perfectly acceptable; at speeds below 30 on some roads, though, a 'jiggling' is apparent, suggesting that the dampers don't do what they should very efficiently. I can honestly say the Civic is the first car in which I have felt this sensation (in over 30years' driving), but luckily the worst of the jiggling is limited to one local road (which I can't avoid, unfortunately.
Wipers work very well (no creaking/hesitation), but the washer bottle is pitifully small, and in winter needs topping up every week (or every other day!). The jets are also fairly small and on a couple of occasions have partially blocked (easily cleared by poking with fusewire).

Overall, I'm very satisfied with this product, and would recommend it. Bear in mind, though that the 3door and 5door variants behave differently, so you must test-drive the variant you intend to buy.