Had one for 48hr whilst wifes' civic (2.2d) was having a service and fusebox recall sorted out..
Wasn't a bad car but honestly couldn't see how its better than the old one. The one we had the 1.4 petrol engine which is simply an awful engine. Underpowered, poor mpg (you have to trash the engine just to keep up with traffic so in the real world theres no chance of it achieving the claimed 50+mpg), and at higher revs sounds worse than our current 2.2 diesel.
The interior of the new car is nicer than the old, and I think the back is bigger etc but overall not really a better car. Still has the annoying beam/wing across the rear windscreen, and the addition of the a rear wiper just reduces visibility even more.
If you get one the 2.2 diesel is the engine to get but the RRP of that is £20K!! and specced up comes to over £26K!! From memory our ex-demo fully loaded 2.2 EX model cost £15Kish with under 2000 miles on the clock. Its a nice car at £15K but a rip off at close to £30K.