choose japan car la instead of korea....unless u dont plan to sell choose kia....old 1994 civic eg standard (not b16a) price = kia spectra 2004.....choose wisely..........

Honda engine is reliable. So far my R18A engine never given me any issue.

Go ahead if you really like it. It's your call/choice.
BTW, have you test driven both Cerato and Civic? Can you please comment a bit more on how the two rides differently?

My ride is a Civic FD 1.8, year 2006. Not sure about FB, but I had a brief test drive of the new FB, and find it not much different in terms of handling and engine performance.

Maintenance wise, it's not too expensive. I choose to use normal engine oil which costs RM70+. It's good enough for me. It would cost more with semi-synthetic or fully synthetic. Labour charge for each normal service is between RM50 to RM100, depends on type of service. Then major service depends on parts changes.
I guess you can refer to this webpage for maintenance cost reference:
http://honda.com.my/service_maintenance/maintenance
Choose the car model you would like to check for.

Handling? I think I like its handling very much, compared to others in the same category. It's stable with VSA. I love its VSA when driving in the rain, or on wet road. It really helps a lot to keep the car on track on slippery road. I can accelerate with confidence with the VSA.

Comfortable? To an extend yes, but cabin noise is quite noisy to my ears, and even to my family's ears. Road noise and body vibration is well transferred into the cabin, too much. I've tried a lot of tyres and won't help. Roof noise is also quite loud in rain drops.

Talking about driving fast, it's a confident car. Handles well and easy to handle. Power is 140hp+. It's powerful enough. Change to K&N filter alone can increase power response quite a bit. Don't forget Civic has the Type-R DNA.

Well, to tell you one thing, I've been looking for a car to replace Civic FD for quite many years, and I personally can't find any better car. Both in terms of spec, experience and resale value. I was considering Mazda3 but hate it because it didn't have VSA or VSP as Civic would have as standard. I don't like CVT in Altis. Kia and Hyunday? I haven't tried them. I kind of not so confident with Korean products yet. No offend. I guess I'll have to go to a more expensive option to replace it. German car, probably.

Oh and it's quite easy to find spare parts for Civic, and not too expensive.

Hope that help. But what are the criteria/factors for you to choose a car?

civic type r 1.6 turbo charged 

Next year onwards civic hybrid still under tax exemption?

I think it's better to get hybrid than 1.8L. Its either hybrid or 2.0L for civic line-up from my pov.