The Civic used to be the benchmark. Then things went awry. The rot set in at Honda with the seventh-generation Civic, the one that looked like a bread van. Sophisticated under the skin, but boring on top, it turned off many customers who'd adored the previous, sporty-looking Civic.
The eighth and ninth generations brought space age styling but retrograde torsion bar suspension that took away the Civic’s chassis sophistication.
For the tenth, then, it’s back to the past to get to the future. Some of the family-friendly stuff has been done away with (there is less headroom and, sadly, the “magic” rear seats with their practical flip-up bases are gone) but the new Civic arrives with lower-slung, more overtly sporting styling and much more complex and sophisticated multi-link rear suspension.
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Good looking? Perhaps, and much will depend on the eye and the beholder, but I think it’s safe to say that the new Civic is better looking in person than in photos. In print or on screen, it looks over-complicated. Up close, it’s better resolved, distinctive in a class of VW Golf clones and it wears a strong colour well.
Inside, the layout is far less messy than that of the old Civic, and while the graphics on the central touchscreen look a little old-fashioned at times, at least it’s big, bright, comes with sat-nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and is standard from second-level Smart Plus Pack models and upwards.
Neater digital dials
The main digital dials are much neater than before and the lower-set driving position far more comfortable. A 30mm increase in the wheelbase should have led to masses of interior space, but the fact that the seats are set lower down and farther back than in the previous model means that cabin space feels about the same overall. That’s fine – the old Civic was one of the roomiest cars in its class, and the boot, at 478 litres, is simply massive for the class, almost 100 litres bigger than that of a Golf.
As Honda Ireland’s executives slightly ruefully admit, there is going to be one big sticking point in getting those Golf owners (see also; Focus, Astra, Auris, i30 etc ad nauseam) to check a Civic out because, for now, there’s no diesel option. So far as we can glean, Honda’s legendarily fastidious engineers took too long, while upgrading the 1.6 iDTEC diesel engine, to decide between one new component and another.
Thusly, when they made the decision and went back to the supplier, they were informed that production was now booked out the door. The upshot of which is no new diesel Civics until the back end of this year, wiping out about half the potential customer base.
Hopefully, the perceptible swing away from diesel which we have seen so far this year will bring at least a few people on to Honda forecourts, because with the new 1.0-litre 128hp three-cylinder petrol turbo engine, the Civic deserves a little diesel defection.
Engines, and especially petrol engines, being a Honda speciality there is some serious tech crammed into a compact engine, including sodium-filled valves (they stay cooler, longer), an electric turbo wastegate, and reduced internal friction. If that sounds like engineering gobbledegook, then just accept that this little 1.0-litre engine is more powerful than most rivals, and has and impressive 200Nm of torque too.
It also sounds brilliant, emitting a gruff three-cylinder growl at high rpm, that sounds a touch 1980s rally car to my ears, and it all but goes without saying that the six-speed manual gearbox is among the best in the business, with a sporty, short-throw action.
Growling engine
To drive, the Civic is perhaps only middling in real terms – the steering is a touch numb, the springs a little too soft, the dampers a little too firm, the suspension’s reactions occasionally noisy and the secondary ride (how quickly it recovers from a bump) is a touch slow. Oddly though, as with the last Civic, this catalogue of shortcomings adds up to a surprisingly engaging car.
Thanks in part to a very stiff bodyshell, it feels enthusiastic and engaging in a way most rivals simply don’t. It’s not as fluent in its steering as a Focus nor as sure-footed as a Golf, but it is rather good fun, aided by that growling engine (which is very much more refined when you back off ad cruise in a high gear).
You can see what Honda means by looking back to older models for inspiration – this Civic feels much lower slung and more enthusiastic than the three previous models.
It’s also rather expensive, at least at first glance. Kicking off at €23,750 for a basic 1.0-litre i-TECH version seems to pitch it well above the price base of most rivals. The devil’s in the details though, and as with the smaller Jazz that higher price brings with it a level of standard equipment of which most rivals can only dream.
All cars come with impressive safety tech packages into the Honda Sensing system, which includes autonomous emergency braking, forward collision warning, lane-keeping steering, intelligent speed limiter, radar-guided cruise control and traffic sign recognition.
While it's less controversially styled than before, the fact that the Civic is neither a Ford, a VW nor a Toyota will simply remove it from many buyers' lists and the fact that, for now, there's no diesel (the only other engine option is a sporting 180hp 1.5-litre petrol turbo) will hold it back still further. That's a shame, as there is a lot of good stuff going on here.
The lowdown: Honda Civic 1.0 LTR VTECH Smart Plus.
Price: as tested, €26,250, range starts at €23,750
Power: 129hp.
Torque: 200Nm.
0-100km/h: 10.9sec.
Top speed: 203km/h.
Claimed economy 58.8mpg (4.8-l/100km).
CO2 emissions: 110g/km.
Motor tax: €190 per annum.
