An unusual phase number for an unusual phase update. For someone who doesn’t live in the US this may sound odd, specially in countries that also sell Civic, but the North-Americans have criticized this car so hard that Honda needed to perform a last-second facelift in order to solve these problems before they affected the car’s solid reputation. After lots of media speculations of all kinds, the last Los Angeles Auto Show finally received the official version of the “new new Civic”, which you will meet reading this article.
Since the last generation, Honda decided to create different versions of their best-seller, in order to suit each market’s particular needs of body, engine and equipment options, along with minor visual differences. But nobody knows what Honda thought when configuring the North-American version, because this car was criticized by everyone. The design resembled too much the previous generation, the interior had bad coating and assembly quality, the handling became worse, there was too much internal noise… This car started to lose the awards it was used to receive every year, so Honda needed to act quickly to stop their compact sedan from losing sales to competitors like Chevrolet Cruze, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra, Mazda 3 and Toyota Corolla. The Japanese response came with facelifting the entire line only eighteen months after the current generation’s release, surprising everyone because they brought heavy changes: the pictures show the sedan has changed the front and rear style, with more chrome details whose inspiration was taken from the new Accord and bring a more sophisticated appearance to the car. The overall impression is a more mature car, which still haven’t abandoned the previous generation’s style but now uses a different interpretation of it: instead of that raw Japanese sportivity, Civic now follows a North-American elegance.
That facelift didn’t apply to the coupe version, though. What the entire line has received is the series of small-but-very-important updates to the interior. The peculiarly-shaped dashboard received better materials (including some leather parts), improved assembly and a new, more classy design for the air-conditioner’s outlets and buttons. Besides all that, Honda states that Civic received thicker windshield and bigger soundproofing in several areas, in order to reduce the internal noise. They also included some new technologies in this car, such as electronic systems for lane-departure and forward-collision warnings. When it comes to the trim levels list, the DX entry-version is no longer offered, leaving to LX the title of cheapest one available. Honda took this opportunity to maintain the previous LX’s equipment level, and allow itself to announce that every Civic now comes with more items – with all the optional ones, this list includes GPS navigation, Bluetooth connection and multi-view auxiliary cameras. This update is interesting because the deepness of those improvements is usually performed by other brands only at half-age facelifts, when the car has spent about three or four years in the current generation but it’s still too soon to invest in a complete new phase. Therefore, all this effort is a nice way for Honda to reconquer their customers’ approval.
However, as in almost every facelift of that kind there weren’t changes to the engine department. The standard option is the 140-hp four-cylinder 1.8 with a five-speed manual or automatic transmission, but Civic can also use the 2.4 with six manual speeds. These options also apply to the coupe version, which received only the interior updates. This means it still features a sporty design, with well-proportioned volumes to avoid a big-vehicle impression: it may not be the most powerful option of its category, but doesn’t seem visually heavy like a coupe Elantra would look like. Besides that, the Si version was also updated, adding the classic aerodynamical kit with side spoilers, more aggressive bumpers and that big rear spoiler – this area became a little confusing with this typical sports-car-item right above the chrome line which almost every sedan since the 1980s has used to join its tail lights. And at the top of Civic’s huge versions list, there are not one but two gasoline-opposers: the hybrid version pairs a 1.5 gasoline engine with the electric one to generate 110 hp and the excellent 44 mpg rate, using a CVT transmission. Besides that there’s the Natural Gas version, restricted to compressed natural gas, with 32,5 average consumption; the common versions achieve 32 mpg with manual and 33,5 mpg with automatic transmission, while Si stays at 26,5 mpg always with six-speed manual transmission.
