2022 CIVIC SEDAN
A new look, more room and fresh content with familiar powertrains
If there’s one vehicle that’s synonymous with the Honda brand, without question it would be the Civic. It was the automaker’s breakthrough model when it first arrived here in the early 1970s. Throughout the ensuing decades, the Civic has remained a strong seller in its class despite the seismic market shift to pickups and utility vehicles, including Honda’s own CR-V and HR-V.
The 11th-generation front-wheel-drive Civic has been updated and refined, which is in keeping with the times and
with customer demographics. Honda has avoided making any radical adjustments, but the sedan and hatchback bodies are noticeably more mature looking. The snub-nose front-end design adopts an upright look and the roofline appears less rakish as it slopes into the rear deck. Well-defined creases extending across the door panels and rear fenders are classy touches.
The LED taillights are less garish than before and blend in neatly with the trunk-lid spoiler, which adds a certain sporting flavor.
But what about the Civic coupe? The two-door variant is no more, a victim of slow sales. The coupe was (and still is) the preferred rite-of-passage car for the younger set, many of whom use the car as a platform for modifications and personalization. The body panels attach to a modified version of the previous platform that has been designed for greater rigidity. There’s also more sound deadening material.
The redesign has added about two inches in length, close to 1.5 inches between the front and rear wheels, and trunk volume has increased to 15 cubic feet from 14. There’s also slightly more distance between the left and right of wheels (track width), which helps give the Civic a more planted appearance.
Interior highlights include a cleanerlooking dashboard with 7.0- or 9.0-inch tablet-style touch-screens positioned adjacent to the gauges instead of above the shift lever as was previously the case. A honeycomb-pattern trim-strip extending across the dash masks the ventilation outlets and is contrasted by control knobs for the audio and climate systems.
The Civic’s non-turbo and turbocharged four-cylinder engines are back for 2022 with some slight modifications. The base 2.0-liter unit remains at 158 horsepower
and 138 pound-feet of torque, while the optional turbocharged 1.5 makes 180 horsepower and 177 pound-feet, a gain of six horsepower and 15 pound-feet.
The engines come with a continuously variable transmission that has been revised to improve fuel economy. For the 2.0-liter, there’s a two-mpg improvement in combined city/highway driving (now 35 mpg). Additionally, a new standard multi-mode system for the turbo drivetrain can be set to Normal, Sport or ECON, depending on driver preference.
A six-speed manual gearbox remains available for hatchback models. Both the sportier Civic Si and Type-r hatchbacks with six-speed manual transmissions will return for 2022, but details have yet to be revealed.
Pricing with destination charges factored in for the base Civic LX sedan is $22,700. Standard equipment includes a number of active-safety technologies under the Honda Sensing umbrella. You’ll get forward-collision and lane-departure warnings, roaddeparture mitigation, adaptive cruise control and traffic-sign recognition. But the absence of blind-spot warning and rear crosstraffic monitoring, which are only available with the turbo engine option, is a real head-scratcher.
The Civic Sport adds 18-inch alloy wheels (16-inch steel wheels are standard), sport pedals and an eight-speaker premium audio system.
Along with the turbo engine, the EX gets dual-zone climate control, power moonroof and heated front seats.
The top-line Touring is filled out with navigation, 12-speaker Bose-brand audio, leather-trimmed seats and a power-adjustable driver’s seat, to name a few of the highlights.
Although the changes and updates to the Civic aren’t especially earth shattering, they certainly improve on what is already one the best looking, best performing vehicles in its class.
The new 11th-generation Honda Civic sedan has matured, in some ways resembling the larger Accord. Note that the two-door coupe is no longer offered. PHOTO: HONDA