A NEW CIVIC LESSON …
It’s Honda’s best one yet
When you’ve been on top for a while, you can become complacent. And for a while, Honda fell into that trap with its perennially bestselling Civic. While competitors improved dramatically, an “all-new” 2012 Civic looked and felt so close to the old one that I could barely tell them apart.
Finally, Honda woke up and delivered a truly made-over sedan for 2016. It continues into 2017 virtually unchanged, alongside a new-for-2017 hatchback variation. A 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine making 158 horsepower is used in the DX, LX and EX trims, starting at $16,390, while a turbocharged, 174-hp 1.5-L four-cylinder motivates the EX-T at $25,190, as well as my top-of-the-line tester, the Touring, at $27,390. The turbocharged engine comes only with an automatic continuously variable transmission (CVT), while the 2.0-L uses either the CVT or a six-speed manual.
With 162 pound-feet of torque, my Touring’s engine was pretty punchy and had virtually no turbo lag, just linear acceleration. Regular 87-octane gas is all that’s required. CVT units are primarily about fuel economy rather than driving performance, but they’ve come a long way from their rubbery-feel early days, and this one works well with the turbocharged engine.
Steering and handling are impressive as well, and while it’s no corner-carving sports sedan, it’s snappy and fun. The electricassist power steering is dialed in nicely to give it road feel, and braking is smooth and linear.
This Civic is longer and wider than the last-generation model. Despite the sloping roofline, rear headroom stays the same, but tall people need to duck down even more when getting in.
All trim levels come with such features as heated mirrors, rearview camera, Bluetooth and USB connector, and the next-up-frombase LX adds heated seats, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, plus 60/40-split folding rear seats instead of the single fold-down unit on the base trim. Higher trim levels include automatic headlamps, rain-sensing wipers, auto-dimming rear-view mirror, wireless device charging, leather upholstery and heated rear seats.
The base DX trim, at $16,390, doesn’t include air conditioning, and you’ll have to move up to the LX ($19,290) to get it. That’s not unusual in the compact segment, and rivals such as the Chevrolet Cruze, Mazda3, Toyota Corolla and Kia Forte also leave off the air in favour of advertising the lowest possible price. The Ford Focus is one of the few with A/C all through the line, starting at $16,898.
My Touring’s interior, while handsomely designed, is a mixed bag. It’s roomy, but the seat cushions are short and get hard on the spine after a while. The seatbelt buckles are huge, and because they stick out so far when buckled in, I was always pressing on them instead of the release button, which is farther down and tougher to reach. The electronic speedometer is beautifully simple, but the gas gauge uses a small, moving white dot that’s hard to decipher at a quick glance. And the flowing metallic trim on the dash, which draws the eye nicely around the air vents, ends abruptly in a sharp, unfinished edge.
The navigation system, found only on the Touring, is one of the better ones I’ve used. You speak the address all at once when using voice command, rather than saying each individual line — that’s becoming common, although there are still a few that can’t handle it — and the system got each one right on the first try. The climate fan momentarily shuts down while the system’s listening to you, to avoid confusing background noise, and the display in the instrument cluster includes a countdown gauge that shows how far you must travel to your next turn.
The navigation is housed in Honda’s infuriatingly backwards infotainment system, which needs a dial for volume control, rather than a spot where you taptap-tap the glass and hope it’s not so cold that the system doesn’t respond. There is a redundant control on the steering wheel, but it’s not much more intuitive. And worse, while the climate temperature is handled by a dial, the mode and fan speed can only be accessed through the infotainment screen; this is stuff that should be immediately available.
My tester also had a suite of safety technologies (standard or optional, depending on the trim level), which added adaptive cruise control, collision warning that will apply the brakes if you don’t, and lane assist that gently guides you back if you cross the line. The EX and up include LaneWatch, which broadcasts a view of the car’s right-hand side when you put on the turn signal. It’s a more advanced version of blind-spot monitoring and provides a wide-angle view, but there’s no corresponding version for the driver’s side.
All in all, the Civic’s a great driver that, despite some quirks, is likely to remain at or near the top of the charts for a while to come. Honda might have slipped a bit on it, but overall, it’s come back with a vengeance. Overview: A snappy little sedan that’s the best Civic yet Pros: Good handling, nice engine, lots of features at the top end Cons: Some cabin fixtures could use improvement Value for money: Excellent What I would change: My kingdom for a volume dial How I would spec it: The secondfrom-the-top EX-T at $25,190