Honda hopes Type R will inspire sales
Japanese maker wants you to see the family resemblance between Type R hot hatch and its mainstream models. By
David Linklater.
According to Honda New Zealand national sales and marketing manager Nadine Bell, the key to making the mainstream Civic cool again is the just-launched Type R hot-hatch.
Sounds obvious, right? Having a hero car in the range brings a lot of reflected glory on the workaday stuff. But it’s not something Honda NZ has done before, not least because it’s never had the Civic Type R in the official range. It’s only ever appeared here as a used import.
‘‘Linking them together is very important,’’ says Bell. ‘‘They’re on the same platform, they have the same look and the same feel: a ‘one Civic’ approach. We want to build aspiration back into the brand.’’
Don’t get too excited. The justlaunched Civic hatch range pretty much mirrors the mechanical makeup of the sedan, with a choice of two engines and continuously variable transmission standard across the range. The firebreathing, manual-transmission, track-day antics are very much the domain of the Type R and not a lot of that has crossed over into the conventional hatch.
But there’s certainly a deliberate sense of Type R style in the flagship Civic hatch model, the RS Sport. It has the same impressive 127kw/220nm 1.5-litre turbo engine as the RS sedan, but it wears a lot more warpaint.
The front and rear bumpers on the hatch are different from the sedan anyway, but the RS Sport has a lower body kit in Piano Black, dark-chrome door handles and Type R-wannabe central exhaust pipes (it has two, the real thing has three). It’s a pretty good dress-up for an extra $600 over the (non-sport) RS sedan.
The rest of the Civic hatch range has been configured to fit neatly around the sedan.
The entry-level Civic is still the four-door: a $29,990 S-model with the 104kw/174kw naturally aspirated 1.8-litre engine.
The same engine powers a pair of SX models: the sedan and hatch versions cost the same $32,900 and have very similar specification, save the Piano Black grille and B-pillar trim that’s standard on the hatch, as well as a roof spoiler and ‘‘shark fun’’ roof antenna.
Standard on SX are Honda’s novel Lanewatch camera (which gives you a view on the left-hand side of the car on the infotainment screen when you indicate), tyre pressure monitoring, climate control and ‘‘walk away’’ locking.
Honda is also offering a $36,500 SX Sport model, which wears a striking lower body kit in bright orange (there’s a black example in the lineup pictured with this story).
Then we get to the really good stuff: the 1.5-litre turbo models, starting with the aforementioned RS sedan and stepping up to the RS Sport hatch. There’s no real fuelconsumption penalty for the extra Rs-performance because it’s a smaller-capacity, highertech engine. A slight advantage, even: 6.0 litres per 100km in the ADR cycle compared with 6.4 for the 1.8-litre.
Additional Rs-features include black detailing, LED ‘‘intelligent’’ headlights, auto wipers, sunroof, leather upholstery with heated seats and power operation for the driver’s chair, dual-zone climate control and premium audio system.
The top of the mainstream Civic range still belongs to the oddly named NT Sensing sedan, at $42,900. Unless you count the $59,990 Type R hatch. Which of course Honda would like you to.
The hatch is ultimately the more practical machine, with greater load versatility, but with all seats occupied it’s the sedan that has the much larger boot: 504 litres compared with a stillimpressive 414 litres for the hatch.
Our drive-time to date has been limited to track-work, which does a family car with CVT car no favours. Especially when you’ve just jumped out of the hugely exciting Type R on the same circuit, ‘‘family feel’’ or not.
We’ll return to the hatch for a full road test soon, but we’re expecting good things: the RS sedan is a highly capable machine and the hatch is mechanically identical.
In the long-term, Bell sees sales split evenly between sedan and hatch: ‘‘The market trend will be for the hatch to overtake the sedan, but the sedan is something of a mould-breaker.’’
Indeed, Bell sees both body shapes playing a part in bringing younger buyers into the Honda fold. ‘‘I’ve said this in jest, but I think it’s true: some of our buyers are too young to remember when sedans became unfashionable. They see themselves as setting a trend.’’
That must surely be the automotive quote of the year.