Honda Civic EX Sport Line
While it may not be pretty, the latest edition of this Honda stalwart makes all the right noises on the road, as Charlie Flindt discovers
No one is going to call the latest-generation Civic ‘pretty’, but that won’t worry Honda one little bit. Function takes precedence over form and has done over the previous nine generations. For this latest Sport Line edition, extra skirts, diffusers and spoilers have been bolted on with varying degrees of awkwardness – and they haven’t made the Civic any less challenging to the eye. It’s low and dumpy – ‘purposeful’ would be a better word, if we were being kind.
I’d like to say that the Civic looks a lot better from the inside, but that’s not entirely true. You have a Blake’s 7 dashboard with Dan Dare dials, if you’ll forgive me for mixing up my ’60s and ’70s sci-fi memories. Curiously, all the dials and gauges are red-themed in this model, which can be slightly disconcerting if you’re used to red dials signifying trouble. Some of the interior trim feels just this side of cheap and cheerful, but then again, the Civic’s keen pricing reflects this.
It’s only once you’ve settled into the basic but comfortable seats that things get slowly better. It takes a minute or two to get oriented with the low driving position and the high gearstick, but the view out is mostly good, though the rear window is rendered partly useless by another spoiler. Even the diminutive three-cylinder, one-litre engine starts unpromisingly, doing a great ‘bag of nails’ impersonation when cold.
It wasn’t long before I was smiling, though – the Civic is a proper hoot. It’s never going to be described as quick, but it’s good fun to drive. That little engine makes some great noises in the 3,000rpm to 4,000rpm zone and, more importantly, is dead keen to get into that zone and beyond. We are going to miss little gems like these when we’re all powered by washing machine motors. Throw in a dinky little gear change and some lively handling, and you’ve got a recipe for fun at 50mph.
Practicality hasn’t been forgotten in the Civic. Despite the awkward shape, room in the back seats is good, and the boot is vast, with easy access through the highopening hatch.
Complaints were few and far between. I struggled with the ‘infotainment’ (hideous word) system – I’m a reluctant user of such things anyway, and the last thing I needed was to find myself completely baffled by its intricacies, layers and sheer reluctance to respond. I soon resorted to directions on a bit of A5 taped to the dashboard. ‘Intuitive’ it was most certainly not. Oh, and there was a teeny matter of fuel consumption, but it seems fair that I take much of the blame for that one.
I was sad to see the Civic go. Honda, for all its smug adverts and pretentious platitudes, still knows how to build a car that is right in all the right places. We want to do more than just drive from A to B. We want to enjoy the ride and relish the sheer act of driving in something with character. Even if we need a bit of A5 to get there.
We are going to miss such gems when we’re all powered by washing machine motors