Honda Civic eHEV
HELLO
£32,995 OTR/£33,820 as tested/£410pcm
WHY IT’S HERE
Maybe the best family hatch – just as everyone stops buying hatches
DRIVER
Ollie Kew
LOOK AT THE STATE OF FAMILY HATCHBACKS RIGHT NOW. FORD ISN’T going to replace the Focus VW has wrecked the Golf and builds its deadliest rival the ID You can’t buy a Kia Ceed at the moment because Kia is funnelling all its precious semiconductor chips into more profitable Sportages and Niros With parts shortages price rises and the general trend towards crossovers the humble family hatchback is being cruelly left to wither on the vine Yet whirring silently onto the battlefield comes hope in the handsome shape of the new Honda Civic A hatch that Honda proudly says stands a smidge lower than the intensely ugly old model
Don’t mistake this for a sporty car Honda has thrown away its old fleet of turbo petrol and diesel engines and now has a one size fits all mild hybrid setup You can’t get the Civic with a plug The only other powertrain the th Civic will offer in the UK is the Type R’s bhp firework It’s also now a manual gearboxfree zone Yes Honda has bet the Civic’s reputation entirely on an ‘eCVT’ gearbox
When we first drove the new Civic we were hugely impressed by its drivability It doesn’t just look more grownup it feels it Better materials A coherent cabin Superior refinement In the dying days of the hatchback as we know it Honda may well have built the perfect car for traffic choked camera infested pothole afflicted modern Britain
Our Civic is a rangetopping Advance adding faux leather electric seats a heated steering wheel a sunroof and Bose speaker hifi The fetching Premium Crystal Blue Metallic is the only option at
So kitwise it’s fully loaded but characterwise the new Civic seems to take it easy Will it be refreshing or a symptom of why the hatchback is being usurped in British affections? Vijay will be finding out over the winter