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HONDA CIVIC ; NEW CAR ROAD TEST [Derby Evening Telegraph (England)]
[July 18, 2014]

HONDA CIVIC ; NEW CAR ROAD TEST [Derby Evening Telegraph (England)]


(Derby Evening Telegraph (England) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Honda's Civic has been lightly refreshed with a smarter look, a sharper feel and the addition of a Tourer estate for the latest model year. Jonathan Crouch reports BACKGROUND The Honda Civic fam- ily hatchback in eighth-generation form sold between 2006 and 2011 and was frustratingly close to greatness. After all, for a Fo-cus- sized family car, it was best in class in so many ways, offering the smartest styling, the greatest practicality, the slickest gearbox and the spor-tiest engines. If only the ride, refinement, cabin quality and running costs had been bet-ter. If only the lifeless power steering hadn't disguised the responsive handling. And if only the awkward rear win-dow arrangement hadn't put so many off on the test drive around the block. You can't afford "if onlys" in this oh- so-competitive seg-ment and the Honda engin-eers were sent away to do better. The result was this MkIX Civic, a car launched early in 2012, which the marque now claims to have perfected with more reward- ing driving dynamics and the addition of an estate to join the existing five-door hatch.



As a result, it's the car it should always have been.

DRIVING EXPERIENCE If you tried the ori-ginal version of this car, then a drive in this im-proved version should reveal the extra precision of the sharpened steering and the reduction in bodyroll. On the move, you're quickly struck by the near-perfect weighting and smoothness of the brake and clutch pedals and the lovely, snickety precision of the six-speed gearbox. There's a five-speed automatic option on the 1.8 if you really don't like it. Whatever your transmission choice, though, this is an easy car to drive. If there is a problem, it's that it isn't quite such an easy one to see out the back of. To be fair, both rear three-quarter vision and your rear view through the split-tail-gate are better than before (and you do now get a wiper on the tailgate) but it's still not ideal. But it's something you quickly adjust to. A bit like the characterist-ics of the 1.8-litre i-VTEC pet-rol engine we tried. This 142PS powerplant is the one that most customers choose, claiming the performance of a 2.0-litre unit with the efficiency of a 1.6, which is pretty much the way it pans out, rest to 60mph occupying 9.1 seconds on the way to 134mph, more than four seconds and 18mph faster than the entry-level petrol 1.4. The 150PS 2.2- litre i-DTEC diesel's much better refined, though, slightly ironic given that with competitors, refine-ment is one reason you're tempted not to consider the diesel option. Here, it's the other way round. As perhaps you might expect given that, the diesel has nearly double the petrol model's pulling power, so you don't have to rev the thing so much. Perhaps an even better solution is the 120PS 1.6- litre diesel unit that arguably represents the sweet spot in the range.


DESIGN & BUILD You'll need to be a Honda expert to no-tice the changes included in this ninth-generation Civic. These include privacy glass at the rear as well as piano black finishes to the tailgate, li-cence plate surround and lower bumper. The front bumper finish is also piano black instead of anthracite grey and there are darker wheelarch garnishes. The result is a slightly more up-market look. Inside, enhancements are limited to extra touches of brightwork and gloss finish-ing. Otherwise, things are much as before - which means that you still get a dis-tinctive split rear screen which is easier to live with than it was in the previous model. That's because this version's narrower central bar has been dropped to cre-ate greater rearward visib-ility that now allows space for a rear wiper. Most buyers will continue to opt for the five-door hatch. Its seats recline but don't slide back and forth, though that's only because they can do something cleverer still. If you've a tall load to carry, you can flip the base up, cinema seat- style. If you need more room than the hatch can offer, it's now possible to choose the Tourer estate bodystyle, which gives a 642- litre cargo area.

MARKET & MODEL Civic pricing sits in the expected bracket for Focus-sized family hatch-backs, so you'll be looking at paying somewhere between Pounds 17,000 and Pounds 27,000 for main-stream models. A Pounds 1,900 premium gets you the Tourer estate. Whichever model you choose, you should find your car to be decently equipped. All models get alloy wheels, LED daytime running lights, climate controlled auto air conditioning, the i-MID driver information display, all-round electric windows and power mirrors, an alarm and a Hill Start Assist system. You also get a stereo system clever enough to re-tune itself to your favourite radio sta-tion as you drive through areas of different frequencies. Plus, it offers USB port and iPod connectivity.

Even the entry-level S grade includes features such as Bluetooth hands-free tele-phone, DAB Radio, USB con-nectivity and 16in alloys. In addition to these items, the SE Plus, the next level up, has rear parking sensors and 17in alloys, while SR customers will benefit from the new world first rear Adaptive Damper System, front heated seats, HDD sat nav and pri-vacy glass. Those who opt for the top EX grade will receive headlight washers, smart entry and start capability, a sunglasses holder, interior blue ambient lighting and Bi-HID headlights.

COST OF OWNERSHIP For the first time, Honda has a diesel of- fering in this class that's good enough to match and prob-ably beat most of what the opposition can throw at it. The 120PS 1.6-litre engine de-livers sub-100g/km CO2 fig-ures, but even the 150PS 2.2 i- DTEC variant is now able to develop a very impressive set of overall running cost fig-ures, despite this engine's 10PS boost in this ninth-gen-eration Civic, putting out just 110g/km of CO2 and deliver- ing a healthy 67.3mpg on the combined cycle. As for petrol power, well the entry-level 1.4 i-VTEC man-ages 52.3mpg on the com-bined cycle and puts out 129g/ km of CO2, figures that fall to 48.7mpg and 137g/km if you go for this petrol 1.8. All of these figures have been helped by the standard fit-ment of a stop&start system - Honda calls it 'Idle Stop' - to cut the engine when you don't need it. There's also ECO As-sist, which uses the car's speedometer illumination colour to advise users on how their driving style is affecting fuel economy and tan ECON system where pushing a green button on the dash ac-tivates a gentler throttle map and tweaks the air condition-ing for greater efficiency.

SUMMARY Kaizen, the Japanese approach to "continu-ous improvement", charac-terises every aspect of this improved ninth- generation Civic. The sharpened hand-ling is welcome, as is the ad- dition of an estate bodystyle.

The sporty feel of the engines, the brilliant magic seat prac- ticality of the cabin and the concept car looks of distinct-ive rear styling will have the neighbours craning their heads over the fence. Add to all that class-leading running costs, brilliant British build quality and the best gearbox and driving position you'll find and you've a tempting package perfectly suited to those willing to look beyond the Focuses, Astras and Golfs that most will choose in the family hatchback sector.

CONTACT DETAILS For further details on the Civic and other models in the Honda line-up, visit the Lookers Honda deal-ership in Sir Frank Whittle Road, Derby (DE21 4SX), click to www.derby- honda.co.uk or call 01332 343444.

TEN-SECOND REVIEW The ninth-generation Honda Civic has proved to be a useful step forward from its predecessor. A frugal 1.6-litre diesel engine has been added and, more recently, a Tourer estate bodystyle. Plus, mainstream hatch models get sharper steering and more composed handling on top of minor styling changes. All that makes an already strong package a whole lot better.

THE HONDA CIVIC BY NUMBERS 94 Pounds 17k 78.5 Starting price for Honda Civic line-up 9.1 Combined mpg figure for most frugal Civic CO2 g/km figure for greenest Honda Civic 0-60mph timing for friskiest Honda Civic (c) 2014 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved.

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