Now should be the Honda Civic’s time to shine. With an ongoing fuel crisis and a large chunk of buyers unconvinced that switching to fully electric will work for them, you’d imagine intense demand for a frugal hybrid hatchback that’s large enough for a family but small enough to keep running costs down.
Indeed, the Toyota Corolla made a name for itself with precisely that recipe. Yet Honda has struggled to shift the Civic, so it has tweaked the styling and the specification in an attempt to broaden this car’s appeal.
Pros
- Good to drive
- Smart interior that’s high on usability
- Spacious
Cons
- Too expensive
- Outgunned on warranty
- Ride can be a bit firm
Pounds and pence
Sharper, more assertive frontal styling is joined by a new paint colour. Improved specifications include the mid-range Sport gaining a heated steering wheel and a new digital instrument cluster. Such additions might help to make the Civic better value, since one of its major struggles in the UK has been its high price.
Unfortunately, that remains an issue; our test car in top-spec Advance trim costs £38,695 – that is £2,400 more than an equivalent Corolla and £3,600 more than a top-of-the-range Mazda 3. Metallic paint brings the Civic’s price close to £40,000. Despite that price premium, Honda offers only a three-year warranty, whereas Mazda provides six years and Toyota up to 10.
Its price places the Civic against premium hatchbacks such as the BMW 1-Series; a 120 M Sport Pro costs almost £500 less even if you specify metallic paint.
This top-spec Civic is at least chock-full of equipment, containing heated front seats, a rear-view camera, a premium audio system, adaptive cruise control and much else. But with the possible exception of the panoramic sunroof, its top-line rivals offer broadly the same features.
Interior comforts
It feels pretty swish inside, though. The interior plastics are thick and high-quality and the design is easy on the eye. The mesh strip that spans the dash and hides the air vents is a neat touch; beneath it sit three beautifully tactile rotary controllers for the climate control – a rare, and welcome, treat in a modern car.
There are plenty of physical buttons elsewhere, too; in fact, there aren’t many modern cars providing better interior usability than the Civic. The only real downside is the push-button drive selector, which looks and feels a bit cheap although it’s a doddle to use.
Because it doesn’t operate all of the car’s main controls, the infotainment screen can be devoted solely to the sat-nav, audio entertainment and ancillary settings – just as it should be. It is therefore simple to understand, with an intuitive menu layout, as well as quick to operate.
The Civic’s 409-litre boot bests both the Corolla and the 3, not to mention the Volkswagen Golf. In fact, the only midsize hatchback with a larger luggage volume is the Skoda Octavia, which is physically larger than most of its rivals.
There’s loads of space in the back seats, too, with almost as much rear leg room as there is in an Octavia and plenty of head room. In the front, you won’t want for space, and the figure-hugging seats feel satisfyingly supportive.
On the road
As you’d expect from a modern full hybrid, there’s no engine noise when you start the Civic – just a bong to let you know it’s running, backed up by a green “Ready” dashboard light. Push the D button to select drive and you’re away.
Most of the time you’ll be powered by the electric motor, which is fed by a high-voltage battery. This in turn is charged by the petrol engine turning a generator motor. Only at higher speeds, when cruising, does a lock-up clutch connect the generator motor to the propulsion motor, so the engine drives the wheels directly.
The first thing you notice is that the Civic feels taut. It has not been set up for compliance like the Corolla and Octavia; instead, it’s more like a 1-Series in its purposeful way of riding bumps. In fact I found the way the Civic rides bumps to be just a little too firm for its family hatchback positioning.
The trade-off for this, however, is that it feels beautifully composed in bends; grippy, poised and precise, with the sort of front-end response you rarely get in a family car these days.
It is fun to drive and the enjoyment isn’t too badly affected by the lack of a manual gearbox; select Sport mode and you can flick up and down a series of artificial stepped ratios as though you were using a normal paddle shifter.
You’ll rarely want to drive the Civic in this manner, however. Because the petrol part of the hybrid drivetrain component spends so much time switched off in traffic, you’ll find yourself using the accelerator pedal as gently as possible, relishing the achievement of easing from one set of traffic lights to the next using only the battery.
Any demand for brisk acceleration will prompt the petrol engine into action, but it isn’t invasively noisy; even if you floor the accelerator, the Civic avoids the horrible monotone moo you get with many hybrid rivals by fluctuating its engine note slightly, as though it’s rowing through those faux gear ratios again. Yes, it’s artificial – but surprisingly effective.
The Telegraph verdict
If the impression is of a car that’s competent and well thought through, that’s about right. The Civic isn’t all that exciting, but it doesn’t need to be; it fulfils its brief brilliantly, maximising usability and space in a way that’s been forgotten by many rivals.
Is it, therefore, worth the extra outlay? Not really, to be honest, when the Toyota Corolla does much the same for so much less, nor when several rivals offer so much more in the way of warranty – a key battleground these days. Nor when you consider that its ride isn’t the smoothest.
Were it a little cheaper, the Civic would be an excellent car. As it is, it is “merely” a good one.
The facts
On test: Honda Civic 2.0 i-MMD Advance
Body style: five-door hatchback
On sale: now
How much? £38,695 on the road (range from £33,795)
How fast? 112mph, 0-62mph in 8.1sec
How economical? 56.5mpg (WLTP Combined)
Engine & gearbox: 1,933cc four-cylinder petrol engine, single-ratio transmission (when not acting as generator), front-wheel drive
Electric powertrain: 2x AC permanent magnet synchronous motor with 1.05kWh battery
Electric range: 0 miles
Maximum power/torque: 181bhp/232lb ft
CO2 emissions: 114g/km (WLTP Combined)
VED: £455 first year, then £200
Warranty: 3 years / unlimited miles
Spare wheel as standard: no
The rivals
Toyota Corolla 2.0 Hybrid Excel
178bhp, 60.1mpg, £36,295 on the road
The latest Corolla beats the Civic on fuel economy and warranty, yet costs significantly less. Which makes the Civic a tough sell.
Skoda Octavia 1.5 TSI 150 e-Tec SE L
148bhp, 56.5mpg, £35,160 on the road
Down on power, but whopping boot makes up for it. The Octavia is still a class act, and offers more room for less money than the Civic.