this is the new civic sedan and Honda has completely redone the car for the
2016 model year the rides on an all-new chassis is has new styling inside and
out and has new engines
how did Honda recapture some of the sporty engaging driving experience that
prior generations of the civic have been known for with this car
we just had a chance to drive it and it delivers on that front in a pretty big
way
the new Civic is lower and wider to give it a more aggressive stance and it also
rides on a longer wheelbase you can see a clear connection between the concept
version of the civic that was shown on the auto show circuit in this model here
in this new front grille treatment
this is a touring trim level so it's the highest trim level that's available for
the civic it has standard LED headlights but it also has this matte black finish
right here and lower trim levels also have this but I think on the high in
trouble they should have done something a little more premium like a piano black
finish or something else to separate it
the new civics rear styling represents an even bigger departure from its
predecessor with this swept-back roofline that gives the car almost a
look of a hatchback we've seen it in bigger cars like the hyundai sonata
midsize sedan and results in this really short trunk lid
there's also he's really dramatic tail lights which give the car a very
distinctive look when you're right behind it
I was most impressed with the civics ride and handling qualities the car
hunkers down nicely in corners and has limited body roll in the steering has a
nice quick turn into it at the same time even though it has had his traditional
firmer ride new hydraulic suspension bushings eliminate a lot of the brittle
ride quality that the prior civic exhibited on rough roads Pacific's new
base engine is a two liter motor that's rated at 150 horsepower it delivers
decent performance but at higher speeds kind of runs out of steam if you want to
make a quick pass it works with either a six-speed manual transmission or a
continuously variable automatic honda says it should get 31 miles per gallon
in the city and 41 on the highway
pacific is also available with a 1.5 litre turbocharged engine
that's rated at 174 horsepower and it makes more torque at lower rpm and you
can really feel that mid-range speeds were feel stronger than the two liter
engine
right now it just works with the continuously variable automatic honda
says they want to eventually bring out a manual with that engine to even with the
sleeker design of the car honda has retained pretty good visibility
especially out the front
these front roof pillars don't get in your way checking over shoulder your
blind spots still good
the rear window with the new roof line is a little smaller but still your views
out the back up pretty good
I'm to lower the front seats and raise the center console so you get an all new
cabin that wraps around the driver more than before
material quality is pretty good i like how they have soft touch surfaces up
here you can rest your elbow and also down here on the armrest and this new
center console
it's also really useful it's got sliding trays for different size cups you can
even put a huge water bottle in way down deep
it's a pretty useful space the X and above trim levels of the civic at a new
version of honda's display audio system which has a 7-inch touchscreen and on
those models
you also get apple carplay and android auto capability built in so you can plug
in your smartphone through a USB port and get certain functions capable right
on the screen certain models also have an embedded navigation system that's
provided by garment
it's pretty responsive and one thing I would like to see though that's not here
is a real knob for tuning audio stations and also for tuning volume because these
little touch buttons to start the greatest interface
civics back seat is really roomy I'm 6 feet 1 inch is Tom have good legroom
knee room to spare it's a comfortable seating position with a nice recline
back rest indecent Headroom
overall it's similar to what you'd find in some mid-size sedans the civic sedan
hits dealerships in November 2015 with a starting price for the base LX term of
around nineteen thousand dollars but there's more to come as hunters going to
launch a civic coupe civic hatchback and they're going to be performance
SI and type r models but even the non-performance trim levels deliver an
engaging driving experience that I think consumers are going to like