[Civic X News]

Much has been made over the Civic's rapid and radical transformation. From the new platform to the new benchmarks Honda left no stone unturned, but does that tangibly translate to the road?

Our friend Craig Cole at Autoguide had a 2016 Touring Sedan and by the sounds of it he fell in love. Immediately he heaps praise on the steering feel, "It does a pretty convincing imitation of an Audi, that is, effort is extremely light at parking-lot speeds but it bulks up promptly as speed increases, providing a direct and predictable connection to the front wheels."

He also unsurprisingly has much love for the 4 corner disc brakes, claiming the pedal is firm but not grabby as you might expect from it's initial feel.

Cole doesn't go into as much detail on the 1.5T as we would of liked, but that's understandable, most people don't buy cars for their engines anymore. He does confirm however that for the first time the Civic is offered with something other then a gutless low-mid range, meaning the 2016 should walk out of the hole better then any Civic prior.

We give Cole the final word: "The new Civic is a home run and perhaps more importantly than that, it’s the first small Honda in a long time that’s actually worth getting excited about. And hey, they may have just reached their goal; this could be the world’s best C-Segment model."

 

[4Tires]

Here's their video review for convenience.

 

[5TAR]

He's right about the new Civic being a home run, something we haven't seen since the 8th generation which seemed to have resonated well with customers looking for a vehicle in that segment, can't say the same about the current 9th gen.

 

[Pinetop]

I'd love to hear a bit more about the suspension and how they got it to handle so good... especially the new rear end

 

[RobbJK88]

He's right about the new Civic being a home run, something we haven't seen since the 8th generation which seemed to have resonated well with customers looking for a vehicle in that segment, can't say the same about the current 9th gen.

People seem to forget how ground breaking the 8th gen was at the time... the power, the tech all for that low price. And while some might have been put off by the radical cab forward design, at the time, there was nothing else like it on the road.

the 9th gen failed so hard because it was introduced with that terrible interior quality and an exterior styling evolution that looked to go backwards from the 8th. Granted, they sorted the 9th gen interior out (though i still liked my 8th gen interior better) and they for the most part made the exterior more livable and less budget looking... but the lack luster performance, dead steering feel and just the fact that every other automaker had come out with something newer and better was the nail in the coffin for the 9th gen. Even though it still sold in huge numbers (gotta love brand/name recognition).

If you look back at the civics (7th gen not included) honda tends to do this 2 life cycle design theme... the 5th and 6th gen were very similar looking. The 7th was a weird standout but a big departure in design... then you had the 8th and 9th gen which were extremely similar in design/tech/mechanics... now you have the 10th gen, and i'll bet the 11th gen ends up being more of an evolution of it than another radical departure.

 

[g26okie]

People seem to forget how ground breaking the 8th gen was at the time... the power, the tech all for that low price. And while some might have been put off by the radical cab forward design, at the time, there was nothing else like it on the road.

the 9th gen failed so hard because it was introduced with that terrible interior quality and an exterior styling evolution that looked to go backwards from the 8th. Granted, they sorted the 9th gen interior out (though i still liked my 8th gen interior better) and they for the most part made the exterior more livable and less budget looking... but the lack luster performance, dead steering feel and just the fact that every other automaker had come out with something newer and better was the nail in the coffin for the 9th gen. Even though it still sold in huge numbers (gotta love brand/name recognition).

If you look back at the civics (7th gen not included) honda tends to do this 2 life cycle design theme... the 5th and 6th gen were very similar looking. The 7th was a weird standout but a big departure in design... then you had the 8th and 9th gen which were extremely similar in design/tech/mechanics... now you have the 10th gen, and i'll bet the 11th gen ends up being more of an evolution of it than another radical departure.

Speaking on the 9th gen's interior quality before they did the quick refresh. I remember sitting in one at the auto show and I was really surprised how rental carish it felt. There was hard plastic EVERYWHERE, I don't think there was a soft touch piece in that whole interior.

 

[RobbJK88]

Speaking on the 9th gen's interior quality before they did the quick refresh. I remember sitting in one at the auto show and I was really surprised how rental carish it felt. There was hard plastic EVERYWHERE, I don't think there was a soft touch piece in that whole interior.

There really wasn't. The upper doors were hard, dash was hard, headliner was basically felt... it was terrible, made worse by the use of that horrible "rice paper" design to the grain....

My 13 sedan and 14 coupe are so much better. Soft touch materials where they need to be, nice headliner, nice seat fabrics, typical faux leather grain to the plastics, less matt gray plastic overall, nicer knobs and use of chrome and silver accent pieces.... a million times better than the 12's were.

 

[Design]

Keep in mind that Honda was banking on a continued slow economy back in '11. The platform was actually set to debut back in '10 but engineers raced back to make the car lighter and cheaper (hence the low rent cabin). Meanwhile the apocalypse never came and rivals improved quality/features by leaps & bounds. By the time Honda caught their mistakes with a massive revision in '12, it was already too late.

The 10th Gen platform has finally found a place in the food chain of compact cars. You'll hear me say this over and over: Almost as refined as the Golf/GTI and just as fun as the Mazda 3. Key advantage being long term reliability/resale.