Hatchback....only the turbo?

Yup. The hatchback is only coming with the 1.5 turbo engine. Not sure why but maybe Civic is trying to make the hatchback lineup more performance orientated. Not sure if they'll ever come out with a 2.0-liter even if it's in the sedan and coupe.

Were you hoping for the 2.0-liter?

If they make the hatchback a bit more performance oriented then it can have a bit different curb appeal. People like to have the conspicuous consumption aspect of their vehicle. The hatchback would be seen as a faster car, instead of just another economy-level family car.

I figured from the beginning that the hatch would have a reduced trim line compared to the sedan and coupe. I think alot of that has to do with production cost and shipping cost. They're already having to pay a premium to ship these all over from Swindon, UK; offering more trims means more diversity in shipping, and ergo more shipments etc. ALSO... i expect the hatch will be the heaviest of the 3 body styles of civic given it has 4 doors like the sedan AND a hatch which tend to be pretty heavy. The good news with that extra weight is the cars front/rear weight balance should be the best of the 3 body styles. BUT the extra weight might have made the 2.0L too slow also. So honda decided to go with the sporty image to help justify the higher prices and less trim options. In terms of sportiness i'd expect it to have a similar tuning to the coupe but with the versatility of the sedan.

IMO, the 1.5T only on the hatch is purely a matter of production costs & capacity. Remember that unlike the sedan, the hatch is only being produced at the Swindon plant (because they have extra manufacturing capacity there now, and hatches aren't traditionally a hot seller in N.America). In Europe, there is no market for the K20C2 because of the emissions / registration costs structures, so they don't have any K20C2 production capacity there. To produce a 2.0L NA hatch, Honda would somehow need to have the K20C2 available in Swindon -- either through local production or shipping of some nearly built engines. But that engine won't get used in Europe, so why bother increasing costs?

Should the N.America demand for the hatch be sufficiently large, such that Honda deems there is a profitably business case for the 2.0L to be locally produced, I am sure Honda wouldn't hesitate to start producing Civic hatches here, with both the 2.0L and 1.5T engines available.

Mostly it is a matter of not really being able to afford the upper priced Civics,.....and I'm sure the Hatchback will be about the price [if not some more] than the EX-T,.....~$23,000.

It just basically puts it out of my price range,..........so I may be forced to just go with a Fit..........*shrug*

Won't really know until they actually release the price but hopefully it's around the same price as the EX-T. Didn't factor in the idea that the 2.0 liter may not be powerful enough for the additional weight.

With the reduced engine options,I hope they don't leave out too many of the additional features that the Sedan touring has.

4Tires said:

Won't really know until they actually release the price but hopefully it's around the same price as the EX-T. Didn't factor in the idea that the 2.0 liter may not be powerful enough for the additional weight.

With the reduced engine options,I hope they don't leave out too many of the additional features that the Sedan touring has.

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My guess will be that standard equipment will be comparable to the sedan/coupe trims (EXT and up obviously). The biggest differences will be the weight of the car over the other 2 body styles and possibly a bit of a price premium (shipping cost etc, plus hatches tend to always be a bit more than their sedan counterparts) so i'd expect it to come in more expensive than the coupe on lower trims and more expensive than the sedan at higher trims, maybe an extra $500 or so, give or take.

Well that price is basically nothing when spread across a payment schedule. I am actually surprised that the hatchbacks are generally more expensive. i always thought of them as a more compact style of car, but I suppose that might be a misconception of mine.

I was hoping for an LX version around 20K. The extra 3 grand that it will actually cost will be enough extra per month to take it out of consideration. Too bad. It's a very nice looking hatchback.

You could probably wait for the price to go down or for a sale of some kind but that's going to be a very long wait. Other than that, maybe a trade in to cover that additional 3k if necessary.

If the hatchback isn't within your budget, I think the Sedan and Coupe are still nice.

CanGuy said:

Well that price is basically nothing when spread across a payment schedule. I am actually surprised that the hatchbacks are generally more expensive. i always thought of them as a more compact style of car, but I suppose that might be a misconception of mine.

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Just look at the competition. The mazda3, elantra, forte, golf/jetta, and focus. All the hatch variants of those cars have a higher starting price than their sedan versions, partially because they start at higher trims, but also comparing trim to trim there is usually a small premium on hatches for the extra production cost of a hatch door over a simpler trunk.

4Tires said:

You could probably wait for the price to go down or for a sale of some kind but that's going to be a very long wait. Other than that, maybe a trade in to cover that additional 3k if necessary.

If the hatchback isn't within your budget, I think the Sedan and Coupe are still nice.

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My current car is a 1997 Hyundai Sonata POS [not the official name], so it wouldn't bring hardly anything for trade.

I want to stick with something with a hatch because it is more usable for my hobby. Thanks for the comment!