Price as tested: €25,820
+ Looks, quality, space, clever rear seats, engine, economy
– Over-light steering, a touch pricey
= Deserves a sharper chassis, but quality and engine win you over
To say that the 2006 Honda Civic was a bolt from the blue would be an understatement roughly along the lines of “Liverpool in the eighties were a bit win-y” or “NASA’s Saturn V rocket; that’s a bit quick, innit?”
We had become used to Honda producing beautifully engineered, but relatively conservative cars. Outré styling and dramatic flourishes were not the Honda way. But then the Civic arrived and buried all of that, forever it seems. Space-age styling, dramatic proportions and an interior that, you’ll forgive the David Hasselhoff quote, looked like Darth Vader’s bathroom meant that the Civic left behind its plain-wrapper past and became the most distinctive family hatchback around.
Of course, that was all surface treatment. Under the skin, the Civic was actually a bit of a backward step, ditching the old model’s sophisticated wishbone suspension for simpler, cheaper struts and a torsion bars. It meant for cracking interior space but also for a driving experience that felt cruder and less well settled as the years went on and the competition hotted up. It also had a diesel engine that could only manage Band C emissions and the styling had started to arguably age quite badly.
So, quite a list of issues for the all-new Civic to work on, except it’s not actually all-new, merely instead a thorough re-working of the old one. The suspension is still struts and torsion bars, the flip-up “Magic” (and they really are) rear seats remain and the split level dashboard owes as much to the Blackpool illuminations as it does to fighter aircraft displays.
The first and foremost thing you notice about the new Civic though is its styling. Nothing new there, of course, but by sticking to the same rough template as before, yet honing the details, Honda has made the Civic look fresh and exciting again. With the split rear screen, ultra-sharp looking tail lights and finely cut lines and arches, we reckon it’s even better looking than before. There is a slightly droopy piece of plastic in the grille/bumper at the front, but you will be thankful of that when it comes time for parking knocks.
Inside, the style is again similar to what went before, but with better detailing. Certainly, the quality of the materials used has stepped up a notch, and the displays are clearer and simpler. There is one oddity though; the multi-function trip display (which incorporates a colour reversing camera on our ES spec model) allows you to do something as arcane as correct the outside temperature display (presumably after having consulted Met Eireann) yet it can’t display fuel range and average consumption on the some display, requiring you to click through about three sub-menus just to toggle between the two.
Mind you, you won’t actually need to be paying all that much attention to those two readouts as the updated 150bhp 2.2-litre iDTEC diesel engine has really, seriously raised its game. It’s a little bit noisier than the very best in the class (step forward the VW Golf’s 140bhp 2.0 TDI) but how does a claimed (and very realistic) 4.2-litres per 100km average economy figure and a Band A-friendly 110g/km Co2 figure sound? Better than the engine itself? Oh yes.
But this is not some poverty special with gutless mid-range and astronomical unit gearing. Work the lovely, snicky six-speed manual gearshift (a seven-speed DSG-style box is coming eventually) and the 2.2 displays a wonderfully muscular side to its character, flinging the surprisingly hefty 1,367kg Civic along. It is, in short, an absolute belter of an engine.
Sad to say though that the chassis doesn’t quite match it. The Civic feels, and is, very sure footed and rides with a firmly-damped assurance that feels more Germanic than Japanese. Relatively small wheels and high profile tyres on our test car doubtless helped with that. But the steering is a let down, lacking any of the meat and feedback that comes as standard with any Golf or Focus, and feeling disconcertingly Atari-like. Get used to it, learn to trust it and the Civic will go where you want it, hold a tenacious cornering line and never displays a bad handling habit, aside from a tendency to allow the unloaded inside wheel to spin exiting a tight junction. But it refuses to engage the driver.
That’s not helped by a driving position that feels too high-set, with the chunky wheel sitting in your lap, and seats that are just a touch too narrow across the seatback, even if they’re mostly comfortable.
Still, there are things that the Civic does very well. Like almost any Honda, it’s exceptionally well made and transmits that through to you by way of silky smooth surfaces in the cabin. Even the harder plastics on the dash, of which there are a few, feel better than most car makers’s high-grade stuff.
Then there’e the refinement. Aside from an occasional engine gurgle or clatter, there is very little noise allowed into the cabin. Tyre roar and wind noise are very well suppressed.
And then there’s the space. It does feel a little tighter than the old Civic, but there’s still good space to be had in the back, the ‘Magic’ seats allow you more versatility with how you carry your cargo and the boot is big (477-litres), square and deep.
So, where does the Civic fit within the fiercely competitive family hatchback world? Well, it’s not as engaging to drive as either a Focus or a Golf, but it sits well ahead of the likes of the Peugeot 308, Citroen C4, Toyota Auris or Renault Megane when it comes to the quality of its build and the quality of its engine. Of course, it damn well should do, as the cheapest diesel model, at €22,445 is a good €2k more than even the most expensive diesel competitor. Our ES test car clocks in at €25,820. That will improve a touch when Honda’s new 1.6 diesel arrives in 2013, but Honda always prices its products at a distinctly premium level.
Is it worth it? On balance, yes, but only if you’re happy to pay the premium demanded. We love the styling, the quality, the engine and the refinement, but truly keen drivers will be better served elsewhere, and more cheaply to boot.
Facts & Figures
Honda Civic 2.2 iDTEC ES
Price: €25,820
Range price: €21,395 to €28,825
Capacity: 2,199cc
Power: 150bhp
Torque: 350Nm
Top speed: 217kmh
0-100kmh: 8.5sec
Economy: 4.2l-100km (64mpg)
CO2 emissions: 110g/km
Tax Band: A. €160 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: Not yet tested
No comments:
Post a Comment