Honda Civic: 2017 Car of the Year contender

New Honda Civic chapter no feel-good hit.

WE’VE been waiting a long time for a class-leading Honda Civic, and it looks like we’re going to have to wait for a while longer. Much is right about the tenth-generation version, yet Car of the Year revealed it to be one of those cars that somehow adds up to slightly less than the sum of its parts.

There are plenty of positives. The new Civic is a bigger car than its lacklustre predecessor, having had a sizeable 104mm increase in overall length, with a much more intelligently designed cabin to turn it from one of the most cramped cars in the segment to one of the most spacious. Exterior design does seem to have got stuck somewhere in the middle of the Pacific – there’s no doubting the fastback styling has been designed for American tastes – but it has created an impressively practical sedan, with 519 litres of load space.

Honda has always adopted a brush and handle approach to product development, normally launching new cars with old engines. That’s only half true here. Yes, the old 104kW 1.8-litre atmo four soldiers on in cheaper versions, but there’s also a new 127kW turbocharged 1.5-litre in the more senior RS, Honda’s first turbocharged petrol engine in Australia. It’s definitely the technical highlight: powerful, responsive and almost lag-free, it makes the 1.8 feel both anaemic and old-fashioned.

Unfortunately both drive through a standard-fit CVT which set the atmo engine droning as it struggled to provide respectable motivation on the gradients of the durability circuit. The turbo’s fatter torque curve makes it better suited to the tranny’s sliding ratios, but it still gets loud when worked hard. We know there wouldn’t be many potential buyers for a manual, but it would be nice to be offered the choice.

The 10th-gen Civic is a huge improvement over its dreary predecessor and certainly isn’t short of rational appeal. The $24,490 VTi-S looks like conspicuously good value considering its increase in size, although we reckon the turbo Civic (from $28K) is good enough to warrant the additional spend. But buyers, we suspect, will struggle as we did to forge an emotional connection.

Specs

BODY Type: 4-door sedan, 5 seats Boot capacity: 519 litres Weight: 1261 – 1331kg

DRIVETRAIN Layout: front-engine (east-west), FWD Engines: 1799cc 4cyl (104kW/174Nm); 1498cc 4cyl turbo (127kW/220Nm) Transmission: CVT automatic

CHASSIS Tyres: 215/55R16 – 215/50R17 ADR81 fuel consumption: 6.0 – 6.3L/100km CO2 emissions: 140 – 148g/km Collision mitigation: No Crash rating: Not tested

Prices: $22,390 – $33,590