2011 Honda Civic Earns Three-Star NHTSA Rating

Although it was often considered one of the safest vehicles in its class, the 2011 Honda Civic failed to impress in the last safety tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) under the New Car Assessment Program. The Civic thus received a three-star overall rating, but it performed very poor in the side crash tests, gaining only a disappointing two-star award.

The 2011 Civic reacted pretty well, although not perfect, to the front crash, thus gaining four stars, just like it did in the rollover tests. The side crash test was the one that ruined the Civic, as the car performed terrible in the side barrier impact. The driver front seat test brought the car a two-star rating, while the front seat rating for combined side barrier and pole ratings amounted to two stars.

In the United States, the Civic sedan is offered with multiple safety features, including side curtain airbags, driver’s and front passenger’s side airbags with a passenger-side Occupant Position Detection System (OPDS) and dual-stage driver’s and front passenger’s airbags (SRS).

As compared to the previous version, it comes in the same four engine and four transmission choices ranging from the 1.8l i-VTEC engine paired with 5 speed manual/automatic transmission (140 hp) to the 2.0l i-VTEC engine paired with the 6 speed automatic transmission (197 hp). The remaining two engines are the 1.3l i-VTEC hybrid engine and the 1.8l i-VTEC engine powered by natural gas.