2016 Honda Civic Consumer Reports Review Finds a Few Flaws and Many Improvements

Even though they probably had a pre-production car on their hands, Consumer Reports couldn't resist doing a review of the 2016 Honda Civic. It's not available in dealerships, and there's no pricing information, but fans of this car will gobble up any information they can while they await its launch.

CR's video is short and starts by criticizing the previous generation, which they say was at its worst in 2012. After that, the 2016 model is described as "all-new, redesigned from the ground up" but they still criticize it in several areas.

For example, the sloped roof restricts headroom for back seat passengers, while some of the features aren't functional enough. First on the list is Honda's camera-based blind spot monitoring system that projects a video onto the infotainment screen. When fully decked out, the 2016 Civic also loses some of the dashboard buttons, which become integrated into the menus of the touchscreen. Consumer Reports have never been fans of this technical solution, and we're on the same page as they are.

In other areas, the 2016 Civic is so good that it's hard to justify buying anything else. The styling puts some Acura models to shame, with a wide-looking front and sexy LED lights. Safety features are also ample, and the engine range has been revised.

Base models come with a simple 2-liter, but it's still the most powerful of all the base engines in the compact segment. Higher trims get an all-new 1.5-liter four-cylinder turbo mated to a CVT. When the Civic Eco comes out next year, we could see the engine doing over 40 highway mpg.

There's no question, the Civic is better than ever, pushing the compact segment in the right direction. But we can't help wonder what the 2017 Hyundai Elantra will be like. We've seen the Korean market model, and it's very impressive.