2017 Honda Civic Hatchback Gets First Commercial: Made Mean

No, not Mad Men, although that would be appropriate for the ad theme of this story. I wonder what Don Draper and the guys would think of the Civic? It's certainly not a Cadillac, but it's not a Beetle either. And could you pick up the voluptuous Joan Harris in one of these?

Anyway, the theme of the first Civic hatch promo is this: you've got an underground assembly line where angry robots made the car sitting underneath the regular line for vanilla Civics. It's dark, it's scary, and all the robots look like they might punch you in the teeth. But instead, they punch in the grille and slap some color on that bodywork.

To be honest, I don't think it's a good ad. It's almost as if Honda is making fun of its young demographic, suggesting it's childish and superficial. And worst of all, they never point out that it has a trunk, which is the whole point of the Civic Hatchback.

That being said, it should sell just fine without ads because it's got a standard 1.5-liter turbo engine that gets between 174 and 180 hp, depending on the trim and gearbox.

The Sport Touring model shown here looks pretty good, thanks to double exhaust pipes in the middle and a body kit. But just wait until the Type R blows the competition out of the water next year!

Let's end this with a fun little fact. As you probably know, all the 2017 Civic Hatchbacks will come from the UK factory in Sunderland. But did you know the last Civic hatch, the quirky 2002 to 2005 model, also came from England? Exactly, to begin with, it's never been that Japanese.