Ward Auto had a little talk with Honda CEO Takanobu Ito, and apparently it’s not just the design that’s a selling point. He said that the car is technically two generations ahead of the car that’s been showing its art-deco door handles to its European customers for years now. Looking at the consumption figures, we tend to agree with him, but while they sound good on paper, not having turbocharging in the petrol range is a downside, and the blocks themselves sound unattractive in the age of downsizing.
“We aim to sell 100,000 on average, annually; that’s more than double this year,” Ito says of the car’s sales tally to date. “It’s completely different in performance and fuel efficiency, so we’re expecting that volume.”
When the car hits showrooms as a five-door, it will face stiff competition from the Ford Focus that’s making a name for itself with a new generation of smaller EcoBoost engines, plus the king of the C-car hill, the VW Golf. However, Ito is confident in the Civic, which has undergone more stringent tests “than any other car in our history.”
The new Civic will be offered with a hoice of two petrols and one turbodiesel. The base 1.4-liter produces 100 horsepower and returns 5.4 liters per 100 km, while emitting 129 grams of CO2 per kilometer. Next up is the 1.8-liter petrol with 142 horsepower that you can have with an automatic gearbox. Fuel consumption strands at 5.8 liters for the manual and 6.3 for the automatic.
Last but not least, the 2.2-liter i-DTEC diesel with 150 horsepower that only burns through 4.2 liter of fuel per 100 km. Basically, they’re like the old engines but a bit cleaner and more frugal.
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