The new Honda Civic sports a particularly aggressive dress sheltering a whole range of motorizations including one rather peaceful of 126 ch which is displayed at 27 720 €.
Appeared in 1973, the Civic has had a strange journey throughout its 10 generations, passing from the small but wise city car of 3.54 m with its 69 hp to the large 4.52 m sedan with an energetic, welcoming look. even a 320hp engine for the Type R version. Difficult to qualify its destination as “civic” when it knows its hour of glory by battling victoriously in the World Championship for passenger cars.
However, Honda declines its bestseller with more civilized versions of which that having a tiny 3 cylinders turbo of 998 cm3 developing all the same 126 ch.
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A smart CVT box
However, this does not transform the last Civic into a city car and it is the future Honda e marketed in 2020 with its electric motor and its 3.90 m which deserves to inherit this mythical name from the Japanese manufacturer. Anyway, there is no need to rewrite history and this Civic 1.0 is revealed as a large, sedan, respecting the environment as best as possible and capable of taking long journeys in fairly surprising comfort.
Its driving is even more serene by having an intelligent CVT box, for an additional € 1,300, which offers the advantage of being comparable to an automatic 7-speed gearbox controlled by paddles integral with the steering wheel, after having put the central lever in position S.
Road faultless handling
This box, therefore, does not have the disadvantage of the nagging noise of a conventional CVT. In addition, it has programs that identify deceleration when cornering to maintain speed and benefit from rapid re-acceleration, or which descends gears during heavy braking to obtain engine brake. What enjoys faultless handling in mountain laces thanks to its suspensions formed at the front by a MacPherson architecture and at the rear of a multi-link assembly.
The electric power steering, with its 2.2 turns of the steering wheels, is calibrated to give an instant response from the steering wheel and give a good perception of the road. While driving with Eco mode, and peacefully as it should, the Civic flirts with 5 litres / 100 km but on the highway, it approaches 7 litres and exceeds them in town despite the help of the very reactive Stop / Start.
Functionality and connectivity
Sitting in a seat with multiple settings, the driver appreciates the readability of the dashboard presented under a colour screen where can scroll through a whole series of information such as navigation reminders, text messages, smartphone contacts, etc. However, central vents are on the 7-inch colour touch screen of the infotainment system, the reverse would have been preferable. The latter integrates Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, navigation and air conditioning control.
On a practical level, there is a rear seat that folds down in 60/40 to form an almost flat floor and increase a generous boot space from 478 to 1,267 litres.
Finally, on the safety side, the Civic offers all the advanced and known systems to prevent any traffic incident.
