FIRST DRIVE
2016 Honda Civic
A game changer? Yes. A giant killer? We’ll see.
by
David Taylor
W
ith Honda Canada well on its way to establishing
the almost ubiquitous Honda Civic as the bestselling car in Canada for 18 consecutive years,
there is much to celebrate at Honda Canada’s headquarters
in Markham, Ontario—and especially at Honda Canada
Manufacturing (HCM) in Alliston, Ontario.
The status quo, resting on existing laurels was obviously
never a consideration when this tenth-generation Civic was
being developed.
Careful attention was given to detail, especially in the
interior fit and finish in a manner never seen before at this
price point. Some have argued that some best-in-class
features from more expensive premium marques have made
it into this vehicle’s surprisingly spacious cabin—yet at a
relatively affordable suggested retail price—$15,990 for a
manual transmission DX and $26,990 for the top-of-the-line
Touring model.
Honda has made it quite clear
that this is the most significant
redesign of any Civic generation,
going so far as to call it “epic.”
4
THE DRIVER
The end result appears to be a better looking (some critics
are not sold on the new rear end)—inside and out—performing
sedan that has definitely met its objective. To be clear, this is
no 2012 tepid refresh. This is a bold and impactful statement
of style, form and most importantly, function. Obviously,
compromise was a word that design and engineering teams
removed from their lexicon.
It would be cool to state, “Less is more” with this innovation
of performance and engineering—but that would be so far
from the truth.
For example, this car is merely the tip of the iceberg for
this brand new platform. Expect to see a coupe, five-door
hatchback, the aforementioned Si and a Type-R version within
the next 12 months or so. This means that from the beginning,
Honda engineered this sedan’s chassis to have greater
performance applications than this falls rollout would suggest.
Boldly go, anyone?