O-hisashiburi desu translates from Japanese roughly as “Long
time no see.”
This little bit of linguistic trivia seems particularly
relevant having driven Honda’s latest Civic Coupe. In other words, welcome
back, Civic. It’s been a while.
Oh, sure, the Japanese brand has had the Civic in production
continuously since it was launched in the 1970s. But every so often, Civic
seems to lose its way.
Such was the last generation, which sold well but had so many flaws, Honda
rushed a revision to market after the first year. Even the revised version left
many critics with a sense of ‘meh.’
The consensus view of the latest model, starting last year
with the sedan and arriving this year with a coupe, is it’s a bases-loaded, top
of the ninth home run for Honda. Today’s subject, the Coupe, in Touring edition
trim, comes in as the shutdown closer sealing the win.
To understand the current Civic, we have to go back to 2001,
when Acura was launching the RSX, an upscale coupe replacing the Integra. It
was in Banff in spring, and I asked the chief engineer if there had been any
thought to making it a rear-driver. Interestingly, his response was not
complete dismissal, but he said they decided to focus on creating the
best-handling front-drive car on the market.
Now, 15 years later, they might have actually achieved it.
The RSX handled well, but it did lack that pivot-on-a-point feel of a
rear-driver such as a 3-Series. In the 3-Series, for instance, the feeling that
the car’s centre of gravity is right at your right elbow is palpable. You can
notice the balance.
In today’s Civic, that feeling is here. Toss it into a corner
and you can be forgiven for thinking it’s a rear-driver. You can feel the rear
end pulling itself into line around a corner.
The Civic is powered by two engines, a normally aspirated
2.0-litre on the LX and a 1.5-litre turbo on the EX-T and Touring. It’s the
turbo under the hood of the tester, and it delivers 174 horsepower and 162
pound-feet of torque.
Sadly, the only transmission offered on the Touring is a CVT.
The six-speed stick is only available on the LX. That said, this CVT is one of
the better ones. It is less prone to confusion (getting stuck at a higher gear
ratio after a sudden deceleration) and feels far less rubber-bandy than some.
When exiting a corner, you can lay on the power and feel the acceleration
building quickly.
For a sporty drive, steering-wheel paddles will cause the
transmission to emulate gear changes, even it’s just the CVT instantly jumping
between gear ratios. They work well and actually do make it feel like gears are
changing.
Still to come should be an Si version, which — given how well
the Touring model will appeal to sport-minded drivers not wanting a standard —
should, if it were my decision, be offered only with a stick. That’s a model to
look forward to.
The coupe’s interior is unchanged from the sedan, and it’s
very handsome. Gone is the bridge-of-the-Enterprise look of the previous model,
with its somewhat cheap-looking plastic, and in its place is a striking dash
design with an appealing mix of materials, from aluminum trim to soft-touch
vinyl to black glass and glossy black plastic.
The Civic may not be the best choice for those with tall
family members. My six-foot-something son ran out of rearward seat adjustment
and had to recline the seatback slightly to not be rubbing on the headliner.
One good note: even with the seat all the way back, there was still good
legroom in the rear.
The exterior styling of the coupe is quite attractive. A long
hood solves the odd proportions of the previous model, and the finish at the
rear creates a striking profile.
Every time I drove the Civic, one thought kept recurring:
compact cars aren’t supposed to feel this good, particularly mainstream models
that start below $20,000.
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