Up Close With the New 2016 Honda Civic
The new 10th generation 2016 Honda Civic, just introduced at events in Detroit and Los Angeles Wednesday, heralds a move that all Civics — whether in the U.S. or overseas — are as upscale as the European models of the past, instead of as cheap as the American models aimed at budget shoppers.
Related: 2016 Honda Civic: First Look
It’s immediately apparent from just gazing at the new Civic that Honda designers were stung by the negative press about the last American version’s shape. It looked odd; then a redesign made it look cheap; then another emergency redesign made it look like it had been emergency redesigned. Not so here.
The impossibly low hood and grille sweep up to a side view that looks a little too much like a Nissan Versa thanks to its prominent wheel arches, but then departs dramatically from just about any compact car on the market with a greenhouse and rear pillar treatment that’s racy and attractive. Overall, it looks to me like someone draped a new Honda Accord over a Nissan Maxima, but it really works. And it works much better in person than it does in pictures, where the low-slung body doesn’t get accurately conveyed.
Inside, the Civic is impressive as well. I was able to sit for a spell in the top Touring level model, which features high-quality leather seats, a soft-touch dash and an all-new gauge package that eliminates the maddening split-level gauge design.
It’s all grown up inside, with excellent assembly quality and good visibility, but you do feel like you’re sitting low in the vehicle — the Civic eschews the trend toward high and upright seating positions for vehicles that has been popularized by SUVs and crossovers. Hopefully this lowering of mass translates into some sharper handling characteristics.
That the new Civic is lower is especially evident in the backseat, which features plenty of room for bigger people. Even headroom is adequate, despite the Civic’s swoopy roofline. Of note — the completely flat rear passenger footwell is no more, with a ridge now present where the third-seat passenger’s feet would be. Presumably this is a byproduct of the new Civic platform’s inevitable sharing with other vehicles, like the next CR-V, which requires a way to make the normally front-wheel-drive platform into all-wheel drive. Frankly, any fifth passenger is going to be uncomfortable being squeezed into the center spot anyway, footwell chassis hump or not.
The only real blemish on this new Civic is from the Display Audio panel in the center console — it uses the touch-sensitive screen that’s now been rolled out across Honda’s lineup, and we’re not big fans of it. Not having a volume knob is a pain, as is trying to make do with touch-sensitive sliders. Hopefully having the excellent Apple CarPlay or Android Auto will make up for this fault, or at least make the multimedia experience sufficiently less painful.
