Honda banks on sporty Civic

The sporty Civic is back. That’s the message from Honda Australia, which this morning confirmed its plan for a serious re-engagement of the rough and tumble of the Australian small car marketplace.

Looking to again be “a serious player” in Australia’s biggest and arguably most competitive new car segment, Honda will launch sedan and hatch variants of the all-new Civic small car and deliver a choice of 1.8 atmo and 1.5-litre turbo petrol engines.

And hot hatch fans take note: the company is promising a full-house Civic Type R – although not until the second half of 2017.

The latest Civic sedan went on sale in the USA recently and local sales will commence in June (2016). The hatch variant was one of the production car stars of the recent Geneva show – albeit in a lightly designed ‘concept’ form. Its local launch is now delayed until early 2017.

Honda Australia says the car has been developed with ‘fun to drive’ as one of its key criteria and claims the new Civic is a “step-change” in terms of engineering and quality. Both sedan and hatch in the new generation will be built in a new factory in Thailand. It’s still not clear where Australian market Type Rs will be sourced.

Leaving the hot-shoe Type R aside for the moment, Honda Australia says it will offer no less than five variants of the new Civic sedan, and mirror the line-up in the hatch.

Targeting private buyers and “in the sweet spot of the segment” will be the RS pictured. Described as a “style rather than performance” statement for the new Civic line-up, the RS will be one from the top in the local model offering. A luxury model will top the RS and two base and a single mid-grade variant will make up the rest of the line-up.

At this time Honda Australia is not confirming equipment levels, nor pricing, but promises the cars will feature class-competitive specification and offer “serious value for money”. CarPlay and Andriod Auto will be standard on all grades and a full-house safety suite will be available including advance adaptive cruise with stop go function and a low-speed semi-autonomous mode.

Honda Australia Director of Sales Stephen Collins told motoring.com.au the company was upbeat regarding the prospects for the new car. He said although 2016 would be “a year of volume consolidation”, he sees Civic as one of the key drivers of sales growth in 2017 and beyond.

But, he stated, Honda would not be drawn into a price war with the new car.

“Civic won’t be there,” Collins stated referring to the common $19,990 small car pricepoint.

“I think Mazda is a good example where you don’t have to be at $19,990 to sell plenty of cars. Clearly we need to be competitive and we will be on price. Similarly to what we have done with Jazz at $16,990; similarly to what we have done with HR-V at $26,990; we will take a similar strategy with Civic. We will make it competitive

“We’re never going to be the cheapest but [Jazz and HR-V are examples] where we’ve hit the sweet spot and stuck to it. That’s exactly the strategy we’re going to take with Civic.

“The HR-V [compact SUV] was a strong signal of us starting to get our mojo back in terms of product and the Civic is the next stage of that recovery,” Collins told motoring.com.au.

“I don’t want to quote a [sales volume] number today, but I would say we want to be back amongst the leaders [with Civic],” Collins stated.

Collins is realistic about the ground the brand needs to recover, however. It’s not that long ago that the marque said it was targeting 80,000 sales per year Down Under. Now he says the goal is “sustainable growth”.

“We’re not chasing aggressive, unrealistic targets,” Collins said.

“I’m certainly not sitting here today saying we are going to knock off Mazda 3 or knock off Corolla, but we think we want to get back amongst the leadership composition. We operate mainly in the private market… We’re not in renters, not in discount fleet type markets… For us what’s important is at least double digital share in the private market.”

The new Civic is larger than the car it replaces. Most dimensions are up, with the exception of height. A longer wheelbase delivers around 50mm more rear leg room.

In Australia, the base engine will be a 1.8-litre naturally-aspirated petrol four based on current i-VTEC technology but coupled with Honda’s latest Earths Dreams CVT auto transmission. The 1.5-litre direct-injected turbo four is from Honda’s latest engine generation and will also be coupled with a CVT.

At this stage Honda has no plans for any turbo-diesel Civic models and has dumped the Civic Hybrid for its local line-up.

“We really plan to stick with the core business of small cars, which is offering a choice in petrol engines,” Collins stated.