Honda Civic 2020 Review

The 2020 Honda Civic hatchback range, which was updated late last year, is simply summed up: five trim levels and two engines – a naturally-aspirated 1.8-litre four-cylinder for the two low-priced grades and a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder powering the three top models.

The vehicles tested here were the base-grade Honda Civic VTi with 1.8-litre engine and the Honda Civic RS, which, just one step down from the flagship level and powered by the turbo engine, is the one we’ll spend a little more time on.

At $22,790 the Civic VTi is quite affordable. In fact, it’s currently the least expensive ‘Japanese’ hatchback on sale in the country. For the record, the car is built in Thailand, which helps keep the landed cost down.

Priced at $33,540 (nearly $11,000 more), the Honda Civic RS hatch comes with a lot more goodies. These include keyless entry, a raft of driver-assist/safety features, acoustic parking guidance, LED headlights with auto high-beam function, larger alloy wheels, rain-sensing wipers and electric fold-in mirrors.

On top of all that, the Civic RS also comes equipped with a 10-speaker audio system with digital radio, leather upholstery, dual-zone climate control and push-button starting.

Both cars are covered by a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty and the service intervals are set at 12 months or 10,000km, with a first service to be carried out 1000km after the customer takes delivery of the car.

The safety credentials of the Honda Civic can be summed up by the five-star ANCAP rating from 2017 for the range and the comprehensive basket of safety features for the Civic RS tested here.

The Honda Civic RS Hatch’s highlights include the headlights, which are great on low beam, and better still when the automatic system changes to high-beam on dark country roads. The system is also highly responsive and dips the headlights at the very first sign of an oncoming car, sometimes even before the driver has seen it. Unfortunately, the system doesn’t dip the lights automatically in built-up areas.

In contrast, the halogen headlights of the Civic VTi are pretty ordinary.

Other safety shortcomings include the Civic VTi’s lack of variable dwell for the intermittent wipers. And while the basic Civic does have a reversing camera, acoustic guidance (ultrasonic parking sensors) would be nice to have as well.

There are several active safety features offered as standard for the Civic RS as part of the Honda Sensing package. These include forward collision warning, autonomous emergency braking, lane departure warning, lane keep assist and adaptive cruise control.

In our testing, the lane-keep assist system struggled with the parlous line markings of typical rural roads. That’s not exceptional though; most systems like these are hopelessly out of their depth on country roads.

The left-side blindspot camera displays through the infotainment screen when you indicate you plan to move left. The jury’s out on whether this is a plus or a distraction – this tester favours the latter.

At base grade, the Honda Civic VTi misses out on the Honda Sensing safety package, and the autonomous emergency braking system in particular is something that the Civic’s competitors offer.

Both trim levels come with six airbags, including side-curtain airbags to protect the heads of the rear occupants in the outboard seats.

Neither Honda Civic variant tested will leave trails of smoking rubber on the bitumen when the light turns green – but what mainstream small car will?

These two Civic hatches are rather more mundane than the fiery Honda Civic Type R; they’re aimed at families, not boy racers. Nevertheless, they do produce supple power delivery for staying with traffic.

The turbo engine in the Civic RS is a little growly around 4000rpm and has a slightly sportier demeanour so feels demonstrably perkier. Its mid-range torque complements the calibration of the continuously variable transmission. That said, this car would be better with a dual-clutch transmission.

Lacking the character of the turbocharged engine powering the Civic RS, the 1.8-litre powerplant in the Civic VTi is reasonably refined. It needs a little more driver input to deliver the same sort of performance though.

The continuously variable transmission of the entry-level model provides ‘S’ and ‘L’ selections, the former for sportier performance.

Unlike the Honda Civic RS, the Civic VTi doesn’t have the shift paddles for sequential shifting.

You can use the lever to shift from Drive into S or L for more revs and engine braking, but you don’t get the stepped ‘geared’ set-up of the Civic RS for sportier driving. This is unlikely to be deal-breaker for most Civic VTi drivers.

Curiously, the two cars returned the same fuel economy figure over the same test drive – 7.6L/100km. The turbocharged Honda Civic RS Hatch should be slightly more economical than the Civic VTi across all three test cycles.

Both variants of Civic Hatch emitted a little vibration from the engine at open-road speeds, and the tyres in both cases – 18-inch Michelins for the Honda Civic RS, 16-inch Dunlops on steel wheels for the Honda Civic VTi – were a little noisy on coarse-chip bitumen.

Overall, the Dunlops fitted to the Civic VTi were the noiser at 100km/h and were prone to protest and squirm more under heavy braking.

The Civis RS’s handling was very tidy on the Michelins. Plenty of grip, the steering was precise and braking power and stability good.

While the Civic VTi didn’t track as well at the straight-ahead, and wouldn’t turn in as promptly as the Civic RS, the lower-priced Civic felt very secure once committed to a corner.

Ride comfort was also acceptable in both cars, given the Civic’s overall balance of handling and roadholding. You can feel a few more bumps in the Civic RS. Of the two, the Civic VTi clearly provided the better ride quality.

The front seats in both cars are well shaped, but I felt the fabric-upholstered pews of the Civic VTi held me in place better. With the electrically adjustable leather seats of the Civic RS, you do slip around a little more.

Adjustable lumbar support would be an improvement on both.

Being nearly as long as the old Honda Accord Euro, the Civic is right at the upper edge of small-car packaging. This makes it quite roomy in the rear, although passengers over 180cm tall may find headroom lacking.

There may also be some protesting from the rear on days of extreme weather, without adjustable vents to cool or heat the occupants back there.

The Honda Civic RS and Civic VTi bring to the market a mix of traditional Honda strengths, but also some traits that might warrant questioning by the consumer.

While, for example, the doors of both close with (almost literally) a drum-like quality, there was also a persistent buzzing noise from the left side of the cabin. A space-saver spare is arguably a safety shortcoming as much as a convenience, but the nifty roll-out cargo blind (from the driver side of the luggage compartment) earns a tick for packaging.

Neither Civic tested came with integrated satellite navigation, but both feature Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard. Finding your way to a new destination should therefore be as simple as plugging your smartphone into the USB port under the floating console. As well as the USB, there’s also an HDMI port under there. And the migration to a rotating knob for audio volume control is a small but worthwhile step after the slider control experiment.

Although it’s still common for more affordable cars to come with a traditional key/lock barrel for ignition, starting and accessory operation, it’s a surprise to find it in the Honda Civic VTi. The Civic RS does have a starter button, which is probably more common in small cars these days.

While the Civic RS is cheaper to buy than a Ford Focus Titanium, the Ford makes up for the difference in price with things like self parking, proper blind-spot monitoring and driving dynamics that are more enjoyable on balance.

As we have found in the past, there are other small cars in the segment that are also at least a match for the Civic RS.

So it’s hard to recommend the Civic RS. If, however, it’s value you want, the Civic VTi offers a better product relative to its similarly priced competition.

How much does the 2020 Honda Civic VTi cost?
Price: $22,790 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol
Output: 104kW/174Nm
Transmission: continuously variable automatic
Fuel: 6.4L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 150g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2017)

How much does the 2020 Honda Civic RS cost?
Price: $33,540 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 127kW/220Nm
Transmission: continuously variable automatic
Fuel: 6.1L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 142g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2017)