Honda Civic VTEC Turbo 2017 Review - International

Honda Civic 1.5 VTEC Turbo hatch
Road Test
London, UK

Honda has ploughed an enormous amount of investment into the 10th generation of its venerable Civic small car and the results speak for themselves. If you can live with its divisive exterior looks and an interior that’s a little underwhelming, then the engineering brilliance that shines out of the Honda’s chassis should win many fans. The new Civic hatch joins the sedan on which it's based Down Under in April.

Apart from in its hottest Type-R guises, the Honda Civic has never been exciting. Worthy, safe and reliable, sure; but thrilling? No.

And, worse than that, it hasn’t even been particularly capable for the past two generations. By Honda’s own exacting engineering standards, models fitted with primitive torsion beam rear suspension were stodgy to steer and not blessed with particularly sparkling engines, either.

In a cut-throat hatchback league that’s never been more replete with glittering talent than it is right now, upgrading the Civic that went before would simply not have been enough.

Lucky, then, that Honda has gone to town on its longest-running model, splurging the development dollars on beefing up all aspects of its make-up.

Like the latest Civic hatch, we’ve got an all-new chassis, the fresh car measuring 30mm wider, 20mm lower and 130mm longer (with a concomitantly extended wheelbase) than its forebear.

It’s 52 per cent more rigid in torsion than the old Civic and the roll stiffness of the suspension – which is once again multilink at the rear – has been improved by 12 per cent front and 32 per cent rear.

It’s even lighter than it was, with 16kg trimmed out of the body-in-white and a further eight kilos shaved from the suspension, while that fastback shape blesses it with a lower drag coefficient than its predecessors.

And now Honda is introducing turbocharged petrol engines for non-performance versions of its cars. Here in Australia, we still get the old 1.8-litre normally aspirated i-VTEC in the 10th-gen Civic, but elsewhere, the petrol options are forced induction units.

Thankfully, we do benefit from one of these units, the 1.5-litre 134kW/240Nm VTEC Turbo making its way into VTi-L, RS and VTi-LX cars at the top of the range. VTi and VTi-S trims will make do with the 1.8.

So, as a third of the company’s entire R&D budget has gone into the Civic, is the finished article genuinely up there with the leading lights in Australia's biggest new-vehicle market segment?

The styling is the first major issue to overcome. Some will love it (personally, this author is a big fan), but others are going to find it way too fussy and inelegant.

However, we’d certainly say that its fastback styling makes it stand out against more upright competitors like the Mazda3 and Renault Megane, while the bigger bodywork and extended wheelbase lead to an interior that should allow enough space for a quartet of six-footers to get comfy within.

Shame the dashboard architecture is a bit plain. There’s nothing objectively wrong with the quality of the materials used, nor the intelligence of the layout or the ergonomics; for example, the driving position, lowered as it is by 34mm, is peachy.

But the ‘three-pod’ instrument cluster is a mismatch of a large digital central read-out and then two weird ‘part-of-an-octagon’ dials for the fuel and temperature gauges, neither of which are in the slightest bit easy to read at a glance.

And the general layout of the centre stack is too uninventive for our liking, especially as almost all the Honda’s main rivals have interiors that possess heightened visual appeal.

Just plucking a few names out of the air, the new Hyundai i30 (due on sale here around the same time) has a nicer, more comprehensible dashboard than this and that’s before we’ve gone anywhere near mentioning the paragon of quality in this segment – the soon-to-be-upgraded Volkswagen Golf or the popular Mazda3.

Therefore, aesthetics are going to be the car’s biggest stumbling block because, once you’ve driven the Civic for just a few kilometres, it is quickly clear to see where the gigantic investment has gone.

Honda cites masses of sound-deadening in the engine bay and underbody of the Civic to keep wind and road noise at bay, while there’s acoustic insulating glass as well.

And, coupled to the advanced suspension in a lighter, more aerodynamic shell; what you end up with is a car that has ride and refinement characteristics unsurpassed by any of its rivals.

The Civic is utterly rock-steady at speed, tracking a straight and true line at three-figure velocities even if you take your hands off the tactile leather-trimmed steering wheel.

The Honda refuses to be upset by lateral bumps and washboard surfaces, no matter if you’re doing urban or open-road speeds, while it shows really impressive wheel control at all times.

The outcome of all of this is that, if you’re not driving the Honda hard, it’s a supremely easy-to-use and comfortable car that feels like it is from two classes above in terms of its comportment.

And then you decide to take the 1.5-litre turbocharged Civic by the scruff of the neck and you’re rewarded with one of the most engaging chassis in the sector.

It’s not flawless, but it’s certainly up there with the standardised likes of the Peugeot 308 and Holden Astra, while it’s definitely more entertaining than a regular Golf, i30 or Renault Megane.

The steering is about the only weak point, because – while it’s beautifully direct and superbly weighted – it lacks meaningful feedback regarding the front tyres’ activities, which steals the final, crucial degree of interactivity from a keen driver.

But the rest of it is fabulous. Body roll is minimal, as is understeer. The front-end grips ferociously in bends, while the Civic is more than happy to make repeated high-speed direction changes with little in the way of drama.

It’s not boring, either, as there’s enough feel of the rear axle’s exertions through the backrest of the seat to make punting the Honda along at pace an enjoyable experience. The fire-breathing Type-R version should be epic.

The new turbocharged engine is also deserving of the highest plaudits, as it loves to rev (even though peak power is at a relatively low, for a VTEC unit, 5500rpm) and blesses the car with real punch from idle to redline.

One look at its power figure should tell you it’s almost as potent as the original EK9 Civic Type-R of 1997 (136kW), and of course it is torquier than the majority of Honda’s engines that have gone before (save for turbo-diesels and the V6 in either generation of NSX), but it is also uniformly velvet-smooth and admirably hushed at low revs.

This new Civic should preserve all of the model’s traditional strong points: it will likely be impeccably reliable and while it hasn’t yet got an ANCAP rating, the Mk9 bagged five stars and the new Civic is a step on in terms of both passive and active safety systems.

It’s also hugely spacious inside, blessed with a large boot and plenty of the latest connectivity and comfort toys, and while we lament the cabin’s lack of design flair, it’s brilliantly put together.

But now the Civic has a dash of interest that was never present before, and the well-sorted chassis and eager drivetrain make the most of Honda’s sweeping changes.

We might not be able to yet say whether it’s our favourite in class – we’ll need to drive it for longer on own home turf to make a definitive call – but we are confident that the Civic has become a major hatchback force to be reckoned with.

This is a Honda that is finally back in top form. Praise be for that.

2017 Honda Civic 1.5 VTEC Turbo pricing and specifications:
On sale: April
Price: From around $24,990 (estimated)
Engine: 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 134kW/240Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Fuel: 5.8L/100km
CO2: 133g/km
Safety rating: Not tested

Also consider:
>> Holden Astra (from $21,990 plus ORCs)
>> Hyundai i30 (from $21,450 plus ORCs)
>> Mazda3 (from $20,490 plus ORCs)