Honda Civic hatch for under $23k

After some years on the sidelines of the affordable hatch segment, Honda’s Civic is back, priced and specified to grab back a share of the market from the likes of Mazda3, Golf and Corolla.

Honda has pitched its ninth generation Civic hatch into the fray with a wedge-shaped exterior, a decent equipment list and a few engineering tricks from the CR-Z hybrid sports car, all with a price list starting at $22,650 plus ORCs, or a $24,990 driveaway deal.

The new car is clearly designed to get Honda back into the game in this most fiercely competitive of segments – one the company invented with the launch of the first Civic in 1973. The car continued to dominate the segment through the 1980s and 1990s before coming off the boil in the mid-2000s and withdrawing from the local hatch market for several years, except at the upper end with the sporting Type R.

When it came back with the R-shaped (but more prosaically powered) Si 5-door in 2009, a Type R/Golf GTI price tag of around $40K kept it well away from the likes of Mazda3, Toyota Corolla and lesser VW Golfs, base versions of which sat in the early $20Ks.

By the time the company slashed the price to around $30,000, it was barely registering among buyers finding ever more car for less money among the C segment leaders.

Now, the Civic returns with a price list as eye-catching as its revised bodywork. It’s available in two specs: the VTi-S, from $22,650 with six-speed manual transmission, $24,950 with five-speed auto. Honda is also offering driveaway deals on VTi-S models, at $24,990 manual or $27,290 auto.

Standard equipment on the base VTi-S starts with 16-inch alloy wheels, tilt-telescopic steering, six airbags, climate control and USB/AUX/iPod audio inputs, and extends to keyless remote entry, heated wing mirrors, hill start assist and ‘intelligent multi-information display [i-MID] with warnings and customisable wallpaper’.

There are a couple of notable absences on the kit list however. Bluetooth is a dealer-fitted option, while for cruise control (and standard Bluetooth extending to audio streaming) you have to go to the upspec VTi-L, which starts at $29,990 plus ORCs (no driveaway price). The up-spec Civic hatch adds a leather interior, dual-zone air, sensor-driven wipers and headlights, foglights, a reversing camera, 17-inch alloys, an audio upgrade, ambient lighting and a rear armrest with cup holders.

All specs come with Honda’s useful ‘magic seats’ – split-fold rear seat cushions that rise to sit vertical against the backrests, opening up the space between the rear doors from floor to ceiling for tall-ish items.

Both variants have the same 104kW 1.8-litre i-VTEC four, which turns on its peak 174Nm of torque at a 4300rpm. That’s fairly high by today’s standards, but Honda engines have rarely been afraid of revs.

The company claims a 10 per cent improvement in fuel consumption, with a combined cycle figure of 6.1L/100km for manual transmission and 6.5L/100km for the auto. At 146g/km, CO2 emissions are also down 10 per cent on the outgoing model.

Mother Earth also benefits from the Eco Assist system and Econ mode, technologies inherited from Honda’s hybrid models such as the CR-Z. Eco Assist changes the colour of the speedo illumination on the run to help keep drivers abreast of how their driving style is affecting fuel economy moment to moment. The company’s research found it can make a difference of up to 15 per cent.

The Econ driving mode, activated by a big green switch with a leaf motif, remaps the throttle to reshape the torque curve and attenuates energy hungry HVAC functions.

The Civic has already gained a five-star ANCAP rating. It gets six airbags and disc brakes all round, ventilated up front.

Honda Civic Hatch pricing:

- Civic hatch VTi-S: $22,650 man; $24,950 auto
- Civic hatch VTi-L: $29,990 auto only

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