Honda to review lack of auto-braking for new Civic

Honda Australia will review its decision not to offer all models in its new Civic Hatch line-up with driver-assistance systems such as Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB).

Only the top-spec $33,590 (plus on-road costs) VTi-LX version of the Civic Hatch launched this week comes with the Honda Sensing package, which includes AEB, forward collision warning, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control with low-speed follow and road departure mitigation.

The package is not even offered as an option for the four other models in the range, nor any individual elements of it such as AEB.

“We are comfortable with the package we are offering in terms of safety,” said Honda Australia director Stephen Collins. “But we will constantly review that and for future upgrades that will be a consideration.

“We are not offering [Honda Sensing] as an option on the other grades and that’s something we will review going forward.”

It’s the same safety packaging story for the Civic sedan launched in 2016. Both cars get a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating, but would miss out if tested next year when AEB will be a requirement for all versions of a model including entry-level variants.

AEB is commonly offered as either a standard or optional feature on leading small-car models such as the Mazda3 and Hyundai i30.

Honda execs threw up a variety of reasons why the package is restricted to the VTi-LX, including customer preferences and the need to keep the line-up simple.

Collins pointed to the popularity of the Civic sedan with private buyers as evidence the safety packaging was accepted.

“Clearly with a 20 per cent private [market] share ... it’s a five-star [ANCAP], so safety is one of our major priorities,” he said.

motoring.com.au understands not offering the Civic Hatch with the option across the range generated significant debate within the company pre-launch.

“We are definitely aware of the discussion of what other competitors are doing and that’s something we will work on in the future,” Collins said.

An essential issue seems to be that Honda Sensing cannot currently be broken down into individual elements. That means Honda Australia couldn’t specify AEB alone for all models.

Instead it would have to offer the complete package on all Civics -- something it wouldn’t want to do for costs reasons.

“It is possible to fit Honda Sensing to anything, which is obviously the full pack and not just AEB,” said Collins. “We are constantly weighing up the package versus the value versus what we offer.”

Honda has big sales expectations for the new Civic Hatch, although it has conceded the lack of a price-point entry-level manual version doesn’t help attract customer attention.