New Honda Civic to revive brand

Honda Australia is confident its brand-new Civic sedan – and the new Civic hatch to follow by mid-2017 – will see an end to the local company's sales stagnation.

Arriving in Australian Honda dealerships from the second week of June, the new Civic sedan is priced between $22,390 and $33,590 and has the potential to bring the 40-year-old nameplate back into contention with small-car leaders like the Toyota Corolla and Mazda3.

Honda's flashy new small sedan has a more efficient engine, a roomier, high-tech cabin and a much sportier attitude. Indeed, the Civic sedan scored high praise in our first review, and it could herald a sales turnaround for the Japanese car-maker in this country.

That's certainly what Honda Australia's Director, Stephen Collins, is predicting.

"Two generations ago Civic was amongst the leaders [in the small car segment]. We need to get it back up there," he stated.

With more than 350 pre-orders for the new Civic, breaking a record previously held by the banzai S2000 rear-drive sports car, Collins expects at least 800 new Civics to grace driveways and garages every month, which would make it one of the brand's best-sellers.

"Basically if we sold any less than 800 per month we'd be pretty disappointed," he said, observing the new 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine (127kW/220Nm) will be a hot seller.

"There's some pretty serious competitors obviously, with Hyundai and Mazda and Toyota and others," he said, adding: "we certainly don’t have a Civic awareness problem, we just have an issue where we have got to get it back on the shopping list."

This will be achieved partly via a big-budget advertising campaign invading TV and internet media, yet even if the Civic sells up a storm, the Honda boss concedes annual sales are unlikely to expand in 2016.

"The first half [year of sales] for us will be down compared to last year," he says.

The reason? The previous generation Civic was unloved and there are very few vehicles left at dealerships.

"Right now we have no Civics. That's the simple answer," says Collins.

"Our dealers know it, we know it, but we'll come home strong in the second half with Civic in particular."

The outlook will improve for 2017, insists the Honda Australia chief, when the much-improved Civic sedan will be joined by the Civic hatch. Small hatchbacks are traditionally much more popular than small sedans Down Under.

"Our plan for next year is 50,000 [sales]. We will sell 40,000 this year. We're planning big growth in a flat market next year and it's on the back of having core products and segments we haven't had for a while," said Collins.

So when will the stronger-selling Civc hatch arrive? We had expecting early 2017, but it now seems as though it could be closer mid-2017 for the Corolla hatch rival.

"The hatch market is a bigger market, it’s a sportier, younger buyer. It comes from Thailand too. It'll be in the first half, hopefully not too late in the first half," said Collins.

Why the delay with the new Civic hatch?

"It hasn't really been pushed back. The priority has been on the sedan, because the US market is humongous. We're keen to get the hatch as soon as we possibly can.

"It'll come from the same factory and basically be the same spec. It's the same car from the B-pillar forward, and it'll come from the brand-new factory just built in Thailand."

The new Civic sedan and hatch are both manufactured at Honda's all-new Thai factory, a $650 million high-tech facility that will initially churn out 120,000 vehicles per year. Australia will be the factory's lead export market within Asia-Oceania region, says Collins.

As the fifth most popular car of all-time, with a whopping 23 million vehicles sold globally since the early 1970s and 327,000 sold in Australia since 1973, the Civic is a well-known commodity but in recent times has been a sales flop in Australia.

Collins is adamant that will change, before the line-up is joined by the maddest variant yet, the Type-R.

Powered by a muscular 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine capable of propelling the car to 270km/h, the final piece in the Civic puzzle can't come soon enough.

"The Civic story will be complete with the hottest hatch ever from Honda, the Type-R, which will be available later next year," said Collins.

"That's going to be a great car. It's been a while coming but it will come."

Related reading:
We review the brand new Honda Civic