“Impressed with Everything About New Honda Civic, Except the Price” – Expert Review

The all-new Honda Civic 2022 has made quite an entrance in the local market. It’s been a month since Honda displayed the car and revealed its specs and features. But nothing explains the ins and outs of a new car better than PakWheels Expert Review. And here it is.

Our car expert drove the new Honda Civic for about a month to experience the car’s true colors. Today, we’ll tell you what our expert thinks about the looks, feel, drive, comfort, and price of the 11th generation Civic. Before that, let’s talk about the history of Honda Civic in Pakistan.

History

The first Honda Civic that came to Pakistan in 1993 was the 5th generation model. As the years passed, Honda locally produced and introduced the latest generation Civic models. Out of all the models in Pakistan, the last 10th generation Civic was the most popular. But the most-awaited model has been the recently launched 11th generation.

The 11th generation Honda Civic has won the North American Car of the Year award in the US. But has the new 11th gen model done justice to Honda Civic’s three decades old legacy in Pakistan? Let’s find out.

Variants

Honda has introduced the new Civic in three variants: Standard, Oriel, and RS. We’ll be reviewing the top-of-the-line Civic RS variant.

Exterior

Coming to the car’s looks, the new Civic has a bulky and wide stance. If we look at it from the front, it feels like the old Civic got a lip filler. The front fascia features eyebrow-shaped LED DRLs, matrix-style 3D LED bi-beam projector headlights, a matte black hammerhead grille, a honeycomb-style lower grille, and LED fog lights. Civic Oriel and Standard variants have halogen headlights, which is a bit of a disappointment.

On the side profile, the most noticeable feature is the 17-inch alloy wheels with a matte black finish. These wheels are also exclusive for the RS variant. The other two variants get 16-inch alloy wheels with a hyper silver finish. The RS variant has piano black linings around side-view mirrors, door handles, bumpers, and a shark fin antenna. The side profile has two character lines that extend from the front all the way to the back, adding to the car’s sportiness.

The curtain-style rear lights resemble the ones we see in Audi A4. The most distinct feature on the rear end is the RS exclusive ducktail spoiler in piano black. The RS variant also has dual exhaust tips with chrome lining, something that’s not there in the other two variants.

Opening the trunk, we see an NVH insulation carpeting inside the boot, which is great because it reduces road noise inside the cabin. There’s 409 litres of boot space with a full-size spare wheel and a tyre repair toolkit. An interesting thing is if you drop the key inside the trunk, it doesn’t close, which reminds you that you’ve left the key inside.

With its modern exterior styling and beautiful looks, the new Honda Civic gets a perfect 10 out of 10.

There are multiple ways to enter the new Honda Civic. You have the remote key and an RS exclusive smart card, aka a wallet key, to enter the car. Keep the card with you and simply place your hand on the driver’s seat door handle, and the car will be automatically unlocked. 

Interior

The new Honda Civic has a completely redesigned interior. It’s cleaner, more mature, and has a retro feel of 1960s and 70s style American muscle cars. The moment you enter the car, this new interior makes an excellent first impression. 

The RS variant has a dark grey and black interior with red stitching in different places, such as the steering wheel, gear knob, meter, and seats. There’s ample headroom and legroom at the front and back. The cabin can comfortably seat five adults for city travels and four adults for longer journeys. 

There’s a leather-wrapped three-spoke steering wheel with media control, MID (Multi-Information Display) control, cruise control buttons, and paddle shifters. 

The instrument cluster has two sides. There’s a digital speedometer on the right and a 7-inch LCD screen on the left. The screen shows a digital tachometer with other information, such as the range, fuel average, average speed, trip time, driver attention warning, maintenance, safety support, etc. You can change the information with the steering control button and customize the display.

Then, we have a 9-inch tablet-style Android touchscreen, which is a new thing for a Civic. All the previous local and international Civic models had Apple CarPlay and Android Auto functionalities. The phone connectivity works fine, and so does the audio and screen touch. But if you are a music lover, you won’t be satisfied with the average quality of speakers. 

Our favourite thing about the dashboard is the honeycomb mesh pattern AC grille with joystick knobs. Underneath the grille, the dual-zone climate control system also looks beautiful with tactile knobs and buttons.

The leather seats in this model are well-cushioned and extremely comfortable compared to the last one. Our expert has driven the car in the city, on the highway, and even on a racing track and loved the seat comfort. 

Civic RS has welcoming red ambient lighting in the front doors, two LED lights in the centre console, and red ambient lighting in the footrest. We would have loved some ambient lighting in the honeycomb grille, but that’s fine. Overall, the lighting is great. You don’t feel blind using the sunroof switches, the centre console buttons, or the driver’s seat control buttons.

We had reported a few design and build quality issues in the last Civic model. But, this time, Honda has really worked hard and left us with zero complaints. The design and build quality of this new model is quite impressive.

However, we still have a few things to complain about. One is the infotainment screen that feels like an aftermarket addition to the car and has an outdated Android 9.0 operating system, and the other is the missing wireless phone charging feature. 

The main focus of our Expert Review is to report the driving experience of this car. Let’s get right into it.

Drive

Our expert drove the car in the city, on the highway, and even on a racing track. After driving it for about 1500 kilometres, he found the new Honda Civic drive to be a perfect balance of comfort and handling. 

The new Civic has a soft suspension, good road grip and handling, and a smooth drive. The engine has all the power you’d expect from the fastest C-segment sedan in Pakistan. 

Fuel Average

The new Honda Civic gives you a mileage of 9 to 10 kilometres per litre in the city and around 14 km/L on the highway, which is impressive.

Safety

Honda Civic RS has two airbags, ABS, EBD, Vehicle Stability Control, Hill Assist Control, Traction Control, and Honda Sensing safety suite with Collision Mitigation Braking System, Lead Car Departure Notification System, Road Departure Mitigation System, Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Keep Assist, Traffic Sign Recognition, and Auto High Beam. All these features make your driving experience convenient and safe. 

With adaptive cruise control, the car maintains a steady distance from the preceding car at the speed you set. 

Lead Car Departure Notification System notifies you when the car in front of you has moved in the standstill traffic.

Lane Keep Assist alerts you with rapid vibrations on the steering wheel when switching lanes without an indicator.

Collision Mitigation Braking System detects a possible front collision with an object or another car and alerts you to apply brakes.

Traffic Sign Recognition feature detects road signs, reads the speed limit and other information from those signs, and displays it on the instrument cluster screen.

Auto High Beam feature detects the light sources ahead of your vehicle and automatically sets the brightness of your vehicle headlights accordingly.

Keeping all these features in mind, the new Civic is still not the safest sedan in Pakistan. The international model has an outstanding five-star safety rating, but we doubt if this local model can measure up to that level of safety because it only has two airbags.

0-100

The new Civic reaches 100 kilometres per hour speed in 11 seconds.

Price

The price of base Honda Civic Standard variant is Rs. 5,399,000.

The price of mid Honda Civic Oriel variant is Rs. 5,649,000.

And the price of top-of-the-line Honda Civic RS is Rs. 6,150,000.

Our expert thinks the Standard variant won’t sell in the local market because it has very basic features with a 5 million+ price tag. The mid Oriel variant will be the best-seller because it is well-suited as a family car. And the top RS variant will have a particular niche of car enthusiasts.

Final Verdict

The new 11th generation Honda Civic is unlike any other Civic model we have seen before. Exterior design, interior styling, build quality, drive performance, and comfort, we are impressed with every element of this car, except the price.

What We Like

What We Don’t Like

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