Toyota tried to increase the standard by going to 1.8 but see what happened? without any hard facts and figures i can say by general observation that sale of their SE SALOON was much higher than that of Altis 1.8, Toyota buyers are prefering to buy GLI instead of ALTIS
Honda has advantage of market observation, they have seen launch of 1.8 done by Indus and if there are any ppl with limited IQ sitting at Honda they should learn the lesson
Another key point is imported vehicles and their sudden impact on the local market
All these factors make me think that the new civic would be launch in both 1.6 and 1.8 flavours another thing is that if you see previously we had city in flavour of 1.3 and civic in flavour of 1.5 and 1.6, now they have shifted the 1.5 to civic thus giving two versions of city, this also makes me think that they would be launching the 1.6 version ... afterall they should be having ample amount of 1.6 Vti engines left to keep the customers happy
As for the price from the rumors we have heard that the car would be around 11.5 or 12.5 for 1.6 version and 12.5 - 13.5 for the 1.8 version
these are all my assumptions, rest is upto you best of luck with your buy
regards,
Saquib