Honda Civic

We jump behind the wheel of new 2023 Honda Civic Hybrid to see whether it it's worth the extra spend over the non-hybrid model.

The Civic Hybrid packs a plump equipment list to go with its premium positioning in the small car class.

After a few wild rebellious years, the legendary Honda Civic Type R has tamed down its styling – but has the lively front-drive chassis been sedated to match?

Honda's hottest Type R hatch to date has arrived in Australia, ahead of the first customer deliveries next month.

Overwhelming demand has seen the entire first year's stock of Honda Civic Type R hot hatches for Australia sell in less than a day.

Police penalty notices for dark window tint usually apply to backyard operators and independent workshops, but it turns out Honda Australia has been applying illegal tint on an industrial scale.

Max Verstappen's Honda Civic Type R has sold for 75,000 Euros.

We take a look at the five generations of Honda Civic Type R, including EK9, FD2, EP3 and later FK8 generation of JDM hot hatch

Honda's updated Civic Type R has arrived in Australia. Already a bit of a hot hatch legend, this new version continues to improve the breed.

Ryan McNaught combines 320,000 bricks and 1300 hours of work for a world first, all to celebrate the new TV show every adult-sized kid was made for.

Who thought 400Nm and a gigantic rear wing were a good idea?

The MY19 Honda Civic Sedan is here! With a minor facelift from it's previous Bold statement restructure in 2016. The New Civic Sedan still has the same number of standard models, 5, starting from the Base VTI all the way to the top VTI-LX, so what's changed in the new facelift Civic? Here, I'm talking about the Mid Spec VTI-L, which comes in at around From $31,795 drive away, adding $600 extra for metallic paint. One thing you will notice is that All civic sedan models will now come with the Black front grill standard except for the Base VTI, compared to the previous Civic where it was only available on the RS Model. To me, it give the styling a bit more sportiness and looks better compared the Chrome grill. The major feature that is now standard on this Model is Honda Sensing, which was previously only available on the flagship VTI-LX, this offers AEB, FCW, LDW, LKAS, ACC and high beam support assist. This is a big tick for me and for Honda, with most buyers now wanting/needing the active safety tech to now be basically standard on all models, this however is still not the case with Honda, but is has improved with now the VTI-L, RS and VTI-LX now standard with that active safety Tech. The cloth seats are really comfortable and give good support. The the VTI-L will also come with a leather wrapped steering wheel. It will get your usual front/rear sensors, reverse camera, 17inch alloy wheels and Apple CarPlay and android Auto. One of my favourite features though is Lane watch. This is a camera under your left mirror which will appear on the touch screen when you turn on your left indicator. Which is really handy, you get to see what's on your blind side without having to turn your eyes off the road, look it may not be Blind spot monitoring, but still very handy. Power from the Civic VTI-L comes from the previous 1.5LT Turbo Petrol engine, which is put together with a CVT transmission. CVT's are everyones favourites, but I think it actually works pretty well with this engine, it drives smoothly and just seems to work well together. With 127KW and 220NM of torque, it definitely gets the job done for you and has plenty of power. But with the turbo, it may get a bit noisy if you really put your foot down. Fuel consumption has risen from 6.0l/100km to 6.3l/100km which isn't a deal breaker for me, it's still pretty good for the engine size and the car itself. The steering overall is fairly good, but at low speeds it can feel a little bit heavy especially going around corners or reverse parking. The Apple CarPlay and Android Auto worked well and I didn't have any complications when using it. I love the digital Speedo in the car, it clear and bright and seems to be very accurate when giving you readings. The reverse camera isn't the best i've seen and used, but it's not horrible. Now with the complications, The new MY19 Civic has had a couple of removals from some it's models, in this VTI-L spec, you'll no longer get DAB radio and paddle shifters, which look aren't deal breakers, plus your getting Honda sensing which is great, but would of been nice to keep those and add Honda sensing rather than have to compromise those to add the safety into this model. You'll also get a lack of rear USB charging and air vents as well, look the Civic Isn't the biggest Sedan out there, but it should have at least have one of those two options. The Civic is Baked with a Standard 5 year Unlimited Km warranty, which is pretty solid, no roadside assistance. You also get Tailored serving which is similar to capped price servicing which is also an added bonus. Overall the new Civic Sedan MY19 needs to definitely be on your shortlist if your looking for a Sedan, Great safety Tech, followed with a great interior and exterior styling and very good technology.

My family and I recently purchased a used 2008 Honda Civic VTI-L after a job promotion required us getting a second car. One reason for this purchase was the vehicle was in excellent condition for its age and Honda's reputation for making reliable, good quality cars. This review is based on one month of ownership. Our model is the mid-spec version that came with a 5 speed manual, electric instrumentation, front and rear power windows, cruise control, 6 CD stacker, auxiliary port to plug in a MP3, cigarette lighter, which can be used to charge mobile phones and run GPS systems, plenty of storage compartments for one's goodies and a full size spare wheel. The funky, space age design of the instrument cluster takes a little getting used to and may not be to everyone’s taste. The digital speedo, fuel and temperature gauges are housed in a separate, split section area high on the dash above where they would normally sit, with a very large tacho below, in the area the normal speedo of most cars are. Personally I like it, now I’ve got used to the set up. Its quirkiness is very practical, as it's very clear and directly in your line of vision. This means you don't have to take your eyes of the road as much or as often. It terms of clarity and safety, it's a big tick there. To date the engine has started straight away every time and is smooth and quite in operation once it has warmed up. While the 1.8 litre motor is no performance demon, there certainly is no issue with crusing at 110km/h. There is a good balance between power and fuel economy. Speaking of which, the fuel economy has been excellent, returning around 7.2 litres/100km of driving mainly around town and the odd highway trip. I expect this to improve even further with the highway commuting to increase, especially when using the easy to operate cruise control. So far I have found the climate controlled air conditioner/heater to be fantastic. The car is parked outside overnight and I have found even on colder mornings, it heats the interior of the car within a couple of minutes. The temperature gauge is a nifty and helpful addition, which allows you to set it exactly what you want, so there's another tick for the practicality of the design. The Honda Civic is a very spacious little number for a small car with reasonably comfortable bucket seats up front. Even though I'm the only person in the car for the majority of the time, it has plenty of room for four adults. There a deep and generous boot for your luggage or the weekly shopping bags to sit in and the rear seats can be folded down to increase this or carry longer items. I particularly like all the storage compartments throughout the car to store ones small items like mobile phone, wallet and house keys. There are also a couple of cup holders in the centre console, perfect for a man like me who enjoys his daily cappuccino while driving to and from work. Now I’m going to mention a few points about the car that isn’t so good. In short, the noise, vibration and harshness of the vehicle are quite poor. The biggest and most annoying thing I have found is the amount of road noise that infiltrates into the cabin. Even around town it is a noisy place to be and out on the highway it really is intrusive and VERY noticeable. While it isn't quite a deal breaker, I can see it being an ongoing irritant and influencing if we'd buy another Honda in future. The ride and handling are a bit dusty as well. To me it seems Honda couldn't get the balance of the suspension set up quite right. Even on the smooth, dual lane highway surface of the Pacific Highway between Taree and Port Macquaire, the car's handling seems a little unsettled. It just bounces around a bit too much for my liking, which affects the handling. This is not helped by the vague steering. Around town it is fine, but on the highway, cruising at 100km/h, it lacks feedback, which isn’t the best situation to be in and not very reassuring. The manual gearbox can be a bit notchy at times as well. I have found myself having difficulty finding second gear on the change down from third. It also has a high take up point, meaning you need to let the clutch out almost the whole travel before it engages. You do get used to this over a few days and then it ceases to be a problem. That said, it may be a case of me getting used to driving a manual again, after many years running around in our automatic transmission Holden Commodore. All in all there is a lot to like about the mid-spec 2008 Honda Civic VTL-L. If you want a quirky, reliable and economical runabout vehicle, you can do a lot worse than this car. However, if you plan to use it for a lot of highway or longer trips, you will need to decide if you can live with the short comings I've mentioned. .

Great stories usually start with epic background, but I must start my review with a broken gearbox. Not an epic one, but still a start nonetheless. When my Mitsubishi Lancer’s box finally gave up, I was on the market for a new car and tried several sedans before settling in to Honda Civic VTi. As a young and growing family I needed a car that provides ample of space and storage, but I still love that zippy feeling when driving a car; therefore SUV was already out of the equation. It’s just too big for my taste, and small SUV doesn’t provide that much value proposition. The current Civic is the 10th generation in the family, with competition around the world is increasingly intense over time there are so much at stakes for Honda. I’m sure their designer tried really hard to win back the heart of its fans. The front design is pretty good as it features a sharp and modern look with DRL installed as standard across all models, and the back side gives a hint of liftback design. The rear brake lamp is too awkward in my opinion, Honda should’ve gone to a more horizontal design. The good thing is the long wheelbase makes the door opening wide, making it easy for the family member to get in and out of the car. The interior is where I like the most because it is spacious and has clever storage, useful when you have young kids. On the central console you will get 7 inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay / Android Auto - although it doesn’t have built-in GPS but you can use your map application. There’s a small compartment below the phone deck where you can plug your cable in and keep the mess hidden. The driving position is really good, the seat is comfortable and I didn’t have any problem in finding the position that “clicks” with me. Remember the long wheelbase I mentioned earlier? That really helps on the back seat area, giving it a lot of room for the kids not to feel squishy and contained. Central arm rest is useful to hold drinking bottle (and small toys). The boot space is huge making it really easy to put in prams, groceries and even a small bike. Those last two serves as a big tick for a car in small sedan class. The bad things about the interior is you don’t get the niceties of material, it’s a base model and it’s more function over luxury. One other thing annoys me is sometime you can hear rattle in the dashboard although my car had only gone 14,000KM on the clock. Time to turn on the ignition and hit the road. The 1.8L engine is easy to live with for everyday car, and what I mean by that is it doesn’t give you crazy acceleration, raucous engine sound that can makes you scream “Hail Megatron!” but it’s powerful enough when you step on it when you need to. What I’m surprised with is how the CVT behaves because it’s not like the old boring one. It seems to be sensitive enough to know when you’re going to need a downshift and giving you extra RPM, and that’s a good thing. Put it in Sport mode and it holds the RPM in a higher state - but you don’t get any paddle shift/stick to up and down. That’s too bad. Anyway, going back to the road and enter the corner, the steering feels sharp enough to follow your command, the suspension and the tyre feel solid and confident to hold the body making your weekend getaway a little bit more fun. The fuel consumption is pretty good too as with my 50KM daily commute in Melbourne’s notorious traffic the computer trip usually displays 7.2 - 7.5 L/100KM. Couple of other things to close my review is about safety technology. This base model is equipped with the necessary ABS, ESC, cruise control and also hill start assist system - but it’s lacking of active safety technology such as AEB, lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, etc. It doesn’t even have parking sensor. My conclusion is that Honda Civic fits my purpose for a basic everyday car plus weekends with family. It’s a zippy, fun to drive, and economical car that is spacious enough for a young family; although it’s possibly worth to spend the extra dollar to get the safety technology installed to the car and going up a level or two rather than the base VTi.

I like to think of myself as a bit of a sucker for a good hot hatch. My first car was a 2011 Subaru WRX hatch which I immediately ruined with a cold air intake and a tune. From there, I went to a BMW 328i because I thought I wanted a bit of luxury. It took six months for me to realise the error of my ways and sell it for an Audi S1. Some may say I have a bit of a problem with turning over cars. But I thought I'd be fine, I'd be cured with the Audi S1. It was a brilliant little thing. A tiny monster with a big ol' turbo heart. I figured I'd own it for many a year until I had run it into the ground. At which point I'd probably try to buy another one. But then what did Honda do? They had to go and release the damned FK8 Type R. How dare they. It was obvious I'd take the bait and take one for a test drive. They must have known they'd get me, and get me they did. I walked into the dealership thinking I'd just take a Type R for a quick test drive. A bit of a run around town, see what all the fuss was about and then be on my way. I was a fool. I happened to have a dealer nearby that would let me drive one. That dealer happened to be close to the Royal National Park in Sydney. The salesman in the car just happened to agree that I should take it down to Audley to see how it felt in the corners. If you've never been down the entrance to the Royal National Park, the descent into Audley is a chain of 35km/h signposted corners heading down a hill It's not particularly long, being only six corners before the fun is over. But it's long enough to show you how a car feels. It was long enough to show me how the Type R felt. It felt sublime. If you want a review of the FK8 Type R I could end it there. It felt sublime. But I can't end it there, because the word count would be unforgivably low. So I'll extoll the Civic Type R's virtues some more. Cars are pretty boring when they are standing still, so to get you moving there is 228kW and 400Nm of Japan's finest under the hood. It's an inline four, because it's Honda. But it's also a turbo, which is very not Honda. Then it goes back to being a Honda by sending it all to the front wheels. Just to make sure it's a Honda, it's fitted with one of the finest six-speed manual gearboxes to grace modern vehicles. To stop the steering wheel dislocating your shoulders when you floor it, the engineers in Tokyo have gone to town with the front suspension, providing a Macpherson set up with dual axis struts. I don't know what that means either. But it gets rid of the torque steer, so that has to be good, right? They've also gone and fitted a fancy diff on the front. If you're wondering what the end result of a bunch of power, front wheel drive, and well engineered suspension is, I'll tell you. I've already told you. It's sublime. In a straight line, the engine does most of the work without too much of a fuss. It will pull from about 2500rpm, at which point the front tyres may complain a bit. But they've usually got their act together by 3500rpm which is where the engine really comes to life. There's a little bit of that V-Tec character still here, as the engine seems to build and build the higher the revs climb. This is a bit different to your standard inline turbo-four where you ride the torque, then shift early. You are very well rewarded for holding on just a little longer in the Type R. When it comes time to change direction, the Civic starts to really shine. There is a seemingly bottomless well of grip provided by the Continental SportContact 6 tyres. It may as well be actually bottomless, because no matter how uncouth I tried to be by stomping on the fun pedal on the way out of corners, the Civic just gripped and tore it's way forwards looking for the next corner. It's an amazing sensation, you can feel the diff doing it's work, apportioning the power between the two front hoops, before you fire out of the corner. It's an addictive experience. You approach a corner at a speed you think might be a little silly, huck the front wheels towards the apex with as much gusto as you dare, and then hold on while the front wheels scream out the other end, dragging you behind them with more than a little enthusiasm. When you're done with all the fun, you can pop the Civic Type R on the highway, take advantage of the lane keep assist and radar cruise control, pop the car in comfort mode, and just tootle along without your fillings being rattle out. If there's one surprising thing about the Civic Type R, it's how well it does the day to day, mile munching thing. It was designed to be a sports car, so the fact that it can sport about with the best of them shouldn't be a surprise. But it can also car about with the best of them. It's comfortable, well kitted out, and has plenty of space. Not that you care. If you buy a Type R, it's all about how it drives. No one sane spends $50,000 plus dollars on a hatchback unless they're a little bit nuts about how much fun it is. But if you're anything like me you'll find yourself loving it just as much for how well it does everything else.