Finally, the 2017 Honda Civic has been officially introduced and after months of waiting we can say that it has paid off. This great looking hatchback is already available in the US, and the European market should receive it during the first few months of 2017.
New Civic is based on upgraded platform that is about 16 kg lighter than before, but the great news is that this didn’t negatively influence rigidity. Optimizations and changes that were made resulted in 52 percent improvement in torsional stiffness. Basically, we are getting safer and more dynamic vehicle that should allow more engaging and more responsive driving.
Under the hood of the 2017 Honda Civic we will be able to find two petrol and one diesel engine, all with turbochargers, at least that will be the case with the European model. Small three-cylinder turbocharged gasoline unit with only 1.0-liter displacement pushes 127 bhp, and test ride showed that it is quite a capable engine that could satisfy rookie drivers. More power comes from four cylinder 1.5-liter turbo that pumps out more respective 180 hp making this small car quite sporty.
Diesel front is represented by the 1.6-liter I4 turbo powerplant. We are pretty sure that this one will not hit US shores and that we will not have the opportunity to test it fully. It doesn’t matter, we know that we would like to see it offered. Currently, there are no details about hp figure it could produce, but hopefully, the High Power version with 160 hp will be included.
Read about: 2016 Honda CR-V
When we talk about engine lineup that 2017 Honda Civic brings we also need to mention the possibility of the hybrid powertrain. Chief Operating Officer, Katsushi Inoue stated that the company is thinking about including a hybrid option to the lineup. Looking at other models in the stable of Japanese giant it is easy to conclude that they have the knowledge and means to do this.
Honda SENSING safety system integrates features like traffic sign recognition, lane keep assist, lane departure warning, emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and similar. Interior received a lot of attention, and now we have TFT screen instead of previously offered dials. This display can be customized to show various info like fuel consumption, speed, media, satellite navigation, etc. Infotainment system provides top of the line offer with integrated Android Auto and Apple CarPlay features. One of the biggest advantages over one of its main rivals in the segment, VW Golf is the fact that there is 478 liters of cargo space compared to 380-liter in German competitor.
