Honda Civic Review (2022-present)

What is the Honda Civic?

One of the best-known nameplates anywhere in motoring, that’s what. This version of the Civic marks the 11th generation of Honda’s compact family hatchback, and at the time of its release in 2022, Honda had been building the Civic for no less than 50 years.

It’s a very tried-and-tested formula, then, but how does this Civic differ from Civics that have gone before? Well, in line with Honda’s pledge to electrify its entire product line-up by 2022, this version of the Civic is available only as a petrol-electric hybrid. The powertrain marries a (non-turbo) 2.0-litre, direct-injection, Atkinson-cycle petrol engine with two electric motors to deliver a combined power output of 180bhp.

It’s what you might call a self-charging hybrid, so you don’t plug it in, and instead, it recharges itself using energy recycled through braking and deceleration. It can’t run for all that long on electric power alone as a result, but nevertheless, the official average economy figure of 60.1mpg is not to be sniffed at. In our tests we managed an easy 45mpg in mixed driving, and closer to 50mpg in urban settings.

There's also a new version of the high performance Civic Type R, which we've covered separately in our 2023 Honda Civic Type R first drive.

How practical is it?

This is the area in which the 11th-generation Civic has taken a slight backward step. Look in the boot, and you’ll find a loadspace that measure up to 410 litres in capacity. That’s around 60 litres down on what you got in the previous Civic – that hybrid drivetrain accounts for the deficit, because all that extra machinery has got to live somewhere - and there’s a funny ridge in the boot floor. Having said that, though, the loadspace is still a good slice bigger than you get in rivals such as the Volkswagen Golf and Ford Focus, so the space is still more than competitive for a family car.

Look inside the passenger compartment, and the big news is that the wheelbase – in other words, the distance between the front wheels and the rear wheels – has grown slightly compared with the previous Civic. As a result, rear legroom is more generous than before, and even lanky passengers will have room for their long limbs in the rear seats. However, rear headroom isn’t nearly so generous. Passengers up to six feet tall will be absolutely fine, but anyone taller than that may well feel their scalp coming into contact with the headlining.

Up front, you’ll find plenty of space and lots of adjustment, so finding a comfortable driving position is very easy indeed. The physical knobs and buttons (hallelujah!) that operate the climate control air-con couldn’t be simpler to use, and the infotainment system is a big step up from the one in the previous Civic, with sharper graphics, faster responses and simpler menus, although a number of rival systems are still better.

Interior quality is another area that’s improved significantly. The majority of the materials look and feel impressively appealing to the eyes and fingertips, and the standard of the construction feels very solid. As a result, the Civic feels like a classy environment in which to spend time. Stylistically, the metallic honeycomb trim that houses the air vents is a touch that’s very simple yet very effective and interesting, and so are the funky little joystick controls that you use to direct the airflow.

What’s it like to drive?

The new Honda Civic’s hybrid system has various modes, and it switches between them automatically, without input from the driver. During low-speed urban driving (where the battery level allows), the car defaults to electric-only running, but when stronger acceleration is needed, Hybrid mode kicks in, where the wheels are propelled by the electric motor, while the petrol engine generates the necessary electric power. When driving at constant high speeds, like on the motorway, the system switches to Engine Drive mode, where the wheels are powered by the engine directly, and when maximum acceleration is needed, the system can unleash the full force of both power sources together.

The performance delivered is entirely adequate, if not quite as rampant as the healthy power figure of 180bhp might suggest: the 0-62mph dash takes an entirely unremarkable 7.8 seconds. But way more importantly than that, the pickup is nice and eager from just about anywhere on the rev range, so the drivetrain doesn’t feel in any way strained in getting you up to speed, and that keeps your life easy and relaxed.

The Civic’s transmission is what Honda calls an eCVT, and if that moniker fills you with the worry that any press of the accelerator pedal will be met with soaring engine revs and deafening sound levels, then you can rest easy. We’ll spare you the technicalities, but the Civic’s transmission doesn’t work in the same way that a traditional CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) does, and in reality, it actually behaves more like a conventional automatic gearbox. Granted the petrol engine can get a wee bit raucous when it’s made to work really hard, but the way the transmission behaves means that very rarely happens. Meanwhile, the switches between the various hybrid modes are perceptible, but they’re always smooth and unobtrusive, and that contributes to a fairly impressive level of overall refinement.

In fact, if you didn’t already know that the Civic were a hybrid, you might not clock the fact at all, because it doesn’t seem to suffer from the various dynamic pitfalls that other hybrids so often do. You don’t have to wait too long for various bits of the drivetrain to respond, the brakes don’t feel too overloaded, it doesn’t feel overly heavy: it just goes about its business in a polished and sophisticated way.

As well as the hybrid modes, you can also toggle between four driving modes: Eco, Normal, Sport and Individual. However, these only vary the throttle and steering response, and the effect is very marginal, so most folk will barely notice the difference.

But regardless of mode, the Civic is a very sweet car to drive. The ride is impressively smooth, with good bump absorption and very solid control, so it’s an impressively comfortable car. And that control helps it feel relatively agile, too: not to the extent of a Ford Focus or BMW 1 Series, but it feels grippy and sharp and when changing direction, and the steering is quick, responsive and nicely weighted. You do hear a bit of road noise from the tyres, but that aside, it's an easy car in which to cover the miles.

Technology, equipment and infotainment

The Civic range consists of three trim levels, beginning with Elegance grade. This features 17-inch alloy wheels, front- and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera, the touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and navigation, and a comprehensive suite of advanced driver aids including automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist and a traffic jam assistant.

Sport trim is next up. This replaces the Elegance’s fabric seats with part-leatherette, and provides sporty touches such as sports pedals, LED fog lights, some gloss black exterior design touches and black 18-inch alloys.

The jump up to Advance grade costs quite a bit more, but adds goodies such as an upgraded Bose sound system, panoramic roof, adaptive high beam headlights, full leather upholstery and a heated steering wheel.

Honda Civic running costs

At first glance, the list prices for the latest Civic look rather high compared with those of rivals that have less powerful non-hybrid alternatives on offer. You can have a low-spec VW Golf for thousands less, for example. The comparative prices tend to even out when you look at more comparable versions of rival cars. For example, put it up against its closest rival - the Toyota Corolla hybrid – there’s barely anything in it, trim-for-trim.

We see very little between the two for resale values, so there’s likely to be very little difference in monthly finance or leasing payments, or prices for used car examples. Expect very similar bills for servicing, maintenance and insurance, too.

Fuel economy is competitive, too. The entry-level Corolla 1.8 hybrid is a bit cleaner according to official WLTP figures, but it’s also down on power by a fair bit, while the Civic has a small mpg advantage over the brawnier 2.0-litre Corolla, which has a very similar power output.

Honda Civic reliability

There was a time when it wouldn’t matter which of the various reliability surveys you looked at, you’d still find Honda on – or near – the very top of the standings. This was a company whose record for mechanical dependability was the very envy of the entire motoring industry.

The enviable reputation has wobbled somewhat in recent years, coinciding with the time period that the previous generation of the Civic was on sale. Now, however, it seems like the Japanese firm is back on track in this regard. The most recent What Car? Reliability Survey places this generation of Civic in 4th place in the Family Car category of the study, out of 26 carmakers included. Honda, meanwhile, has risen back up to 4th out of 31 manufacturers in the overall brand standings, a vast improvement on the lowly performances of recent years.