2018 Honda Civic vs Ford Focus

What's the difference?

A comfortable and convenient daily driver that ticks all the safety and tech boxes, the VTi-LX is a compelling offering given it is better value than the RS, and not overpriced for its spec level. 

What it lacks in an interesting powertrain it more than makes up for with its huge cabin space and well sorted ride. Whether you choose it or not could very well come down to the looks…

Even with a 10 per cent price premium the Ford Focus RS Limited Edition is the hot hatch bargain of the decade. It’s properly fast, dynamically outstanding, and sounds the business. Our advice? Get in quick and grab one of this last batch. You won’t regret it.

The look of the 10th-generation Civic is best described as polarising. There's a slew of hard angular edges pointing in all directions, which makes an overall design theme hard to pinpoint. The elegant curvature of the Mazda3, or the more conservative lines of the Hyundai Elantra and Subaru Impreza perhaps appeal to a wider audience.

As I mentioned earlier, the almost-as-well-equipped RS spec comes with some touches that could make all the difference here. The blacked-out bars across the RS’s front, side and rear compliment those angles a lot better, and the rear looks far more resolved with a spoiler (what are those rear light clusters pointing to?).

In comparison, the LX looks incredibly plain and, aside from those LED lights, it is honestly difficult to tell it apart from the VTi-L or even the base-model VTi. While subtlety might appeal to some, it’s an odd card to play for a flagship variant given the overall design of the Civic screams ‘look at me’.

The ‘Modern Steel’ grey colour of our test car rammed the plain-Jane look home. If it were my choice I’d go for the ‘Brilliant Sporty Blue’ as it suits the car’s angular aesthetic a little better. The only free colour is ‘Rally Red’.

The 17-inch alloys were also a topic of controversy in the office. Over my drive week I came to appreciate the milled-alloy with gloss-black highlight designs. Matt Campbell disagrees. I will concede they look smaller than 17-inches, likely due to the black highlights.

Inside is a better story. The angular design trend continues, but it’s all very ergonomic. None of the materials appear cheap or nasty, and there are more than a few soft finishes in the right places. It doesn’t have the symmetry of the Elantra’s interior, but I became very used to how comfortable it was.

Of particular note is the chunky, leather-bound steering wheel, and I have to give props to the low, sporty seating position.

Housed in the dash is a digital display which well laid-out, presents all the important information to the driver well, has a high frame-rate and seemed to never be subject to glare. It’s no premium bells & whistles experience like Audi’s Virtual Cockpit but is a nice addition nonetheless.

Think hot hatch, and your mind might wander to the more radical end of the design spectrum where Honda’s Kabuki warrior on wheels, the Civic Type R lives. But the Focus RS is an altogether more mature proposition.

The nose is dominated by a single, wide-mouth grille aperture, which frames an opening to the radiator, the central section of the bumper, and the top of the intercooler below it.

Big side gills feed cooling air through to the front brakes, while the slim, raked headlights and hard-edged bonnet give the car a suitably ‘focused’ and purposeful presence.

Strategically placed channels and bulges along the rocker panel, door sills, and shoulder line add a further touch of aero function, the wheelarches are subtly pumped up, while a pronounced roof spoiler and full-width diffuser at the rear complete the track-attack look.

For this LE version, you can have any colour you like as long as it’s ‘Nitrous Blue’, the rear spoiler end plates, mirror shells and roof are black, and privacy glass is standard. The big 19-inch alloys are now black, with beefy four-piston Brembo brakes lurking behind them up front.

Inside, the fascia and console layout is familiar Focus, with an additional trio of gauges (oil temp, turbo boost pressure, and oil pressure) perched on the top of the dash, while the racy Recaro shell seats are trimmed with Nitrous Blue leather highlights.

Does the Civic sedan look a little… big to you? That’s because it is. It’s massive inside. But somehow, it shares a wheelbase with the hatch.

It’s kind of magic, but that’s one of Honda’s fortes. Big practical interiors with some hidden surprises.

What surprised me the most though, is the ridiculous rear legroom. I had leagues of space behind my own driving position. How can this be if it has the same wheelbase as the hatch? 

Well, some investigation revealed that despite its near-identical looks, the sedan's cabin is physically different from the hatch, and an additional 34 millimetres of legroom is granted in the back. It doesn’t sound like much but makes a world of difference.

It legitimately has far more legroom than even some ‘large' sedans I’ve driven and ridden in, and the centre seat could fit an adult-sized human in decent comfort for a long-distance drive. Impressive.

The boot is also close to largest in the class. With the seats up, there’s 517 litres (VDA) of space on offer, which compares very well with the Mazda3 (408L), Elantra (458L) and Impreza (460L) but is just barely eclipsed by the new Kia Cerato (520L).

In the cockpit too, there’s plenty of stowage space under the centre console including two large movable cupholders (although without those little variable edges, so a tilt-risk for small stuff) plus some smallish cubbies in the doors for front and rear passengers. These won’t hold larger belongings or bottles, but they’re sufficient for smaller objects like wallets, books or keys.

Everything is also very easy to reach, but the sunroof eats a little headroom which could be a challenge for those over 182cm tall. I also had to question the choice of not including a dial for volume control. There are wheel-mounted buttons and a touch interface on the screen itself. But that’s kind of clunky when you need volume down in a hurry.

Despite its performance potential, this RS is almost as practical as a regular, garden-variety Focus.

The front Recaros look like oversize baseball gloves, ready to lock you in place while the Focus does its best to challenge the laws of physics.

But the price you pay for all that location is some extra struggle to slip into, and extricate yourself from, their grippy goodness. Not a huge issue, and one that goes with the territory in this kind of car.

There are two cupholders up front, zero in the back, and bottle holders in all doors. There’s also a 12-volt socket, a USB outlet, as well as a decent glove box, and a lidded bin between the front seats to keep your stuff under control at maximum g-load.

Despite extra intrusion from the front seatbacks, rear legroom is surprisingly good, and headroom in the back is okay for this 183cm tester.

The rear seats flip forward, and the backrests split-fold 60/40 to increase load flexibility. Volume is a relatively modest 260 litres (VDA) with the rear seats upright (laden to the parcel shelf), growing to 1045 litres (laden to the roof) with them folded. There are also two ISOFIX child seat mounts.

Don’t bother looking for a spare tyre; a flat means rolling the dice with the repair kit that takes its place.

At $50,990, the ‘standard’ Focus RS already features a respectable standard equipment list, including dual-zone climate control air, Ford’s latest SYNC3 multimedia system running through an 8.0-inch colour touchscreen (including Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support), adaptive headlights, ambient interior lighting, alloy faced sports pedals, 19-inch alloy rims, cruise control, keyless entry and start, LED DRLs, front fog lights, auto headlights, nine-speaker audio, a leather-trimmed sports steering wheel and gear knob, rain-sensing wipers, satellite navigation, and the sports seats.

At $56,990, the RS Limited Edition adds a worthwhile basket of extra spec and tech to justify the $6k price premium over the model it replaces.

Headline items are the swap from Michelin Pilot Super Sport to Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber (an option Ford was already listing at $3500), and installation of a tricky Quaife limited-slip differential (LSD).

The Recaro shell seats are trimmed in Nitrous Blue leather, the black 19-inch rims are forged alloy, the standard prestige paint is normally a $450 option, and importantly, Auto Emergency Braking has been added to the standard features list.

A price tag approaching $60,000 is no small number, but it’s sharp for this kind of performance hatch. The Audi RS3 Sportback and Merc-AMG A45 are both at least $20k dearer.

Up this end of the Civic hierarchy, there’s just the one drivetrain. A 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine, producing 127kW/220Nm, mated only to a CVT auto. The Civic is front-drive only and, much to the dismay of old-school Civic fans, there's no manual option in sight.

That engine puts it middle of the pack compared to small sedan competitors. The enthusiast’s choice may be either the Mazda3 SP25 with a naturally aspirated 2.5-litre (138kW/250Nm) or the Hyundai Elantra SR Turbo which has an impressive 1.6-litre turbo (150kW/265Nm). Both of those can be had with a six-speed auto or DCT respectively (or, better yet, a six-speed manual option on either).

But the Civic still outshines the Cerato’s ordinary-all-round 112kW/192Nm 2.0-litre offering (which is also a bit thirsty) and Subaru’s infamously underpowered 115kW/196Nm non-turbo 2.0-litre engine which is also asked to pull a much heavier AWD layout.

The RS’s 2.3-litre ‘EcoBoost’ four-cylinder petrol engine is an all-alloy unit, featuring direct injection, ‘Twin Independent Variable Cam Timing’ (Ti-VCT), and a Honeywell twin-scroll fixed geometry turbocharger.

It produces 257kW (350hp) at 6000rpm, with 440Nm of torque (470Nm for up to 15sec on ‘transient overboost’) from 2000-4500rpm.

It’s matched with a six-speed (MMT6) manual gearbox (only), driving all four wheels, with the Quaife LSD managing torque distribution across the front axle. The Quaife uses gears rather than clutches, as in a Haldex-type LSD, for smoother operation and to avoid harsh locking.

Up to 70 per cent of drive can be sent to the rear wheels, and once it’s arrived back there, a dedicated control system can vector up to 100 per cent of that torque to the left or right rear wheel.

Honda’s smaller engine choice and CVT is designed to be frugal. On the combined cycle, Honda claims the VTi-LX will drink 6.0-litres to 100km. There’s not too much variation in the field with Mazda also claiming 6.0 for the SP25 Astina, and at the other end of the scale, there’s Kia’s Cerato which is touted to drink 7.4L/100km.

After a week of driving over a tank of petrol I scored 7.7L/100km which is closer to (but surprisingly less than) Honda’s urban estimate of 8.0L/100km.

Despite being turbo'd the VTi-LX will happily drink bargain-basement 91 unleaded, and the tank holds 47 litres.

Claimed fuel economy for the combined (ADR 81/02 - urban, extra-urban) cycle is 7.7L/100, the car emitting 175g/km of C02 in the process.

Auto stop-start is standard (although it didn’t exactly feature on this circuit drive), and you’ll need 51 litres of premium unleaded to fill the tank.

The Civic presents a strange dichotomy between the luxury spec and its sporty frame. As mentioned earlier, you sit nice and low in the Civic, and you have this chunky, well weighted steering wheel, giving you the illusion of sportiness at the helm.

It lives up to that by feeling nicely planted in the corners. This is largely due to all Civics having a more sophisticated independent rear suspension. Thankfully, it’s not a stiff tune either. It’s well sorted over bumpy stuff, there’s not a rattle to be heard in the cabin, and you don’t have to cringe every time you spot an incoming car park speed bump or unfortunately-positioned pothole.

The engine won’t exactly have you setting lap-times, however, and it’s a tad noisy in the cabin when it comes to really getting the power down somewhere past 2500rpm. 

Then, there’s the CVT. It truly isn’t the worst CVT I’ve ever driven (I’m looking at you, 1998 Nissan Micra…) and in terms of actual driving the experience isn’t dulled much. You should know it creates a slightly unpleasant rubbery characteristic, where your inputs feel delayed because it takes time for the CVT to react to changes through the driveline. 

For example, when laying off heavy acceleration, it will keep accelerating for half a second after you’ve taken your foot off. It’s a minor issue, but a noticeable one.

It also produces an annoying high-pitched whining sound at low speed and when you come to a full stop. You won’t be bothered by this if you drive around with the (actually great) 10-speaker stereo on most of the time, but you shouldn’t have to rely on it.

In terms of your ability to alter the engine’s characteristics, there’s an ‘Eco’ button which seems to make the CVT fight you as you try to extract revs out of it, and a sport mode on the transmission which seemed to make the accelerator a little more responsive and forced the CVT to act a bit more like a traditional auto.

Paddle-shift appears on the VTi-LX and RS grades but while the ‘gear changes’ they trigger didn’t have a long delay on them, they proved unsatisfying anyway.

Ford laid on its full line-up of performance-oriented Focuses for the launch drive, from the (132kW/240Nm) front-wheel drive S, through the (184kW/354Nm) FWD ST, to the out-going Focus RS, and the hero blue meanie RS Limited Edition.

Intermittent heavy showers were welcome for once, because the wet track highlighted the difference between the variants so graphically, and helped put the RS LE in clear context.

The first surprise was how capable the humble Focus S felt around SMSP’s challenging North Circuit. And the ST stepped things up with more grunt and fatter rubber. But they only served to prove the RS is in another league of dynamic ability.

The RS is fast, as in 0-100km/h in 4.7sec fast (thanks in part to standard launch control), with a maximum velocity of 266km/h available (that’s some track day!).

Fat mid-range torque, linear throttle response, and six ratios means there’s always plenty of acceleration available, and with one of four drive modes the press of a console button away there’s much fun to be had.

The settings modify steering, ESC, dampers, engine and exhaust across ‘Normal’, ‘Sport’, ‘Track’ and ‘Drift’ modes (more on that last one in a minute).

No surprise the jump from front- to all-wheel drive is a big one, but in the wet conditions peddling through SMSP’s enigmatic Turn 2, the RS took way more steering and throttle input than it had any right to.

Strong mid-range punch slingshots the car forward, accompanied by an entertaining symphony of raspy engine note.

Just keep turning the wheel and squeezing the right-hand pedal, to the point where the car’s balance would surely crack, and it simply says, ‘Is that the best you can do?’

Swap into the RS Limited Edition, and the Quaife diff ratchets things up another couple of notches. In Track mode, in the same turn, the LE is ridiculously planted. You can feel the rear slamming the power down and driving the car out of the corner, with the front just sticking wherever you point it.

Strong mid-range punch slingshots the car forward, accompanied by an entertaining symphony of raspy engine note and raucous crackles and pops from the exhaust.

Push hard enough of course and the RS LE will start to slide, but through the fast, sweeping Turn 1 it took the form of a genuine four-wheel drift. That’s how balanced and composed this car is under pressure.

Feel from the electrically-assisted steering is good, and although the stickier Cup 2 Michelins are the same size (235/35) as the Super Sports, thanks to a stiffer sidewall, their footprint is seven per cent wider. And searching for off-line grip around wet corners was a smile-inducing pleasure.

Then there’s the brakes. Even trying to stand the 1.6- tonne RS LE on its nose, while splashing through puddles of standing water, the RS LE washed off speed rapidly without a hint of misbehaviour. Turn in and maintain some trail braking? No problem. The RS’s set-up is properly sorted.

All the while, you remain firmly secured in your Recaro cacoon, with the clutch and short-throw shift working beautifully together.

We also engaged Drift mode for a full-on hoon on the SMSP skidpan. Keep your eye on where you want to go, turn the wheel, pin the throttle and the rear end duly steps out into a classic drift angle. Keep the revs up, tweak the wheel as required, and around you go like a ‘dab of oppo’ legend.

The roll-call of active safety tech fitted to the Focus RS LE includes ABS, AEB, brake assist, EBFD, traction control, DSC, ‘Emergency Brake Lights’ (flashing), reversing camera, parking distance control, and tyre pressure monitoring. Nothing in the way of lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring or rear cross-traffic alert, though.

If a crash is unavoidable, there are dual front head and side airbags on board.

Although the Focus (generically) is rated at a maximum five ANCAP stars, the RS (specifically) is not rated.

Honda offers a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty across its range. This is great but should be the minimum.

It compares well in this segment to fellow Japanese competitors, the Mazda3 and Subaru Impreza, which fall behind with outdated three year/unlimited kilometre warranties. 

Hyundai is bang-on par with a similar five year/unlimited kilometre warranty, but the bar to beat, as ever, is Kia with its seven-year/unlimited kilometre promise on the Cerato.

Ford offers a standard three years/100,000km warranty, which isn’t exactly spectacular these days, but with standard servicing at ‘Participating Auto Club Authorised Ford Dealers’, retail and ‘Blue Business Fleet’ customers receive state auto club roadside assistance and membership for up to seven years/105,000km.

The recommended service interval for the Focus RS is 12 months/15,000km, with costs for the first five years lining up as follows - $365, $395, $365, $585, and $365. In fact, Ford’s online service calculator runs out to the 33 year/495,000km service (which, for the record, is $365).

Worth noting brake fluid (every two years), coolant (every 10 years), and timing/drive belts (every 10 years/195,000km) are extra.