Honda Civic 2015 News

The Honda Civic Hybrid has received technology upgrades, leather trim and two new colours... and a new price of $33,990 (flat paint). Honda's second-generation Insight has also been repositioned, with VT-i price reduced to $26,990 (flat paint) and the VTi-L to $30,490 (flat paint).The current Civic Hybrid receives satellite navigation with SUNA live traffic updates, DVD player, reversing camera with guidelines, Smart Entry and push-button start, daytime running lights and vanity mirror illumination. It also features leather seats in a grey trim and has two new colour options: White Orchid Pearlescent and Carnelian Red Pearlescent ($575 for metallic and pearlescent paint).The five-door Honda Insight hatch with its intuitive cockpit and dual-zone dash features a CVT for smooth and responsive acceleration, Creep Aid System to prevent roll-back momentarily when starting on an incline and of course Honda's unique ECON button with ECO Assist, helping the driver get the most out of each tank of petrol. 

Honda’s new diesel Civic Hatch DTi-S will hit our shores later this year, but will only come in manual. In a market where drivers are deserting manuals in their rush to automatic transmissions, the lack of an auto might hinder sales, but Honda Australia says it has no other option on offer. “The reality is there is no automatic available for this car,” Honda spokesperson Melissa Cross says. “If there was one, we would definitely make it available here.” The possibility of Honda producing other diesel transmissions for this model however, could still be in the pipeline. The new Civic hatch -- expected for release around April at a starting price of $26,990 -- will be the first diesel in Honda Australia’s range. The car will be the first released in Australia that will feature Honda’s new, lighter engines. The new hatch is powered by a 1.6-litre i-DTEC turbo diesel engine, which will output 88kW and 300nM of torque. The new engine is a complete redesign from the previous model, which was a lot heavier and had a larger carbon footprint. The new model’s CO2 emissions are expected to be as low as 105g/km, with a fuel economy of 4-litres/100km. Standard features will include 17-inch alloy wheels, hill start assist, auto headlights and wipers, dual zone climate control, ECON mode, and a five star ANCAP safety rating.  

Fierce rivalry in the bubbling small-car sector has led one player - Honda - to take the knife to its Civic hatchback prices. One version has had $4500 wiped off its sticker price compared with the sa

Honda's American newcomers are the Civic sedan being previewed at the show and the production version of the Civic coupe seen at the Detroit Motor Show in January, but eco-friendly engine choices - including the latest hybrid and a car that runs on compressed natural gas - swell the lineup. The new Civic is the ninth new model to wear the badge and Honda has high hopes for a car that's been a best seller for the brand since the 1960s. Honda Australia will only take the four-door Civic seen in the Big Apple and is waiting on the European Civic five-door hatchback to complete its new-model plan for the final months of 2011. The new Civic sedan is good but not great, based on back-to-back comparisons with rivals in New York including the impressive new Subaru Impreza and even the hugely improved Korean contenders from Kia and Hyundai. There is obvious cost-containment work in the cabin, with hard plastics in areas where rivals are nicely soft-touch, and little sign of any adventurous thinking in either the design or execution - even the measurements are almost identical to the current car. Still, the hybrid has had a significant tweak with a larger 1.5-litre petrol engine and lithium-ion battery pack - the first in a Honda - for the new model. Honda Australia will fit the new Civics into a family pattern in Australia, taking the four-door sedan from Thailand and the five-door hatch from the Swindon factory in the UK. "At this stage the plan is still for a local launch around the end of the year," says Mark Higgins, of Honda Australia. "The coupe is very much for north America, so we will only get the sedan from New York. It will be a similar lineup to today, which is a 1.8-litre four, a 2.0-litre four and the hybrid. We will also be taking the hatch from the UK." Pricing for the Civic currently starts at $22,490, with the hybrid from $34,490, and Higgins hints that Honda wants to keep the newcomers close to its existing price points. "We haven't had any discussions on price yet. It's a long way out. Obviously it's a very very competitive segment and we need to make sure we're at the sharp end," he says.

In a time of seismic change in the car industry, Honda has decided its refreshed Civic will soldier on with a light makeover. But Honda Australia is keen to push the refreshed Civic's hybrid credentials, spokesman Mark Higgins saying the current Civic hybrid has turned into the quiet achiever, with sales up 20 per cent this year. It has sold 603 so far this year, up from 501 last year and interest has increased in direct correlation to the rise in fuel prices. “In June we actually outsold the Toyota Prius in the private sector for the first time,” he says. “Toyota has done a great job of promoting hybrids, like we have, but most of their sales are to fleets rather than private buyers. “Our sales are mostly to private buyers.” Higgins says a positive in the Civic hybrid's favour was that it looked like the normal petrol sedan. “The critical thing is that our car looks like a normal Civic and drives like the normal sedan.” He says local dealers have been constrained by a lack of hybrid supply, he says. “The bottom line is that if we could get more we could sell more,” he says. “But in the past six to nine months there has been a huge demand for that car in America and they're taking most of the production now.” The upgraded Civic sedan will arrive in local showrooms early next year, sporting mild visual changes and the same 1.8-litre and 2.0-litre petrol engines as well as the 1.3-litre hybrid four-cylinder available now. The biggest improvement is expected to be the fitting of electronic stability control — Honda calls it vehicle stability assist — as standard. However, Higgins says final specifications are yet to be determined. “VSA is already standard on the Civic Sport,” he says. “We're hoping to introduce it across the range, but that is yet to be confirmed.” The Civic is a key car in Honda Australia's line-up and has benefited from a swing to smaller economical four-cylinder cars. Demand this year is up 15 per cent and the range is responsible for a third of total Honda sales. Honda's other ace up its sleeve is the natural gas Civic, which is selling in record numbers in the US but is unlikely for Australia. “It drives and rides just like a normal Civic,” Higgins says. “And it's the cleanest internal combustion engine in the world.”  

But picking up the keys for my new car, little did I know that within days I would be $333 out of pocket. And that's not counting the cost of my humiliation. The exorbitant fee was not a hire cost. Nor was it the cost of petrol or any other hidden costs. It was the price of my mistake that saw me reluctantly handing over my credit card to unsympathetic Adelaide City Council bureaucrats. It all started two days after one of The Advertiser motoring writers handed me the keys, telling me to enjoy my new wheels. Pulling up in an on-street car park, I was impressed at how smoothly the Civic glided into place. Never before had parallel parking been so easy. Returning two hours later, I was a little bemused to not recognise my car anywhere. Don't panic, I thought. These new cars all look the same. And for some reason, many of the cars in the street had Victorian numberplates like mine. Clinging to hope, I walked along the line of parked cars pressing the alarm button on my key waiting to see those familiar flashing lights. But there was no flashing. My bemusement quickly turned to panic. "It's been stolen," I cried to my equally panicked companion. "I can't believe it. I'm sure I parked it right here," I said, pointing to a vacant space. It was now his turn to look bemused. "Um, that's in front of a garage roller door," he said. That's how I ended up in the council offices the next morning – paying the costs of my car being towed from the front of a serviced apartment block's roller door and stored overnight, plus a $48 parking ticket. But even in my short time with this stylish vehicle, I learned there were many things to love. For a so-called "small sedan", this baby has plenty of room to move and a large boot which means adequate space for all those shopping bags. And for a girl whose usual mode of transport is a 1.2-litre two-door hatch, I loved the grunt of this 1.8-litre "beast". One touch of the accelerator and off you zoom. The interior light that automatically turns on when you turn the engine off is a nice little touch. It fades out when you shut the door. There really wasn't much not to like. Only a couple of little nitpicks – the dash gear display and tacho were partially obstructed by the steering wheel, at least from my position, and the handbrake got a bit in the way of the gear shift. So, towing ordeals aside, this beauty surpassed my expectations and was a pleasure to drive – from what I can remember of our few hours together. LOVE IT LEAVE IT Honda Civic VTi Auto Price: $22,990 LOVE IT The power. The roominess cleverly combined with a sleek design. Electric seat adjustment. Automatic interior light. Digital speed display. LEAVE IT With the seat adjusted, I found it hard to see the front left-hand side of the car. Dash gear display and tacho partially blocked by the steering wheel. Handbrake a bit in the way of gear shift.