Honda skipped a few generation but finally brought back the iconic Civic sedan back in India at the beginning of March this year. The 10th generation model of Civic was launched in India by Honda after a gap of nearly 7 years, and yet the car is as popular in the country as it was in its heydays. This claim is substantiated by the numbers released by the company. The Japanese carmaker Honda has stated that Civic has received around 2,400 bookings in the first 40 days after its bookings officially opened.
Prices for Honda Civic begin at Rs 17.69 lakh for the base model. Honda Civic will lock horns with Skoda Octavia, Toyota Corolla Altis, and Hyundai Elantra in the market. The waiting period on the car has not been specified by the company, but the high amount of bookings should give a fair indication of the same. Honda makes the tenth generation Civic at its Greater Noida in UP, with India being the 10th country where this car is made. The car is not only famous in India alone, rather Honda sells it in 170 markets all over the world and is one among the best-selling models of Japanese brand globally.
With an option for both petrol and diesel engines, the petrol motor in Honda’s new executive sedan is a 1.8-litre naturally aspirated 4-cylinder petrol unit rated for 139 Bhp and 174 Nm. While the diesel unit is a 1.6-litre, naturally aspirated mill rated for 118 Bhp and 300 Nm, the same diesel engine is also found on Honda CR-V. While the petrol models come with a CVT automatic gearbox, the diesel models make do with a 6-speed manual transmission only. Honda Civic trumps other rivals in the diesel mileage with the ARAI rating for the car being 26.8 kmpl, whereas the petrol Civic offers an ARAI rated mileage of 16.5 kmpl.
Honda has stuffed the latest generation Civic in India with a lot of enticing features even in the base model. These features include 16-inch diamond cut alloy wheels, projector headlamps, LED DRL, LED tail lamps, LED cabin lights, electric ORVMs, as well as automatic driver and passenger windows. On the interior front, one finds 4-speaker 12.7cm infotainment system, controls on the steering, paddle shifters and remote engine start in petrol variant, and AC vents for passengers among others. The standard safety features on all variants of Honda Civic are 4-airbags, stability assist, hill start assist, ABS+EBD, electronic parking brake, reverse camera with sensors and remote function for windows. The top model of the Civic is also loaded with 6 airbags and a lane watch camera. On the outside on top variant Civic we have full LED auto headlamps, LED fog lamps, 17-inch alloy wheels, rain sensing wipers and electronic sunroof with remote function.
Honda has introduced the new Civic for existing customers who want to upgrade to a sedan from an upper segment. Honda has also said that depending on the customer demand, a diesel automatic version could be launched as well.