1. PR Log - Global Press Release Distribution
2012 Honda Civic exposed
By Bertrand Iroegbu
Dated: Oct 11, 2010
CAR Middle East has done it again – we’re the first ones in the world to bring you the first pictures of the
next generation of the Civic sedan, completely naked of all camouflage!
We snapped these twin silver prototypes during a spell of early morning hot weather testing. Apart from a
few missing ‘H’ badges, this is the Civic you can expect to see in UAE showrooms next year. As our
pictures show, it’s very similar in dimensions to the existing GCC model with a comparable midsection; the
glasshouse, doors and wing mirrors look to be unchanged.
The front fascia is where the big news is – gone are the old model’s undulating curves over pronounced
arches and drooping headlamps, replaced by a sharper, wedgier front end and what looks to be a wider
lower air intake. Optional foglight cutouts are on either side, disguised by heavy lashings of pesky silver
gaffer tape. That tape is also present at the base of the A-pillar and the C-pillar as well over the rear
bumper, so we suspect there may be a few stylistic surprises yet to come.
Out front, the earlier striking chrome moustache framing the central Honda emblem is now a fairly generic
three-bar grille, while the angular headlamps look to be the same as the ones found on US market models.
Note the character line that starts from the end of the front lights, spears off and extends all the way to the
arrow-shaped rear cluster. The latter has lost its former GT-R-ish four circular brake lamps in favour of a
squishy hexagonal look that’s vaguely reminiscent of its baby City brother. A slim, almost vestigial spoiler
caps the pert rear end.
The unique “folding-hands” wiper arrangement looks to have been retained atop the steeply raked – and
vast, start saving up for tint folks! – windshield, but the old printed antenna seems to have been given the
heave-ho in favour of a traditional (and probably cheaper) stubby aerial mounted BMW-style above the rear
windshield. Suitably-chunky 16-inch five –spoke alloys round off the major exterior changes.
Inside, the two-tier dashboard has been retained, raked even more steeply toward the driver. The steering
wheel is still a three-spoke affair but it now sports two four way controllers on each side instead of the
earlier toggles. Gone are the knob-based temperature and fanspeed controls, with a slew of buttons taking
their place. That’s below what looks like a double-DIN touch-based navigation system – tuners of the world
rejoice, your favourite rolling music platform still lives.
On the far left of the dashboard, you’ll notice a single, very large green button that says “Econ”. On
overseas models, pressing this switch sets the engine, transmission and cooling functions to maximum
efficiency, although judging by our hot climes, it’s unlikely to get much use here. We didn’t get a chance to
look under the hood, but our sources suggest that the engine being tested is a 1.5 litre unit, which if true is
significantly smaller than the existing 1.8 140bhp one. Hello fuel efficiency, goodbye acceleration.
Overall, outside of the few details we couldn’t discern, it looks to be a blander, more generic version of a
car that should be at the very heartland of Honda thinking. The earlier, space-age Civic landed like an
atomic bomb in the compact car market, sending arch-rivals like Toyota and Nissan scurrying back to the
drawing board to bring out more exciting-looking sedans.
Now Honda looks to be losing faith in its daring design direction, delivering a cheese-wedge sedan that
could easily be mistaken for – whisper it – one of the equally wedgy Koreans that are flooding out of South
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2. PR Log - Global Press Release Distribution
East Asia. Or perhaps it’s merely a reflection of these austere times where sobriety is a virtue. Either way:
we want our old Honda back.
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Category Automotive, Engineering
Tags honda civic 2012, 2010, latest car, honda, 2011 cars, customized
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