Honda Civic 2012, the ninth-generation of the Civic family is set to arrive soon next year but the design was already released in the internet for quite some time, thanks to the 2011 Detroit Auto Show. Honda unveiled the Civic Concepts during the show and the Civic Sedan and Civic Coupe were pretty much the same of what the U.S. will get for their Civic next year.

The eighth generation Honda Accord which was launched in 2008 and its facelift were no match to Toyota Camry. You either love or hate the Accord but somehow I feel the Civic and even the City were miles better than Accord’s exterior design. For the money that an Accord costs, you might as well get the Civic. The eighth generation Civic was simply stunning. In fact the Civic 1.8 litre version that delivers 140 horse power was sufficient to give you the thrill of “Fast & Furious”.

The next total Accord redesign won’t happen until another two years or more, that’s if Honda design team would care to design a more appealing ninth generation Accord. Otherwise why bother about Accord if you can get better value for your money on Civic or even City. However if you plan to get the Civic 2012 and if the Civic Concepts shown at Detroit Auto Show last year was any indication of mass production to be available in April 2012, you may be in for disappointment.

The “all new Civic 2012” doesn’t appears to be synonym with the tagline “futuristic and distinctive compact” as all. For once you would thought that the Honda designer team was as lazy as Proton’s design team (if they ever have such a team in the first place), if not lazier. Did the Honda design team just cut and paste from its successful City? Maybe they were out of idea on how to make a sexy car or maybe they put all their efforts in other area such as fuel economy, low emissions and overall affordability

Generally, the 2012 Honda Civic model lineup is comprises:

• Civic Sedan (Civic DX, Civic LX, Civic EX and Civic EX-L)
• Civic Coupe (Civic DX, Civic LX, Civic EX and Civic EX-L)
• High-efficiency and value-oriented Civic HF (new)
• High-performance Civic Si Sedan and Civic Si Coupe
• Ultra-efficient Civic Hybrid (with new Lithium-Ion batteries)
• Ultra-clean Civic Natural Gas, previously known as Civic GX (available at qualified dealers only)

 

An advanced 140 horsepower, 1.8-liter i-VTEC® engine is standard in the Civic Sedan, Civic Coupe and Civic HF, with a choice of a 5-speed manual or 5-speed automatic transmission (automatic only for Civic EX-L Coupe, Civic EX and EX-L Sedans, and Civic HF). The Civic Natural Gas or Civic GX would have the same variant 1.8-liter engine, 5-speed automatic transmission but with 110 horsepower. Civic Hybrid will be powered by 1.5-liter i-VTEC® engine with Integrated Motor Assist® producing 110-horsepower.

The most powerful version would be the Civic Si model – delivering a whopping 201-horsepower with its 2.4 liter i-VTEC® engine. Unfortunately the 1.8-liter i-VTEC® engine is still a Single Overhead Cam (SOHC) 4-cylinder 16 valves machine, instead of a DOHC engine. Silly me, the DOHC-engine is reserved for the powerful Civic Si model, of course. Talking about hybrid car, do you know the current Honda Insight Hybrid’s battery pack costs about RM7,000 alone? But then with 5-year warranty, not many people would care about this item.

Anyway, the above wouldn’t matter at all if you hate the exterior design of Civic 2012. Seriously the whole design team should be sacked or sent back to the drawing board for such a out-dated design model. Heck, if it was worse than the current eighth generation Civic, you might as well wait till the last minute before the official Civic 2012 launching and buy the current model at steep discount (if they ever plan to clear the old stock) and spend some money on the bodykits. Maybe it’s time to get a Hyundai

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• 5 Super Dream Cars You Want to Own
• Proton Inspira – Carbon Copy of Mitsubishi Lancer
• Malaysia F-1, Made-in-Malaysia or Made-for-Cronies?
• The re-badging and new breed of Proton-volution X?
• U.S. auto sales tumbled, Proton to develop hybrid car?

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April 24th, 2011 by financetwitter

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