L.A. Auto Show: 2013 Honda Civic: Comments

[William Maley]

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William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

November 29, 2012

Honda has pulled the covers off the new 2013 Civic lineup today at the L.A. Auto show with hopes to quell the complaints from automotive journalists while still kicking butt in sales.

As we saw earlier this month in a tease, Honda designers made tweaks the Civic's front, bringing it in line with new Accord with a black honeycomb mesh grille and a redesigned lower bumper with chrome trim. The back end has some elements of the new Accord as well.

The Civic's cabin design hasn't changed but what has are more soft touch materials used throughout, new fabrics, and the use more soundproofing materials. Standard features include Bluetooth connectivity with audio streaming, a backup camera, Honda's i-MID display screen, iPod connectivity, Pandora compatibility, steering-wheel audio controls, an outside temperature gauge and a sliding center armrest.

Under the skin, Honda engineers sharpened the steering and suspension for a little more precision. Also, the Civic gets the latest version of Honda's Advanced Compatibility Engineering body structure, dubbed ACE II which features additional structures designed to disperse energy in small-overlap front-end collisions.

The option list for the 2013 Civic has grown to include lane departure warning and forward collision warning.

The 2013 Civic will start at $18,165 (doesn't include $795 destination charge). You can pickup a new Civic sedan starting today. The coupe, hybrid, Si, and CNG models will follow thereafter.

Source: Honda

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected]or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

Press Release is on Page 2

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Restyled 2013 Honda Civic Arrives at U.S. Dealerships with Premium Style, Host of Popular Standard Features

Extensive design changes, content upgrades and advanced new available safety technologies make Civic the benchmark in the compact class

TORRANCE, Calif., Nov. 29, 2012 – The top-selling and award-winning Honda Civic returns for 2013, with a host of design upgrades and a bevy of new standard features, while still maintaining the efficiency and value that has made the Civic an automotive icon for the past 40 years. The 2013 Honda Civic Sedan receives all-new front and rear exterior styling, along with extensive interior styling upgrades on all models. Retuned steering and suspension sharpen the Civic's handling, while extensive body and chassis upgrades improve the ride comfort and interior quietness.

Across the board, every 2013 Civic model is equipped with a suite of class-leading standard features. Standard equipment on every Honda Civic includes Bluetooth® HandsFreeLink®, Bluetooth® Audio, rearview camera, color i-MID display, USB/iPod® connection, Pandora® Interface, an SMS text feature, steering wheel audio controls, exterior temperature gauge and sliding center-console armrest. Even with hundreds of dollars of standard features added, the 2013 Civic arrives with only a modest $160 increase in MSRP across the lineup, with pricing for the exceptionally well-equipped 2013 Civic LX Sedan beginning at $18,1651.

New safety technologies built into the 2013 Civic include the application of the next-gen Advanced Compatibility Engineering™ II (ACE™ II) body structure, which includes additional front end structures designed to help increase occupant protection by dispersing crash energy in narrow overlap frontal crashes, and should help the Civic obtain a top rating in the new small-offset crash test conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Also new are SmartVent™ side airbags, side curtain airbags with a rollover sensor and the availability of Forward Collision Warning (FCW) and Lane Departure Warning (LDW) systems, which make their compact-class debut in the 2013 Honda Civic Hybrid.

Featuring the widest array of powertrain choices available in the segment, the Civic lineup is designed to meet the diverse needs of today's compact-vehicle buyer. The 2013 Honda Civic Sedan and Coupe will be available in LX, EX, EX-L and Si models, with the Civic Hybrid, Civic Natural Gas and Civic HF also available in sedan form. The entry model Civic DX has been discontinued for 2013.

Summary of Changes for 2013

• Completely revised front and rear exterior styling (Sedan)

• Enhanced standard feature content on all model grades

• Recalibrated suspension and steering

• Extensive new NVH reduction features

• Revised interior styling including soft-touch materials

• Next-gen Advanced Compatibility Engineering™ II (ACE™ II) body structure

• Standard rearview camera

• Standard Bluetooth® HandsFreeLink®

• Standard Bluetooth® Audio

• Standard Pandora® Interface

• Standard USB/iPod® interface

• Standard SMS text message functionality

• Available Forward Collision Warning (FCW), Lane Departure Warning (LDW) systems

• Two new exterior colors: White Orchid Pearl and Kona Coffee Metallic

• New interior color: Black

Powertrains

The 2013 Civic lineup includes sedan and coupe models with a conventional gasoline engine and "Si" performance models. Civic also offers a high fuel efficiency "HF," hybrid and exclusive natural gas alternative-fuel sedans.

Heavily revised for the ninth-gen Civic introduction for model year 2012, the Civic's all-aluminum, 140-horsepower, i-VTEC® 1.8-liter 16-valve four-cylinder engine is unchanged for 2013, continuing to provide exceptional responsiveness, refinement, and fuel efficiency. Providing 128 lb-ft of torque at 4300 rpm, the Honda mill is paired with either a 5-speed manual or 5-speed automatic transmission. In the Civic Sedan and Coupe, this powertrain has earned an EPA fuel-economy rating of 28/39/32 mpg2 city/hwy/combined when equipped with the automatic transmission. In the Civic HF Sedan, those figures climb to 29/41/33 mpg2.

Now available in 37 states, the 2013 Honda Civic Natural Gas continues as the only mass produced natural gas sedan available in the U.S. In the Civic Natural Gas, the 1.8-liter engine produces 110 horsepower, and earns an EPA fuel economy rating of 27/38/31 mpg2 (city/hwy/combined). The 2013 Civic Hybrid features a 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine equipped with Honda's Integrated Motor Assist (IMA®) system, which when coupled with its Lithium-Ion battery pack, produces 110 horsepower and 127 lb-ft of torque. Paired to a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT), the Civic Hybrid earns a city/hwy/combined EPA rating of 44/44/44 mpg2. The Civic Sedan and Coupe, Civic Natural Gas and Civic Hybrid models all feature Honda's ECO Assist™ technology, which with the push of the green, dash-mounted "ECON" button, can help drivers operate the vehicle more efficiently.

Along with strong fuel efficiency, the Civic lineup also offers strong performance. The 2013 Civic Si Sedan and Si Coupe models are equipped with an all-aluminum, 201-horsepower, i-VTEC® 2.4-liter DOHC 16-valve engine paired to a 6-speed manual transmission. Even though it provides 170 lb-ft of torque and offers exhilarating performance, the Civic Si has a remarkable 31 mpg2 EPA highway fuel economy rating.

Body

For 2013, the Honda Civic has received a host of changes that far exceed the typical mid-model refresh. The front and rear styling of the 2013 Honda Civic Sedan has been completely altered for a more youthful and premium feel, including sheet metal changes that include an all-new hood and trunk lid. Up front, a new open-mouth lower bumper with a horizontal chrome accent and a sportier, black honeycomb mesh grille is anchored by new integrated fog lights on EX-L and above trims. The grille is flanked by new clear-lens corner lights to provide a more premium look. The 2013 Civic's more sculpted front end flows into a new taller, more deeply faceted hood.

In back, a new rear bumper design and new rear trunk lid are capped by a clean, horizontal chrome trim piece. The all-new design of the jewel-like taillights now carries into the trunk face, providing a more finished and upscale look. The rear bumper features integrated reflector treatments and a new lower diffuser panel finished with a honeycomb mesh vent. While the expressive exterior styling of the 2013 Honda Civic Coupe remains unchanged, restyled wheels on all models help sharpen the look of the 2013 Civic.

Constructed of 55-pecent high-strength steel, the 2013 Civic's body minimizes weight and maximizes strength for greater rigidity. The 2013 Civic's body has seen a host of changes to the front floor, side sill, A-pillar, upper wheel housing and front bumper extension. This addition of high-strength steel is expected to pay refinement dividends and provide a stiffer structure for the numerous chassis updates for the 2013 Civic. In addition, the Civic's new structure is designed to help it excel in the new Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) small overlap crash test.

Chassis

Under the skin, the 2013 Civic has had significant alterations aimed at enhancing handling refinement and noise isolation. A reworked Electronic Power Steering (EPS) setup reduces friction and provides a quicker ratio, while stiffer wheels, stiffer front springs and a thicker front stabilizer bar with new Teflon-lined mounting bushings are designed for more fluid suspension action and a flatter, more responsive cornering attitude.

The rear suspension also receives a thicker stabilizer bar, increased spring rate, new Teflon-lined stabilizer-bar bushings, and reworked suspension bushings to increase both bump- and roll-motion stiffness. With its retuned MacPherson strut front and multi-link rear suspension, handling linearity, responsiveness and overall vehicle composure have been increased, while at the same time improving ride quality and the characteristic Honda fun-to-drive feel. For 2013, front brake-rotor diameter on automatic-equipped Civic LX, EX and EX-L Sedans and Coupes jumps 20 mm from 262 to 282 mm for improved stopping performance.

A large range of new noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) countermeasures work together to reduce road, engine and wind noise in the 2013 Civic's interior. This includes a stiffer front subframe, new thicker windshield and front door glass, and additional soundproofing material in the dash, floor, doors, and rear tray to help reduce unwanted road noise, and provide a more serene ride and quieter cabin.

Interior

Inside, extensive refinements in design and construction gives the entire 2013 Honda Civic lineup a more premium feel, with an all-new tricot headliner, new soft-touch materials on the instrument panel and upper door treatment, and revised textures and panel junctions throughout the instrument panel and center console. Subtle silver accents in the interior lend a higher-quality look, along with door panel and seat fabric upgrades. Providing a more upscale environment, black carpeting and a trunk lid finisher are now standard on all Civic models. For the first time, Civic is available in both cloth and leather with an all-black interior.

The 2013 Honda Civic provides a host of new class-leading standard features, including Bluetooth® HandsFreeLink®, Bluetooth® Audio, rearview camera, color i-MID display, Pandora® Interface, USB/iPod® interface, SMS text message function, steering wheel audio controls, exterior temperature gauge and a sliding finished center armrest. Available on Civic EX, EX-L, Hybrid and Natural Gas models, the Honda Satellite-Linked Navigation System™ with voice recognition3 now includes a multi-view rearview camera and provides routing and guidance to individual addresses and more than 7-million points of interest within the continental United States. With its 16-GB flash memory system, it offers fast route calculation and includes FM traffic, a subscription-free service that alerts drivers to traffic conditions.

Safety

Named a "2012 Top Safety Pick" by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the Civic returns for 2013 with a re-engineered Advanced Compatibility Engineering™ II (ACE™ II) body structure. The changes that went into the ACE II body structure were designed to help increase the protection provided to vehicle occupants in a frontal collision, including the addition of front end structures to help disperse crash energy in narrow overlap frontal crashes. These changes should also help the Civic obtain top marks in the new Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) small overlap frontal crash test.

Also new for 2013, the Civic features Honda's new SmartVent™ front seat side airbag construction that recently debuted in the 2013 Honda Accord. The new SmartVent™ airbag design helps mitigate the risk of excessive side airbag deployment force, while eliminating the need for the prior Civic's Occupant Position Detection System (OPDS). The elimination of OPDS allows improved heating of the seatback on Civic EX-L models. Additionally, the 2013 Civic is equipped with a side curtain airbag with rollover sensors, nearly two years ahead of regulatory requirements.

A first in the compact segment, the 2013 Honda Civic Hybrid will provide standard Forward Collision Warning (FCW) and Lane Departure Warning (LDW) systems. FCW is designed to detect a possible collision with another vehicle or object ahead and provide visible and audible alerts to the driver. LDW provides visible and audible alerts if the driver begins to drift out of a detected lane without using the turn indicator.

The 2013 Civic's additional safety technologies include standard dual-stage, multiple-threshold front airbags, an anti-lock braking system (ABS), Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA)4 with traction control, a tire pressure monitoring system, and a pedestrian injury mitigation design in the front of the vehicle.

Warranty and Awards

The 2013 Honda Civic is covered by a 3-year/36,000-mile new-car limited warranty, a 5-year/60,000-mile powertrain limited warranty, a 5-year/unlimited-mile corrosion limited warranty and on hybrid models a 15-year/150,000-mile emissions warranty when the vehicle is registered and normally operated in California and certain states that have adopted California Zero-Emission Vehicle regulations.

Since its complete redesign as a 2012 model, the Honda Civic has received host of awards and recognition. It was named one of About.com's Best New Cars of 2012. Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com named the 2012 Civic one of the "10 Best Green Cars of 2012" and one of the "Best Family Cars of 2012." In addition, KBB named the Civic Natural Gas a "2012 Best Redesigned Vehicle." The Civic Natural Gas was also named "2012 Green Car of the Year®" by Green Car Journal. Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com has already awarded the 2013 Civic with a Best Resale Value award in its segment.

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[ocnblu]

Well that blows... the coupe gets no styling refresh. This doesn't bode well... scary.

[Drew Dowdell]

meh, I'd rather a Forte, Cruze or even a Sonic.

[ocnblu]

Looks like they wrapped the dash, changed the face trim to black from gray, and put chrome trim on the vents. Uh... woohoo.

And now it becomes clearer why corporate sent a notice to dealers to clear out 2012 inventory... the prices have gone up, plus the base DX trim is gone altogether! They knew it would be harder to sell the 2013s if too many '12s were left on the lots.

I'm guessing the DX trim is gone to make way for the Fit sedan they have coming. Carmakers continue to push this relentless march upmarket with their established models, and it's greedy.

[G. David Felt]

So just what did they listen to in customer and auto review criticism about how lacking the civic was?

Are they that arrogant to not really see that the current civic is a dog and this really is not that much better?

[ocnblu]

I think dedicated Honda fanbois (siegen? where art thou sir?) were more interested in the driving characteristics than the looks as being lacking. Not that the interior improvements aren't welcome. Hopefully the engineers' tweaks to the steering and suspension were a success. There might be hope, I mean the new Accord is really nice.

Edited November 29, 2012 by ocnblu

[Drew Dowdell]

My biggest complaint with the Civic was with noise. That is where I am most interested in the changes. A 1998 LeSabre is a heavy metal concert compared to a modern Cruze, but Honda hasn't seemed to make similar strides in noise control in the same time period.

[ocnblu]

That is true, Honda doesn't seem atall interested in doing away with road noise in their vehicles. It's an odd disconnect, imo.

[Drew Dowdell]

I know you don't "do" electric, but there is a huge huge difference in interior noise between a Civic and a Civic Hybrid. For me a Civic Hybrid is about acceptable for the compact car class. The problem for Honda is that the Cruze and Sonic are at the top of the noise control class, with Verano even further up (as it should be for a premium car)

[dwightlooi]

The B16A 1.6L VTEC engine was the first to deliver 100 hp/liter back in the early 90s. The Civic of that era also had double wishbones front and back which made them nice little handlers. The extremely low hood and belt line with a large green house made Honda's uniquely Honda looking. Over the last two decades, Honda has made great progress in becoming more mainstream and "ordinary". Today, the SI uses a 2.0L 160hp engine -- which does have a better torque curve than the aged 1.6 from 20 years ago, it it isn't particularly interesting in any way. It also lost the double wishbones for a more traditional front strut. I actually found the Rakish previous gen Civic quite attractive -- attractive but not particularly exciting.

Kinda recalls an old Duran Duran song...

as I try to make my way

To the ordinary world

I will learn to survive...

[pow]

Honda studied their customers and the market and did what they needed to do. The standard rear view camera, Bluetooth, and Pandora interface are the new Civic's selling points.

And at the end of the day, they made safety changes as well, which is in line with Honda's values. They improved the structure to excel in the new small-overlap IIHS crash test.

[A Horse With No Name]

Well that blows... the coupe gets no styling refresh. This doesn't bode well... scary.

They need to scrap the whole design and start over...it's dated and doesn't work well together....

I know you don't "do" electric, but there is a huge huge difference in interior noise between a Civic and a Civic Hybrid. For me a Civic Hybrid is about acceptable for the compact car class. The problem for Honda is that the Cruze and Sonic are at the top of the noise control class, with Verano even further up (as it should be for a premium car)

GM is so far ahead of Honda here that it is just about absurd....

[daves87rs]

The B16A 1.6L VTEC engine was the first to deliver 100 hp/liter back in the early 90s. The Civic of that era also had double wishbones front and back which made them nice little handlers. The extremely low hood and belt line with a large green house made Honda's uniquely Honda looking. Over the last two decades, Honda has made great progress in becoming more mainstream and "ordinary". Today, the SI uses a 2.0L 160hp engine -- which does have a better torque curve than the aged 1.6 from 20 years ago, it it isn't particularly interesting in any way. It also lost the double wishbones for a more traditional front strut. I actually found the Rakish previous gen Civic quite attractive -- attractive but not particularly exciting.

Kinda recalls an old Duran Duran song...

as I try to make my way

To the ordinary world

I will learn to survive...

Great song...and very true. It was still better 10 years ago than it is now...