Honda Civic sedan test drive since 2012 sedan

Genetic code

A catchy design and a claim for sports is only a half of business. For success, Sivik has to prove that he, like the ancestor, is a car for the driver
PROLOGUE
Next to me on the stop line was frozen by the black sedan of the representative class. The driver clearly raised the quite ordinary hatchback, which unexpectedly furnished him at the previous traffic light. Green! The first meters of the car go side by side. The first transfer of turns is stepped over 5500, and suddenly the motor seems to explode in a powerful pickup, and the tachometer arrow jumps up to 8500 rpm in an instant. The explosion is repeated in second gear, and now the opponent with annoyance sparkles with headlights in the hop of the Japanese rear, four times cheaper ...
I will not forget these sensations presented to me by Honda Sivik about seven years ago, when the sixth generation of the model led by the cult VTI stood in the ranks. Thus, the werewolf, which combined the salon, comfortable in everyday ride, comfortable pendants and a rabid 1.6-liter hopeless motor with a capacity of 160 liters. With. Now for good specimens of recent years of release are asking for $ 15,000.
The modern alternative is 200-horsepower three-door Type-R, but it is expensive and not too convenient for traveling to work. The masses of the seventh generation are completely different: more spacious, quiet and unremarkable. Goodbye, Drive really Honda abandoned sports ambitions? According to scientists, genes are transmitted through a generation. Maybe the next Sivic is the same case?
An attempt to number eight
The new Sivik can be described in a few words as a first -rate, personal, sports, at the presentation of the eighth generation of the machine, the chief engineer of the Shoji Akaogi. Looking at the car sparkling with graphite sides, its creator wants to believe the word. When Honda showed a prototype in Geneva in the spring, few could have thought that the serial sample would be so close to the concept. We wanted all the other cars to look next to the old Sivik, Mr. Akaogi smiles slyly.
The car really looks an alien from the future: what is at least a transparent section between the headlights, behind which the chrome letter H and the shiny decorative fragments are hidden. Yes, and feed is extremely expressive: double glass a la Mercedes s-class Sports coupe or Mazda 323C, horizontal lamp strip and triangular trunks of the exhaust system are spectacular!
In the profile, Sivik resembles Alfa Romeo, first of all, thanks to the door handle hidden in the rear rack and a high glazing line. The similarity is not by chance. According to reporters, the Japanese chose alpha-romeo 146 as an emotional standard, and Volkswagen Golf for comfort and sled qualities! Unexpected revelation. It is a pity, we were not given a sivik on the go, promising to invite to a test drive in the fall. Can you look into the salon?
Yes, this has not yet happened! I recall the words of designers: the instrument panel is divided into two separate zones. Indeed, right in front of the eyes in the usual place, a visor, under which a huge voluminous tachometer is exactly in the middle. Its central part is given to the display of the on -board computer, flashing orange warning inscriptions or blue informational ones. Near the odometer, the temperature indicator.
Almost at the glass itself, the panel bends into another visor: here is a large analog speedometer and an indicator of the optimal speed of the crankshaft, on the right of the economyometer. As engineers assure, with such a speedometer, the driver is much less distracted from the road, since it is easier to focus on it. Moreover, colleagues of various growth calmly sat down behind the wheel so as to see both combinations of devices.
It was worth getting a camera and aim at the panel, a polite manager appeared nearby. Apologizing, he asked not to shoot: it is too early to judge the quality of decoration, this is a pre -production sample. Could not be modest! Plastic parts are fitted flawlessly, the doors seem to stick to the locks, pleasantly smacking in the opening. Of the details familiar from other Hondas, perhaps, only a cigarette lighter and a block of lighting of the salon of no unification! In general, Sivik looks more expensive than most classmates. I wonder if this will affect the price of a car? Marketologists shrug: we hope to declare accurate numbers at the Frankfurt car dealership.
GO?
As you already understood, the first acquaintance with Sivik turned out to be purely protocol. Conversations with engineers did not make special clarity. Did Sivik really find the spirit of the car for the driver? The question is controversial. Take, for example, engines: there are three of them, and a base with a volume of 1.4 liters and a capacity of 83 liters. with., as on the city compact Honda-jazz. I'm afraid this is not enough for a heavier Sivik! And buying a stylish car with a dynamic appearance for movement at the pace of the turtle is somehow illogical.
On the other hand, the latest gasoline 140-horsepower engine with a volume of 1.8 liters promises to put many 2-liter competitors on the shoulder blades, and fuel consumption with it is not much more than that of a 1.4-liter counterpart! Probably, they will not sell a weak version in Russia. The fate of a 2.2-liter diesel machine is unknown. This motor is installed on the chord, CR-V and FR-V, but official diesel dealers are not imported to Russia. With the same power as in a 1.8-liter engine, the diesel engine develops the moment twice as much. Only traditional for Honda is a reserved nature, he does not even have a mention.
An unusual picture and with gearboxes. They will put on Sivik
6-speed mechanical transmission, classic and automated. Subjectively, the moves of pure mechanics, the lever of which managed to work, are too close. Do not confuse the third with an active ride with the fifth or the fourth with the sixth!
But the largest surprise was presented with pendants. The fact that in front the machine is equipped with the usual generation by McEzerson did not particularly surprise anyone. But perhaps no one expected to detect an elastic beam behind. And although journalists were assured that this simple design was made using high technologies and works on the road no worse than multi-link suspensions of Siviks 10 years ago, it was no longer so simple to believe for the word.
However, these are only assumptions. We will wait until the autumn test drive and then see if genetics are right in their theory.

Sivik symbol of Honda's success. Over the 33-year history of the model, more than 16 million copies were issued and sold about 30% of the total sales of the brand over the years. Currently, Siviks are produced at 11 and sold in 160 countries of the world. The eighth -generation hatchback was designed specifically for the European market, its production was organized in the English city of Svindon. At the beginning of next year, the sedan and the three -door version of Sivik for other markets, primarily North America, will make their own debut.
 
Mikhail Gzovsky
 

Source: The magazine "Driving"