introduction of a lower, wider, hotter, bigger, better compact Civic sedan<\/a> benchmarked to the Audi A3. Civic\u2019s retail sales may not have showed it, but even Honda admitted that they had betrayed the faithful. To make amends, Honda has promised not only the sedan \u2013 which has debuted to rave reviews \u2013 but a Coupe, five-door wagon, Si, and mouth-breathing, road-eating Type R. No compact lineup can touch King Civic.<\/p>\nI can\u2019t wait for the Type R, but the Coupe at least foreshadows its styling. If the reaction to my wicked looking, six-speed manual, blood-red tester is any indication, the tuners will be lined up 10 deep at Honda dealerships by the time the R arrives.<\/p>\n
My Coupe date didn\u2019t start well actually. Only because it arrived in my driveway the day after I returned from testing the new, immortal 2017 Porsche 911 in northern California. It\u2019s like dancing with Beyonce followed by a dance with, well, anyone. Back to Planet Earth.<\/p>\n
Among mere mortal compact cars, Civic is impressive even in base form. The manual feels crisp \u2013 even after the Porsche\u2019s magic box \u2013 making the perky, 158-horse 2.0-liter engine fun to row.<\/p>\n
My three-hour journey to Gingerman was pleasant in the quiet cabin, the Civic\u2019s soft-seat and door-rest materials transporting me in comfort. The trip was marred, however, by details Chevy\u2019s upstart Cruze does better: Cruze control (pun-intended) and Apple Car Play and Android Auto. Chevy offers the latter standard, meaning I could have used my Samsung to navigate the Michigan west side\u2019s unfamiliar roads. Kudos to Honda, however, for the (typically) excellent console which gave me not only plenty of space to drop my phone \u2013 but a pass through space to charge below.<\/p>\n
As for cruise control, the Honda\u2019s steering wheel-mounted plastic buttons not only looked like they had come off a kids toy \u2013 the acted cheap as well. Press the PLUS button to increase speed and the car reacted slower than a sloth to an alarm clock.<\/p>\n
Lunch hour at race events can be a wonderful time to show family around the track \u2013 and test a street vehicle\u2019s envelope. At Gingerman the A3-baseline Coupe showed off its athletic prowess. One of four cars in class (Mazda 3, Subaru Impreza, and Ford Focus are the others) to feature an independent rear suspension, the Civic was noticeably more nimble through comers \u2013 even compared to my wife\u2019s all-wheel drive Impreza.<\/p>\n
Over an half-hour the Civic showed no signs of brake fade or upset, while the Subaru eventually panicked \u2013 hysterically flashing its engine light (an oxygen sensor failure) that led to it shutting off its traction control. Eek! Too many g-loads.<\/p>\n
\u201cPshaw! Amateur!\u201d<\/em> You could almost hear Civic mocking its Japanese brother.<\/p>\nPoint taken, but where the Coupe rally shines is in the paddock. Park it next to a last generation Civic and it is Cinderella transformed.<\/p>\n
The new Coupe\u2019s boomerang, arched taillights are a neon Times Square billboard. And while I still prefer the old Civic\u2019s simpler, bullet-shaped profile, the 2016 Coupe\u2019s designer jewelry and \u201cHot Wheels\u201d rims make it the most dramatic car in class now that the Hyundai Elantra went all conservative on us.<\/p>\n
My devil in a red dress, however, remains plenty practical on the inside. Your outsized 6-foot-5 car critic easily folded into the rear seat thanks to Coupe\u2019s easy-slide front seat. Once in back, the Civic\u2019s best-in-class rear leg room is as roomy as the sedan. Which means the Honda can have its dramatic fast back and also fit me. Try that in, say, a Hyundai Veloster.<\/p>\n
All my thrashing about on track, of course, made for a less-than-advertised 27.1 mpg on my 400-mile, journey. But (ahem) assuming you don\u2019t fling the Civic around tracks on a regular basis, the little car should be good for 31 mpg \u2013 a budget-friendly item for the Coupe\u2019s twenty-something core audience.<\/p>\n
I still don\u2019t like the Coupe\u2019s tack-on plastic wear, like the lower rear vents. But then, my styling preferences lie with stealthy Golfs, not (previous-gen) Elantra and Civic drama queens. For those who do, the Honda is your toy.<\/p>\n
Wait another year, and that drama shape will come with 300 horsepower under the hood too. It\u2019ll need security guards to keep the paparazzi away at the track.<\/p>\n
2016 Honda Civic Coupe<\/strong><\/p>\nSpecifications<\/strong><\/p>\nVehicle type:<\/strong> Front-engine, front-wheel drive, 5-passenger compact coupe<\/p>\nPrice:<\/strong> $19,895 base (Manual LX as tested)<\/p>\nPowerplant:<\/strong> 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder<\/p>\nPower:<\/strong> 159 horsepower, 138 pound-feet of torque<\/p>\nTransmission:<\/strong> 6-speed manual<\/p>\nPerformance:<\/strong> Zero-60: 6.8 seconds (Car & Driver est.)<\/p>\nWeight:<\/strong> 2,739 pounds<\/p>\nFuel economy:<\/strong> EPA 26 mpg city\/38 mpg highway\/31 combined<\/p>\nReport card<\/strong><\/p>\nHighs:<\/strong> Head-turner; roomy back seat<\/p>\nLows:<\/strong> Platicky controls; sleepy cruise control<\/p>\nOverall:<\/strong>\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spectators usually come to race tracks to ogle race cars. But on a recent visit to South Haven, Michigan\u2019s Gingerman Raceway to flog my Lola 90, the Honda Civic I parked in the paddock got plenty of eyeballs. Is that the new Honda Civic Coupe? When is it coming out? What\u2019s it like? The paparazzi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18960"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18961,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18960\/revisions\/18961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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