January 28, 2014
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Orlando, Florida – You sure can’t accuse Honda of resting on its laurels when it comes to the Civic.
Less than a year after launching the ninth generation of its compact sedan in the fall of 2011, Honda hauled her back into the workshop to make a number of significant improvements. Call it planned evolution or an emergency makeover (most would pick the latter), the automaker was quick to address criticisms leveled at the 2012 Civic pertaining to its subpar interior quality, uninspired handling and somewhat dull styling.
And so the 2013 Civic sedan got a classier snout and derriere, while both sedan and coupe saw suspension upgrades, better plastics, colour-matching interior bits and a few new features.
Honda could have left it there. After all, this North American–only Civic does very well in the US, and up here in Canada it is currently celebrating its 16th year as our county’s top-selling passenger vehicle.
But this is a super tough segment. The cars might be small, but they don’t play nice. The stylin’ Hyundai Elantra has been nipping at Civic’s heels in the sales race here for the past three years, and with all-new players like the impressive 2014 Toyota Corolla and 2014 Mazda3 on board, Honda once again sees fit to upgrade the Civic.
The mantra for 2014 is more power, more connectivity, better fuel economy, and in the case of the Coupe variants we drove in Florida, a bump from 15-inch to 16-inch rolling stock, suspension mods to improve body control and exterior styling tweaks.
But first we’ll look at the changes that affect both 2014 Civic Sedan and Coupe.
A freer-flowing exhaust system has netted three more ponies and one more torque – the 1.8L VTEC four now makes 143 hp at 6,500 rpm and 129 lb-ft at 4,300 rpm.
The biggest news for 2014 is a Honda-developed CVT (continuously variable transmission) that replaces the old five-speed auto. Coupe models get paddle shifters – the sedans don’t. While unavailable on the base DX sedan (a five-speed manual is the only transmission), the CVT is a $1,300 option on the LX and EX versions of both sedan and coupe, and standard on the top-trim Touring sedan and EX-L coupe.
The CVT is lighter than the outgoing auto and widens the ratio range by 22 percent. This bodes well for fuel economy. Strangely, Honda is only claiming economy gains in the city cycle (consumption drops from 7.1 to 6.7 L/100 km) while highway mileage remains at 5.0 L/100 km.
On the connectivity front, both the EX sedan and EX coupe get a new touchscreen interface dubbed Display Audio. Move up to the Touring sedan, Hybrid sedan, EX-L coupe or either Si performance variants and we get Display Audio with Navi.
A seven-inch capacitive touchscreen with slide, flick, pinch and multi-tap functions lives at the top of the centre stack. For those into connectivity it’s a boon. If you care about ergonomics, well…
The good old-fashioned volume knob, which most manufacturers still appear to deem essential no matter what, is AWOL here. So you’ll be using the steering wheel controls. Otherwise, your eyes must leave the road and follow the fingertip as it tries to hone in on the screen’s digital rendering of a slider. From which imprecise adjustments are yours for the poking.
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That said, Display Audio delivers most of the goods for those who live through a smart phone and need all that in a car. There is USB, HDMI connectivity and Bluetooth streaming. Various apps are coming online. Currently Aha, Honda Link (like GM’s OnStar) and a $59 navigation app if you just have the basic system sans built-in navigation. iPhone users can also chat with Siri. When the car is stationary, YouTube streaming is available.
No text-to-voice capability though.
Display Audio with Navi–equipped cars get a three-mode rear-view camera (normal, wide and top down).
On EX trim and higher, Honda’s LaneWatch, first seen on the 2013 Accord, presents a clever solution for lessening the chance of an “oops” with objects in your right-side blind spot. Turn on the right turn signal and a rear-facing camera on the wing mirror shoots up a clear image on the centre display. Especially good for checking for cyclists coming up on the inside when driving in the city.
Other interior changes include new seat fabrics and a black lower dash panel replacing the gray on some trims.
Overall, the Civic’s cabin looks good. Materials are of a high quality and you can’t argue with the functionality of the two-tiered dash with its super bright displays. Some of my colleagues here at Autos.ca find it all a bit garish, but I’m all for unimpeded delivery of information.
I spent all my drive time on this event in a 2014 Civic Coupe EX with CVT. It sported the newly available Modern Steel Metallic paint.
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The seats are good and the leather-wrapped multifunction steering wheel is a quality piece. At highway speeds the Civic Coupe is quiet and composed with fine tracking. The tach shows a relaxed 2,200 rpm at 120 km/h.
And what about this new CVT? As we established with the 2013 Accord sedan that featured Honda’s first stab at a continuously variable transmission, these guys have a good handle on this technology.
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With the console shifter in D, a tug on either paddle calls up a temporary shift. Pull the shifter back to the S position and seven “virtual” gears are at your disposal. It’s pretty much full manual here, and this feature made the nimble coupe considerably more enjoyable on some of the winding back roads we encountered.
Not having a 2013 pre-suspension upgrade Coupe there for comparison, I can’t really comment on these “sportier” chassis changes. But I will say this. The 2014 Coupe shows a fine blend of body control and ride compliance. It glided over some of the more rough sections of pavement with impressive refinement.
Tempering the fun is somewhat vague steering. You’re not getting a real good sense of what’s happening down front.
After my drive, I jumped into a 2014 Mazda3 the Honda folks had kindly (bravely?) supplied for comparison. The Mazda’s steering is much better and the car feels more alert on the road, but the cabin looks blah and the central gauge cluster is small and dim compared to the Honda’s colourful digital array.
While the 2014 Civic Sedan and Coupe are on sale now, devotees of the hot Si cars will have to wait for the refreshed 2014s. The Si Coupe arrives March 12 and the Si Sedan right behind on April Fools’ Day.
A refined exhaust system for the Si’s 2.4L four sees power and torque jump four points respectively to 205 hp at 7,000 rpm and 174 lb-ft at 4,400 rpm. As before, only a close ratio six-speed manual is offered. Both Coupe and Sedan now ride on 18-inch alloys (up from 17s) and come fully equipped with all the new tech toys. There are now colour-keyed seat inserts to match the exterior hue.
The Si’s suspension has been tweaked to increase the front bump motion stiffness by 4 percent and rear roll stiffness by 42 percent. What does that mean to you and me? We’ll find out in a couple of months, but on paper it looks as though they’ve dialed out some understeer, which is always a good thing in a performance car.
Overall
3.5
Comfort
Performance
Fuel Economy
Interior
Exterior Styling
Pricing for the Si cars is up by about by $400 to $26,665, but Honda tells us there’s $1,400 in added value over last year’s models.
The 2014 Civic LX sedan, which accounts for just over fifty percent of Civic sedan sales sees a marginal price increase of $195 to $18,440.
So here we are at the top of 2014 with the Civic still king of the Canadian compacts. And these modest but meaningful mods can only help the Civic’s case. But are they enough to hold off the ascending Elantra? And what about the mercurial Mazda3? Can the competent Corolla come from behind and cut these mothers down?
Tune in this time next year. My money’s on the Honda.
Pricing: 2014 Honda Civic Coupe EX
Base price: $20,900
Optional equipment: CVT $1300
A/C tax: $100
Destination charge: $1629
Price as tested: $23,929
Source;
http://www.autos.ca/first-drives/first-drive-2014-honda-civic/?all=1
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