Yahoo Autos 2017 Honda Civic Hatchback: First Drive
It's been a long time since Honda offered a Civic hatchback in the U.S. market-2005 saw the demise of the seventh-generation Civic Si hatch. Since then, a few things have changed: three-door hatchbacks have nearly disappeared from our market, supplanted by five-doors that often include a serious performance variant. Honda's latest Civic answers to both trends: Meet the 2017 Civic hatchback, the first five-door Civic to be sold in the U.S. in decades, and the basis for the upcoming, hotly-anticipated Civic Si and Type-R.
For the most part, the new Civic hatchback is mechanically analogous to the 10th-generation sedan and coupe already plying America's streets. That means the same 1.5-liter turbocharged inline-four murmurs under the hood, spinning the same transmissions as in the two- and four-door, either a six-speed manual or a CVT. The wheelbase is unchanged at 106 inches; overall length is 4.3 inches less than the sedan, while the roofline rises 0.8 inches higher.
Five trim lines are available, in increasing order of swank: LX, Sport, EX, EX-L Navi, and Sport Touring, the gray model shown in these photos. The six-speed manual is available only on LX or Sport models. Sport and Sport Touring examples make 180 horsepower, an increase of six over the rest of the lineup; torque, 162 lb.-ft. for all CVT models, rises to 167 in a stick-shift LX, and 177 in a Sport with the manual gearbox. If you need a spreadsheet to keep track of all this, you're not alone.
At Honda's first U.S. drive event for the new Civic hatchback, the power difference between the various models was nearly unnoticeable. Through the winding mountains and down the coastal highway connecting San Francisco to Monterey, both the top-of-the-line Sport Touring and the lesser Sport felt planted, composed, and refreshingly lightweight. Honda quotes a curb weight of 2815 lbs. for the lightest stick-shift Civic hatchback, rising as high as 3003 lbs. for a Sport Touring with the CVT and Honda Sensing safety suite. That's lighter than most of the five-door competition, though the hatchback adds roughly 80 to 115 lbs. over a comparably-equipped sedan or coupe.
Honda says the Civic hatch has unique steering tuning, with increased on-center boost and reduced large-angle assistance compared to the coupe and sedan. The hatch also receives unique suspension settings, with firmer damping to create a "European-inspired ride feel." On the street, the hatchback eliminates what brief moments of floatiness exist in the sedan. The Sport and Sport Touring models I drove were equipped with 18-inch wheels riding on 235/40 all-season tires; well-controlled body roll transitioned to safe, predictable understeer only with extreme prodding. For moderately sporty driving, the base Civic hatchback is plenty enjoyable. More importantly, it will make a fantastic platform for the hatchback-based Civic Type-R that's on its way.
Out in the twisty canyon roads, the six-speed manual is the transmission you'll prefer. The CVT offers a "manual" mode where you can paddle-shift through seven preset ratios, but engine braking and throttle response still exhibit that CVT weirdness. Not that the six-speed manual is perfect-Honda's maddening rev-hang on upshifts is here in a big way. Shifting near redline on hard acceleration, the engine sometimes surges for a full second with your foot off the accelerator and the clutch depressed. The transmission doesn't mind fast shifts, but the delicate-feeling shifter and super-light clutch feel like they came from an arcade game. If you're dead-set on a five-door with three pedals, perhaps a Mazda3 is your best bet-unlike most everyone else, Mazda will still let you buy a top-spec hatchback with a stick.
Or you could wait for the higher-performance Civics to arrive. The upcoming Civic Si will no doubt continue Honda's tradition of joyful snickety shifters, and from what we know of the Civic Type-R, it'll be a major contender in the sizzling hot hatch wars. We expect both will be manual-only, as has always been the case, with gearboxes designed to prioritize direct feedback over the light-touch ease of the base Civic.
Still, if you want a thrifty, reasonably-priced five-door with some premium options that's still light enough on its feet to be a fun twisty-road companion, the regular Civic hatchback is a compelling offer. The base-model stick-shift Civic LX starts at an MSRP of $19,700; Sport models start at $21,300, with the optional CVT adding $800 to both models. The top-of-the-line Sport Touring starts at $28,300.
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