ENJOY A CIVIC RECEPTION (some text hidden) --NONE--

BY ANDY ENRIGHT

Introductionword count: 110

This Civic range finally put to rest the old memories of Civics being tiny starter cars of little sophistication. The seventh generation Civic was superbly engineered, innovative in design and rightly popular with British buyers. Honda did almost everything right. There was a family friendly five-door, a slightly more rakish three-door and a flagship Type-R sports model that quickly deposed the Renaultsport Clio 172 as the hot hatch of choice. The only slight fly in the ointment was the woeful US-built Coupe, one of Honda's rare own goals. As a used proposition, it's difficult to get things wrong. All models have peerless reliability and Honda dealers have an enviable reputation.

Modelsword count: 20

Models Covered: 2dr Coupe, 3 & 5dr Hatch: (1.4, 1.6, 1.7, 2.0 petrol [S, SE, Max, Sport, Executive, Type-S, Type-R])

Historyword count: 252

The Swindon-built Civic 5-door range beat its 3-door sibling to market by a couple of months, touching down in summer 2000. Two engines were offered; a 1.4 and a 1.6 available in S, SE and, with the 1.6, Executive trim levels. The range quickly drew plaudits and the 3-door cars gained similar acceptance, a similar range structure being launched bar the top model, Executive being replaced by a Sport variant. Few doubted that Honda could resist launching a red hot Type-R model, and so it proved, the 197bhp road rocket touching down in 2001 to rapturous acclaim. So good was the Civic that the withdrawal of the much-loved Integra Type-R passed almost unnoticed. At around the same time the Type-R hit the showrooms, Honda quietly slipped the two-door Civic Coupe into the range. With a 1.7-litre engine pumping out an effete 123bhp, this bland little coupe was best ignored. The Civic Max special editions were launched in January 2002, aiming at spiking the burgeoning success of the Peugeot 307, the Civic's closest rival. These were closely followed by the value-packed Vision special editions. The 160bhp Type-S answered the demand for a hot hatch option for five-door Civic buyers, and a little of the Type-R magic was trickled down into the three-door Civic 1.6 VTEC Sport in summer 2002 to mark the thirtieth anniversary of Civic production. A plush Type-R 30th Anniversary edition was also launched in limited numbers. The all-new Civic with its futuristic looks was unveiled towards the end of 2005.

What You Getword count: 348

The one-box dome-shaped profile with its short nose and large glass area gives a very shrunken-People Carrier feel. It's the same inside, where the dashboard-mounted gearlever frees up floorspace and enables front-seated parents to walk through and clip the ears of warring kids sat in the rear. As for space, well there's significantly more than you'd find in an ordinary family hatch, due to dimensions that make it 130mm longer and 15mm higher than a class-leader like Ford's Focus. Hardly surprising then, that the cabin boasts a useful amount of extra room. Compare it once more with a Focus and you'll find 30mm more headroom and (perhaps more surprisingly given that it's 15mm narrower) 145mm more cabin width. Rear seat passenger legroom is especially impressive, even for the middle seat occupant who for once, can stretch his or her legs out in comfort. Built in Marysville, Ohio, the Coupe utilises much of the same technology as the three and five-door cars. Like the 'cooking' Civic, beneath the Coupe's unexciting styling is a car which is unremittingly competent, but which won't set hearts a-flutter. When placed alongside the 3-door hatch, it's obvious that the Coupe sits on a shorter wheelbase, it's front and rear overhangs being slightly more gauche than the wheel-at-each-corner tautness of the hatch. There's a 125bhp 1.7-litre engine under the hood, sorry, bonnet, which utilises Honda's now familiar VTEC valve technology, but not the next-generation iV-TEC intelligent and stepless valve control seen on the hot Civic Type-R. Talking of which, to say the Type-R has undergone a few modifications would be akin to noting that Imelda Marcos wasn't short of footwear choices. Pride of place goes to the 2.0-litre engine, equipped with double overhead cams and intelligent VTEC, Honda's stepless valve control system, combining to generate 200PS, which in terms of good old bhp is a scarcely believable 197bhp. No, it doesn't quite approach the otherworldliness of the S2000 roadster's 237bhp from a 2.0-litre engine, but for a hot hatch it's decidedly manic, especially when you consider that it's attained without the aid of a turbocharger.

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