Top 5 Things You Should Know About the 2016 Honda Civic

Have you heard? There’s a brand new Honda Civic coming to market. It’s loaded with more enhancements, features and refinements than you probably thought possible.

But don’t underestimate the hard-working folks at Honda. After years plodding along with less-than-inspiring Civics, this storied nameplate is back for 2016 and it’s better than ever. For real.

ALSO SEE: 2016 Honda Civic Review

This car is new from the ground up, and it’s sure to be one of the C-Segment’s best offerings. Here are five of the most important things you need to know about the 2016 Honda Civic.

This car rides atop a totally new architecture. Of course, it features the company’s ACE body structure, so it should be as safe as anything in its class. But the move to a new platform paid out more dividends than just that. The car has grown a couple inches in almost every dimension, falling only in height where it’s about an inch shorter than the outgoing Civic.

The 2016 model is nearly two inches wider and has a 1.2-inch lankier wheelbase. Overall, its body has been stretched by almost three inches. Accordingly, both front and rear legroom have grown, making the Civic more hospitable than ever. Beyond this, its trunk is larger to the tune of 2.6 cubic feet, making for an impressive grand total of 15.1.

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It may have grown by a not-insignificant amount, but the Capital H’s latest compact contender has actually lost weight. That’s the Honda way, hitting all the high notes and keeping mass in check; it’s a strategy they seem to have forgotten in recent years.

Thanks to an increased amount of ultra-high-strength steel and lots of clever engineering, the overall body structure is around 70 pounds lighter than its predecessor’s. But that’s not what’s most impressive. Depending on trim level, the car has lost anywhere between 50 and 100 pounds, despite offering more equipment, greater interior space and 25 percent better torsional rigidity. How do you spell progress? Apparently it starts with an “H” and ends in “onda.”

Paralleling the Civic’s freshly minted architecture is an equally new lineup of gasoline engines. Two, count ‘em, TWO internal-combustion powerplants are on the menu, a naturally aspirated unit and a smaller-displacement four-cylinder turbo.

The base engine has a piston-swept area of 2.0-liters and delivers 158 horses along with 138 lb-ft of peak torque. These figures are totally class competitive, falling nearly in lock-step with similar-displacement engines found in the Mazda3 and Ford Focus.

Up-level EX-T and EX-L versions of the Civic can be had with a 1.5-liter turbo. With direct injection it delivers a healthy 174 ponies and 162 lb-ft of torque.

As for transmissions, basically all versions of this car come with a continuously variable automatic. Only the entry-level LX version can be had with a six-speed manual.

Given its thrifty engines, impressive weight loss and improved aerodynamics it should be no surprise that the 2016 Civic is about as economical a small car as you’ll find. Each engine and every trim level sips fuel like teetotaler forced to give a wedding toast with a tumbler full of rectified corn liquor.

LX models equipped with the base 2.0-liter engine and a row-‘em-yourself manual transmission should return 27 miles per gallon in the city, 40 on highway jaunts and 31 combined. Sell your soul and opt for the CVT instead and those numbers grow to 31 urban, 41 interstate and 35 combined.

The 1.5 turbo is even more economical, gaining one mpg on the interstate for a total of 42 mpg.

As with the previous 10 generations of Civic, the 2016 model is attractively priced. An unadorned LX model will set you back $19,475, including $835 in delivery charges. Snag yourself one with a CVT and that price grows by a mere 800 bucks ($20,275).

However, if a plebian, entry-level Civic still leaves you Jonesin’ for the latest features, a range-topping Touring model can be had for $27,335, including destination. They even come standard with Honda Sensing, the company’s suite of advanced driver-assistance features, which includes things like lane-departure warning, road-departure mitigation and even adaptive cruise control. The 2016 Honda Civic is slated to go on sale in November.

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