2025 Honda Civic is All Class – Will Anyone Buy It?

Civic is, and always was, the sweet spot in Honda’s range, the place you go to when you when you want to rock and and forth, head in hands. It is nanny’s hand on your back telling you you’re naughty but nice. Civic is a great nameplate even among, even in the esteemed company of the delectable S2000, Prelude and Integra Type R.

The last 12 months has seen a deluge of the delicious and the diabolical, and one thing is clear – buyers like the uber-cheap-n-cheerful, or the posh boasty-badged Germans, in droves. Other brands are just a big-ol Eton Mess, but less plateable.

Honda, once in the top-10, sold 14,092 cars and SUVs last year, with only 966 of those being Civics. That’s partly owing to a fickle buyer fixation with SUVs, with passenger cars down further last year, to a miserable 16.66%.

Passenger cars are dying slowly but surely and although the Civic is now an all-hybrid line-up, the hybrid shift may have come too late to save Honda’s remaining passenger cars, Civic and Accord. All-electric Chinese EVs can be had for slightly over half the price of a Civic, and as the market continues to eat its own tail, big names will fall.

Download Brochure & Specifications HERE:25YM Honda Civic Spec Sheet

Let’s talk about Honda Civic

The delightful Civic just had a tiny make-over only a couple of years after its launch. The mini facelift fiddled with the front bumper and lights, and fitted some new wheels. The looks are as handsome, long, and low as ever.

The all-hybrid line-up delivers us an e:Hev L and e:Hev LX, and we tested the e:Hev LX in all its glory.

For $55,900 drive-away, there is no HUD, something standard in 40k cars. The driver’s dials deal the dirt with 10.2” LED screen flanked by some rather awkward LEDs for other data.

A 9” infotainment touch screen has Google built in, but it may as well have been excised.

You see, Google requires data, right? Our car’s data stream was suffering a bad case of brewer’s droop. Apparently, Google also drives on-board systems such as navigation, but sans a decent data connection, we had to use CarPlay instead.

Download Brochure & Specifications HERE:25YM Honda Civic Spec Sheet

Above: This Week’s VIDEO Review –2025 Honda Civic e:HEV REVIEW – Alan Zurvas

#honda, #2025hondaciviceHev, #gaycarboys, #alanzurvas

ABOVE: 2025 Honda Civic is All Class – Will Anyone Buy It?

That leads to the next point;

The iPhone paired in the first instance, if somewhat begrudgingly. After that each start of the car required lots of button pushing to connect it manually, first to Bluetooth, then to CarPlay. Despite icons in the device list being properly addressed, automatic connection remained merely an elusive desire. It drove me potty. Had something had gone horribly wrong? All this usually happens through the inbuilt SIM.

Likewise, the infotainment system steadfastly refused to store personal preferences, presets, and tailored icon configurations even though the changes had been accepted. The system is complex, but it wasn’t just that it was hard to use, it refused to store changes. Imagine having to make manty tens of key strokes time and time again. No honda, it just won’t do, it won’t do at all.

On the bright side, the sound was first class.

Seating is liberally festooned with black leather “appointed” to some of the surfaces, with the rest being matching plastic. Front seats are heated, a nice touch in winter, but as one of our test days was over 40c, the heating was surplus to requirements.

Dual zone AC worked extremely well, with vents secreted behind an attractive facia of honey comb plastic.

The back seats have air vents, but no separate climate zone. Remember, this is a 456k car, so that is just plain rude.

There are 2 USB-C outlets as well as bags of space for legs. Headroom is barely a centimetre for this 6-footer owing to the generous sunroof above. I rarely open sunroofs, and as more of the polar cap slips unceremoniously into the ocean, I’ll be using gratuitous glass openings even less. They cost money, and I’d rather get rid.

The Drive:

Honda suspension, ah – what a peach.

It is sharp, and like the steering, always on-pointe. I adore the genteel way Civic handles those wickedly cobbled city lanes, all calm and elegant. Heavy traffic is also an unflustered affair, and you can focus Civic’s efforts best by saving drive mode preferences with easy steering, but a friskier driveline. There are other modes of course, but , MEH!

Engines are Honda’s raison d’être.

Accord has the same hybrid system as Civic, but is tuned to nippier 152kw/335Nm. Civic seems to have bought tickets in “the gods” by scoring only 135kw/315Nm. Although Civic feels eager, it doesn’t smack you upside the head. Despite this apparent oversight, Civic is wonderfully smooth, putting the “grunt” to the front wheels through an e:CVT.

This is the only time you will ever hear me say thing, but this e:CVT is a magnificently slick piece of genius.

The open highway makes best use of ADAS, with its smart cruise and lane control, blind spot monitor, and other nifty gadgets, taking up the stress of a road trip.

The best point, by a country mile, was the lack of heinous chimes.

Recent road tests have sent us to the local pub’s happy hour, fit to drain the bar. It is simply not acceptable to constantly drag the driver’s attention away from the road with stupid gongs and garish flashing lights. It’s a car, not a 9 YO’s gaming console. Civic lets the driver do their thing, while still keeping a careful eye over their shoulder.

The low-ish power output means the driver has to lean into a corner with extra hoof. Be generous, Civic can take it. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and while Type-R wears that crown with honour, the regular Civic is almost as much fun ( as much as one can have while standing).

I always say I’d love to get a car on a track. When I do, I am usually disappointed by soggy handing amplified through the lense of speed. Civic’s handling may well tend to comfort, but trying to scrape the door handles on bits of Mt Panorama would be an absolute hoot.

The boot is a smidge over 400L, so swallowed the airport run like a kid in a candy shop. Casper, Max, and Luke were off to the Maldives, so only togs needed stowing. Judging by Luke’s togs, he could have carted his entire wardrobe in a matchbox. Obviously the Maldives has a sealed section.

“The boys” reported Civic to be a comfy carry, but none wanted 4-up on a long trip.

Conclusion:

Despite Honda’s recent engagement to Nissan, the marriage comes late. Nissan’s reduced circumstances and Honda’s reduced range are ringing alarms bells with this jaded old darling’s ears. I haven’t received an invitation to the nuptials, but I wish them both the best and hope the union is fruitful.

Civic is a fabulous car, but its uncooperative Google system stuck a dagger in my neck. Think about what an infotainment system does now: Phone, navigation, messages, directions, question answering and vehicle settings, and to be without half of it is folly. Civic could have been “fabulous” with 5 big, blousy, “F’s”, but alas.

Accord’s power, and a 10 grand price drop, would see Civic right. As it is, I fear the clowder of climate catastrophes, a mélange of new-fangled models, and a Titanically-sinking political situation, will see off all but the pluckiest of nomenclatures. Will this be the last Civic ever?

Price: $55,900