We sent Jim Starling out to review the 2022 Honda Civic e:HEV Automatic. Let's just say, he was blown away. Find out what he had to say about all the impressive features this stunning hybrid has to offer as he takes it out for a spin around the New Forest.
We love this car, but what do you think?
The key specs are at the end of the video so don't forget to check those out.
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© Men and Motors - One Media iP 2023
We love this car, but what do you think?
The key specs are at the end of the video so don't forget to check those out.
------------------
Enjoyed this video? Don't forget to LIKE and SHARE the video and get involved with our community by leaving a COMMENT below the video!
Check out what else our channel has to offer and don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to Men & Motors for more classic car and motorbike content! Why not? It is free after all!
Our website: http://menandmotors.com/
----- Social Media -----
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/menandmotors/
Instagram: @menandmotorstv
Twitter: @menandmotorstv
If you have any questions, e-mail us at talk@menandmotors.com
© Men and Motors - One Media iP 2023
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 Hello folks and welcome to Men and Motors.
00:04 This is the Honda Civic 2.0-litre advanced hybrid petrol two-wheel drive beast.
00:12 That's it, I said beast.
00:13 It's the 11th generation Civic, can you believe it?
00:16 And for me, it's by far the best looking one they've ever produced.
00:20 I know aesthetics of cars is a very subjective thing, but in my eyes, they've never produced
00:27 a better looking Civic than this one.
00:30 Just look at it.
00:31 We've got these gorgeous adaptive headlights, adaptive headlights are standard on every
00:35 of these new Civics.
00:37 And just the lines, I think it's a stunning piece of design.
00:41 And as I said, the best we've seen, not only on a Civic, but I think from Honda in quite
00:47 some time.
00:48 This new Civic starts at about £36,500.
00:51 The one we're looking at here is closer to £40,000.
00:55 This is in advanced trim.
00:56 There are actually only two trim levels, sport and advanced.
01:00 This one's also got this £975 optional crystal blue metallic paint, which I think is my paint
01:08 colour of the year.
01:09 I think it looks epic.
01:11 Not normally a fan of blue cars, but this one, I just want to take off my clothes and
01:16 bathe in it.
01:17 Look at it.
01:19 So jumping into the front of this Honda Civic, it looks just as good in here as it does on
01:24 the outside.
01:25 And if you choose to go for the advanced model over the sport trim level, you'll get benefit
01:30 from things like premium leather, electric seats.
01:34 Very nice indeed.
01:35 You get a Bose sound system, an upgraded 10.2-inch colour display and a heated steering wheel.
01:44 Very premium feel in here, by the way.
01:46 The build quality is exceptional.
01:48 You feel like you'll get into this car in 10 years time and it won't have a single rattle
01:53 or squeak about it.
01:55 Really nice materials have been used throughout.
01:57 You've got this epic looking honeycomb vent that goes along the front with little joysticks
02:02 to control the blowers.
02:03 That's a really nice solution to what's otherwise a bit of a boring feature in a lot of cars.
02:09 Physical knobs and dials for the air conditioning controls and for the stereo, which is a great
02:14 win for all of us.
02:15 And although we've got a little bit of piano black up here, it's somewhere you're not going
02:18 to come into contact very often.
02:20 What we have down here is a carbon fibre effect material that actually feels really sturdy,
02:26 doesn't particularly pick up dust or fingerprints.
02:29 Great.
02:30 One thing I would have preferred is a little gear selector rather than these buttons, which
02:35 we've seen in some Hondas over the years.
02:37 To be fair, you get used to it in about four seconds, but I'm a bit of an old-fashioned
02:42 girl in that respect.
02:44 Down the front here, we've got a wireless charging pad in this car.
02:47 We've got two USB A's and we've got a 12-volt charging socket.
02:52 We've got two cup holders here, got your drive mode selector and a little storage cubby.
02:58 All very nice.
02:59 Moving on to the steering wheel, it's a lovely thing.
03:03 Very, very chunky, which for a man with childlike hands like myself, you might feel challenging,
03:09 but it's actually really comfortable.
03:11 Really good, crisp colour driver information display that's got all the information you
03:16 need and really nothing that you don't.
03:19 All customisable as well.
03:22 The infotainment system itself is a huge leap forward from what you would have found in
03:27 the previous generation of Civic.
03:29 The Honda system itself is perfectly good, very usable, but of course, we've also got
03:34 wireless Apple CarPlay and wired Android Auto available.
03:38 So the number of you that actually use the Honda system, I would imagine, will be relatively
03:43 few.
03:44 Again, in this advanced model, we get this that you don't get in Sport.
03:49 It's a huge panoramic sunroof that lets in tons of light.
03:54 You can probably barely see my very large, fat face now, but it really gives you some
04:00 kind of idea of how much light that lets into the car and especially into the rear of the
04:04 cabin.
04:05 Let's have a look there now.
04:06 So with that roof cover pulled back, in the back of the car here, it feels really bright
04:11 and airy for your rear seat passengers.
04:14 Much more so than you would expect normally in this kind of hatchback/coupe kind of car.
04:21 Loads of legroom as well.
04:22 That's in my normal driver's position.
04:24 I'm about 5'9" and a bit, and you can see absolutely no issues there.
04:29 Nice big seat pocket there.
04:31 And look at that, room for your feet, which is becoming more and more of a rarity, I can
04:35 tell you folks.
04:37 Headroom's not so good.
04:39 So obviously having that sunroom eats into it a little bit, but even in the standard
04:43 Civic in the Sport model without that sunroof, rear headroom is still a bit tight.
04:48 I would say anyone over 6'0" might struggle a bit.
04:52 Now the middle seat is actually usable.
04:54 That again is a little bit of a rarity.
04:56 You wouldn't want to do long trips in it as a 6'2" adult, but it is usable.
05:02 There is a small transmission tunnel there, but there's, as I said, plenty of footroom
05:05 either side, so shouldn't encroach too much on the other passengers.
05:10 Then you've got this massively pillowy, comfortable centre armrest with two cup holders in.
05:15 This is about the most comfortable armrest I think I've ever experienced in a car.
05:21 It's like a trampoline.
05:22 Oh, I love it.
05:26 Again materials in here are very good quality.
05:28 You've got nice metal pull handles for the doors.
05:30 You've again got that sort of carbon-like material on the door trims here.
05:35 We've got two USB-A sockets down there and two vents.
05:39 I think it's fair to say that your rear passengers, particularly those that are vertically challenged,
05:45 are going to love riding in the back of this car.
05:48 When it comes to boot space, 404 litres might not sound like much, but in actual fact, it's
05:53 one of the most practical boots you're ever going to use because look at the shape of
05:57 it.
05:58 There's no overhang.
05:59 You can just lift huge items in and out with absolute ease.
06:04 And it's got one of the best parcel shelf solutions on the market.
06:07 Check this out.
06:11 How easy is that?
06:12 I don't think I've seen a better solution than that.
06:16 It's just so easy to use, very convenient.
06:19 You don't have to store it away anywhere.
06:22 It's brilliant.
06:23 Now the car's got a 0-62 time of 8.1 seconds.
06:27 Very respectable MPG figures of 56.5 WLTP.
06:33 How realistic are they?
06:35 We'll find out in a moment when I tell you exactly that.
06:38 It's got a two-litre petrol engine combined with the hybrid technology and that produces
06:43 184 PS of power.
06:46 So as good as this car looks from the outside, it's when you get behind the wheel that it
06:51 really comes into its own.
06:52 This is a superb car to drive.
06:55 Now it might not sound like the most exciting thing, a two-litre petrol hybrid with an e-CVT.
07:03 Let's talk more about that e-CVT for a second.
07:05 A lot of people think it's a CVT gearbox.
07:08 It's not.
07:10 What it is, is basically the petrol engine is acting as a generator for the batteries
07:14 in the car and the batteries are powering the wheels.
07:18 So it's a slightly different setup to what you would normally find in a Honda with a
07:24 CVT gearbox.
07:26 Now they call it an e-CVT because it has some of the characteristics of a CVT.
07:31 There's actually no gearbox in there whatsoever.
07:34 It's a direct drive.
07:36 But if you floor it, now you would normally get a bit of that CVT whine, but what they
07:42 do in this car is synthesise normal kind of gear change noises.
07:48 It's brilliant.
07:49 Normally, I hate sort of fake engine sounds.
07:53 It just works brilliant in this.
07:54 It feels like a normal automatic gearbox.
07:57 In fact, I'd challenge anyone who got into this car and didn't have a clue what kind
08:01 of drivetrain was involved to actually point out that it is what it is.
08:06 Or even for someone to say it's a CVT.
08:09 It just doesn't feel like it at all.
08:11 Honda's producing lots of cars with this e-CVT setup at the moment, but none of them
08:16 nails it like the Civic does.
08:18 It just works so well.
08:20 It always feels like you're in the sweet spot of the torque curve.
08:24 You've got all the power you need when you want it, sort of at will.
08:28 At no point does it feel laggy.
08:30 At no point does it feel sort of cumbersome in any way.
08:34 It's a really nice, positive driving experience.
08:36 You know, the 0-62 times, nothing extravagant, but it certainly feels like a quick enough
08:42 car for most people.
08:44 I've got no doubt that the Civic Type R will be coming to men and motors soon enough.
08:49 If you don't need that sort of extreme performance, really, this will suit most people down to
08:56 the ground.
08:57 It's massively frugal.
08:58 You know, you get real-world MPG in this car over 50, which is astounding considering
09:04 the fact that it's fun, it's practical, it looks nice, it drives really well.
09:11 That kind of MPG usually comes with some kind of compromise, and in this car, I don't feel
09:16 like it has a compromise.
09:19 It's a lot more fun than I'd like to be driving a diesel figure in a petrol car.
09:24 It's great.
09:25 So, I've waxed lyrical about the drivetrain and the MPG, but really, the star of the show
09:31 is the handling.
09:33 The chassis is exquisite.
09:35 It's obviously been designed with that Type R in mind, and honestly, I've never been in
09:41 a car that just feels so well-balanced.
09:44 It's great.
09:46 You can throw it into corners.
09:48 It doesn't have an overly firm ride.
09:51 It's firmer than you would get on some cars, but it's not going to knock your feelings
09:55 out.
09:56 We're not talking about BMW with run-flat tyres here.
10:00 It's on the sporty side of comfortable.
10:04 But in the same respect, you'll get out of this car after doing 200 miles on the motorway,
10:10 and you'll be feeling fairly refreshed.
10:12 Also, thanks to the fact that in this top-spec model, we've got electric seats with electrically
10:18 controlled lumbar support, and it's very good.
10:21 A lot of cars miss out lumbar support, and for anyone with anything remotely approaching
10:26 a back issue, it's a very important thing that shouldn't be overlooked.
10:30 Some lumbar supports in some cars are also a bit weak.
10:33 This one's not.
10:34 It's good.
10:35 Now, I spent some time with the Civic last year over on my channel, and I told anyone
10:41 that would listen that it was my car of the year for 2022, and it raised a few eyebrows,
10:46 not least mine, because I didn't expect it to be anywhere near as good as it is.
10:52 It's really rare to find a car that's interesting to look at, drives phenomenally well, gives
10:58 decent performance, and still returns decent MPG.
11:02 It also comes fully loaded with all the toys anyone could ever really want, and it's just
11:10 such an easy car to live with.
11:12 Now, you might think that this is all a little bit over the top, and you might think that
11:16 I'm one of those car reviewers that loves every car they get into, and I'm really not.
11:22 I hope my reviews are about as honest as you'll ever find.
11:26 We don't rely on advertising revenue from any car manufacturers to go about our daily business.
11:34 So, this is my honest opinion.
11:36 This is a brilliant car.
11:38 If you're looking for a petrol, even a diesel, or a hybrid car, you're trying to get out
11:44 of the mid-size hatchback, or perhaps even the small, compact executive cars like the
11:51 Audi A4, or the BMW 1 Series, or those kind of cars, just come and try Civic.
11:58 It might not be the sexiest thing on earth compared to your nice, shiny BMW, Audi, or
12:04 Mercedes badge, but I tell you what, it's a much better car than you'll find at similar
12:09 price point from any of those brands.
12:11 I've already mentioned the chassis, but driving around the roads of the New Forest here, it
12:16 just feels like it was made for this kind of stuff.
12:21 Very odd for a front-wheel drive car with no gearbox, and a hybrid powertrain to excite
12:28 you driving through the twisties, but it's just a lovely thing.
12:35 So what do you think of the new Honda Civic?
12:38 Let us know in the comments.
12:40 Let us know what you think of this lovely blue paint, by the way.
12:43 Please give the video a thumbs up.
12:45 Please subscribe to the channel.
12:47 If you haven't come across the Men and Motors channel before, there's tons of archive footage
12:51 on this channel, but more importantly, you've got loads of great new content coming to the
12:56 channel from people like myself, and Tom Shorrock, and others.
13:01 So please, join in the party, subscribe to Men and Motors.
13:04 Now I'm sure you're going to be seeing the new Civic Type R on Men and Motors before
13:08 too long, but in the meantime, quench your thirst with that over there.
13:13 Go and click on it.
13:14 It's Richard Hammond driving the 2001 Civic Type R. Some classic Men and Motors footage.
13:21 Enjoy.
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