While the majority of automakers where begrudgingly fitting exhaust catalysts to their vehicles in order to meet the nation's tightening emissions standards, Honda quietly went to work and found a better way. Displacing cc and producing 53 horsepower, the CVCC Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion engine featured a head and fuel-delivery design for cleaner and more complete combustion that met the new standards without the need for a catalytic converter and while still running on leaded gasoline.
A new five-speed manual transmission and wagon body style came onboard as well, and the Civic was ranked number one on the U. It was worth the effort, as sales of the Civic topped , units.
To finish out the decade, Honda bestowed upon the Civic some subtle exterior styling tweaks including a blacked-out grille and new hood vents for The add-on turn signals remained, but their PepBoys look was toned-down dramatically by moving them to under the bumper. By the time the second-generation Civic debuted in , Honda had surpassed its status as a niche automaker.
With a wheelbase of Both available engines, a hp 1. Base models got a four-speed manual transmission, while DX trims got the five-cog unit; the two-speed automatic returned as an option.
In , a Civic Wagon was also added. To celebrate the final year of second-gen Civic production in , Honda dumped the GL trim and replaced it with the Civic S model. In , Arnold was still the Terminator, mullets and neon hues were considered cutting-edge fashion, and MTV continued its quest to make radio irrelevant.
To celebrate, Honda released an all-new Civic. Available in hatch, sedan, and wagon body styles, the wheelbase grew by five inches, with the sedan and wagon now sharing a wheelbase with the Accord and Prelude. The 1. This is the era the popular D-series engine was introduced. Sadly, the independent rear suspension was ditched during the makeover for one with a more compact design.
In , the wagon would be offered with four-wheel drive. In , Honda began building Civics Stateside at its facility in central Ohio. An Si hatchback was also offered; we've covered the history of the Civic Si model elsewhere on the site. The fourth-generation Civic debuted in sporting a new engine family, airier greenhouses, and a softer shape almost completely devoid of the creases that defined the previous two generations. The DX hatchback and sedan as well as the new LX sedan and wagon received the new fuel-injected, horsepower, 1.
Those looking for a little Si action could order the four-wheel-drive Civic wagon, which came equipped with the same hp valve four-holer that motivated the CRX Si.
In addition to a slight increase in wheelbase the hatch now measuring Okay then. For the record, the Civic made it back to the 10Best list for In , the fourth-gen Civic finished its run virtually unchanged.
Packing more trim and engine options than ever, the fifth-generation Civic approached the model's 20th anniversary with a hint of order-sheet price creep that its earlier offerings so efficiently avoided. The CX got a hp 1. The Civic coupe debuted in as did the Civic-badged Del Sol. Sharing its The EX coupe, however, upped the ante in terms of optional amenities, adding a one-check package that included a passenger airbag and a higher-output stereo.
Safety features led the way for model year, with the Civic receiving a passenger-side front airbag across the lineup.
LX buyers received cruise control, inch wheels—even in , the DX was still rolling on inchers—and power windows, locks, and mirrors. The movie featured a scene where a group of fifth-generation Civics attempt a heist on a semi truck.
Like the rest of the film, this scene is totally over the top, as the black Civics had giant fiberglass bodykits, green aftermarket underbody lighting, and exhaust sound dubbed over the actual filming to heighten the action.
Redesigned for the model year, the Civic continued its growth pattern, as overall length increased from two to four inches depending on the model. Hatchbacks now had the A fully revised 1.
To help fill the hole left by the departure of efficiency-focused VX hatch, Honda added an HX trim to the coupe lineup. Powered by a revised 1. Later, Honda would make a continuously variable automatic transmission available as an option on the HX. Interior map lights and an exterior handle were the main updates for the hatchback.
The Civic Si also reappeared at this time but only as a coupe. Although it debuted three years earlier in Japan, the U. A high-revving VTEC dual-overhead-cam 1. That's a lot for its size, but more impressively it could rev as high as rpm. It was a raw performer, one that's still a blast to drive today, even against its modern counterpart.
It could scream to 60 mph in just 7. For reference, the Acura NSX achieved a blistering The sixth-generation Civic Si coupe would only last two model years, making it a growingly valuable Honda to still own today. To answer your question, yes, you should've kept yours. By the time the redesigned seventh-generation Civic debuted for the model year, the world had changed dramatically. The Civic rode into the new millennium with fresh styling and a new suspension on a Shifting was handled via a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic; the CVT returned for the natural-gas GX and as an option on the efficiency-focused HX.
In , Honda only offered its Si model as a hatchback. The third-gen Civic was offered in a ton of variants, though not all were available in every world market. With the fourth-gen Civic, Honda turned its eyes to refinement and sophistication. This got us the double-wishbone front suspension along with an independent rear setup.
The former stubbornly survived for several more generations, only to be replaced by struts; the latter is still with us, as is another fourth-gen first: VTEC. This generation also birthed the SiR, and we all know how that's going. Ah, yes. Take your favorite s design, whittle it out of soap, and let the water run over it for a few hours. Boom, ready! The introduction of the fifth-gen Civic marked the end of the Shuttle Wagon variant sold overseas. While this generation may not have offered a ton of outwardly obvious advancements, it remains an enthusiast favorite, even though the vaunted Si model was offered here for only a couple of years.
The HX the nameplate reserved for the Civic's fuel-efficient variants was also the first to be equipped with a CVT. The sixth-gen Civic was another example of a largely evolutionary replacement.
Stylistic updates were limited and relatively subtle, but there were some noteworthy bits. The Si returned, mercifully, and this was also the first Civic offered with a natural-gas engine option. This was a bit of a weird one. Adding a bit more sophistication and hardening some of the Civic's softer edges, the seventh-gen car looked like a big step forward on paper. On the enthusiast side of things, especially here in the United States, things were a bit murkier.
This was the era of the EP3 Civic Si hatchback, which was probably best known for being a worse version of the then not U. This was the first generation of the Civic to be offered in a hybrid variant as well. And this was the correction. The eighth-gen Civic tossed out all of the understated elegance of the previous car and replaced it with a spaceship on wheels.
Fortunately, this spaceship was quicker, as the Si returned to form figuratively more than literally, depending on who you ask; some Si fans are hatch purists with a nice power bump.
This was also when overseas and U. The legacy of this split has had trickle-down ramifications that can still be seen today, as the Hatchback model of the outgoing Civic was still manufactured in England. The ninth-gen Civic was yet another swing of the pendulum. The styling became more muted though the shape remained effectively the same and the Si got a bigger engine, albeit without a correspondingly significant bump in power.
Rather than deliberate the matter further through a subsequent series of meetings and discussions, the project team was given relative autonomy. Suzuki himself took the lead in encouraging the project members. During that time the team worked diligently in pursuit of the absolute value they had defined. While the achievement of quality was certainly admirable from the perspective of engineering and design, they knew the car would have to succeed with the customer out in the marketplace.
It was a message that they could not forget. In reality, the program imposed no legal obligations on the maker or customer. In fact, many people there doubted whether a car with such a shape could find a home in the market. Later, when the Civic was unveiled to the sales staff, Yoshihide Munekuni, then general manager of the Kagoshima sales office, raised his hand with a question. Referring to the phrase "three-door," he asked seriously, "So, on which side is the third door located? The members of the development team, who were there to explain the car, immediately burst into laughter.
The "trapezoidal" style, however, was the only way to achieve a real-world expression of the hatchback concept. The novel styling of the first-generation Civic, which was a trapezoidal shape from every angle, was the result of considerable daring on the part of its designers. As a result of these efforts, the trapezoidal profile that was once so alien to the public gradually became familiar.
The design soon won overwhelming industry support, particularly among automotive experts and journalists who were familiar with foreign models. By the date of its official release, everyone was convinced the Civic would sell. The line-off ceremony for the first-generation Civic in July raised the expectations of every Honda associate. The Civic hit the market after only two years of development, which was at the time an industry record.
Honda released its two-door model in July and the three-door GL in September. Kume took me out for a drink to celebrate the launch. We began talking with a waitress there, and Mr. Because all expensive cars have tails trunk. The Crown has the longest tail, and the second is the Corona.
The Publica has a very short one. But the Civic has no tail, right? That trend improved, however, with the release of the three-door GL. The Civic was also honored with the Japan Car of the Year Award in , , and , becoming the first ever to win three years in a row.
In Canada, the Civic remained the number-one import car in volume for 28 consecutive months from through An attributive factor in that response was a new development system that had been introduced by Kawashima.
For instance, the development of a new model would be classified under D-development, where the process was essentially performed by combining current technologies. On the other hand, the creation of a significant new technology would be implemented as R-research. This allowed Honda to develop its CVCC engine quickly, and thus meet with regulatory compliance ahead of any other company.
Honda had also established a system of evaluation meetings enabling project members and top management to share their opinions on engineering issues.
These meetings dramatically enhanced the quality and accuracy of development tasks, and in the process shortened the development cycle. The U. Along with a shift from leaded to unleaded gasoline, carmakers began designing models with fuel systems that did not accommodate leaded gasoline.
Unfortunately, the oil crisis of cut supply of unleaded gasoline to the U. New models having catalytic converters could only use unleaded gasoline, since the lead present in conventional fuel would react with the materials in the converter, causing dangerous heat buildup. In other words, the car could run on either type of gasoline. Looking at the six generations of Civics marking the 27th anniversary of the Civic , we can easily discern the presence of a unique and original concept.
With each succeeding model year, the concept has been preserved and refined. In fact, each generation of the Civic has expressed its underlying philosophy in a different way, thanks to an impressive series of designs and technologies.
For example, the third-generation "Wonder" Civic was popular for its revolutionary design, notably an extended roof. The fourth-generation "Grand" Civic adopted a high-output VTEC engine that incorporated a natural intake mechanism derived from F-1 racing. The sixth-generation "Miracle" Civic adopted a CVT transmission system designed to absorb shock during gear shifts, thus providing smoother operation across the rev range.
Over the years, Civic has earned a total of six Japan Car of the Year Awards three consecutive years with the first generation and one each with the third, fifth and sixth generations. The car also was honored by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in recognition of its innovative technology. Using the expression of some, the Civic has served as a "trend-setting car.
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