First drive: 2022 Honda Civic in Canada

If you are a fan of all things revving, you must know that there is a new Honda Civic that debuted earlier this year. While the UAE and wider GCC still hasn’t received the new model, it is all over the place in Canada, where we are chilling this winter. One of our relatives picked up a brand new 2022 Honda Civic Touring model, and we got a quick spin in it.

The new Civic is very slightly bigger than before, although it’s still based on just an updated version of the outgoing chassis. While the last generation was pushing design boundaries like Civics of old, this new one goes conservative again. The dull design can be spruced up by going for the “Touring” trim (also known as the “RS” trim in the Middle East), with cool wheels and bright paintjobs.

The real conversation-starter is the interior. The dashboard design is very unique, with a fixed grille along the width of the interior that hides the a/c vents. Only the vent-adjustment knobs are visible, with no moving flaps showing. Pretty cool.

Good soft-touch materials wrap the upper front doors and dash, with hard plastics on lower areas, as is standard in the compact class. There is nice faux leather upholstery on the seats and doors that don’t appear cheap.

There is slightly more cabin space and slightly less boot space than before, as per the official dimensions. But we can confirm that the back seat is very spacious, and easily among the best.

The cabin tech features are fully up-to-date, with an available 9-inch touchscreen interface (with wireless Apple Carplay, navigation, wifi and satellite radio) now shared with the updated 2021 Accord.

The mildly customisable LCD-screen gauges has unique gimmicks, where the little car graphic even shows indicators and brakelights flashing with your actions.

While the Walmart steering-wheel cover is not standard, active safety features in the Touring include forward collision warning, collision mitigation braking system, blind-spot monitoring and lane departure warning, as well as adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, rear cross traffic alert and traffic jam assist.

Other premium features include an electric parking brake, LED headlights and tails, and a Bose stereo.

Powered by a carryover 180 hp 1.5-litre turbo, it makes peak power at 6000 rpm and 240 Nm of torque at 1700-4500 rpm. It’s not a rocket, but it churns out more than enough juice for the daily grind.

Based on our quick spin, it feels like the new Civic drives the same as the outgoing model. The ride is fairly compliant with 235/40 tyres on 18-inch wheels, possibly a little bit better than before, while the handling is good enough for its place in the Civic hierarchy (below the Si and the Type-R in Canada).

Still trundling along with a CVT automatic and vestigial paddle shifters, it’s not really a nuisance in daily driving due to decent tuning. There are fiddly bits such as driving modes and such, but at least the basics are done right, with well-weighted steering and responsive linear brakes.

The 2022 Honda Civic continues to be a leader in its class. As the sedan segment shrinks, the best ones still keep shining through. The only issue is that Honda is more expensive than its rivals in the UAE, and it remains to be seen how many North American features make it to the Middle East version.

Keep track of UAE/GCC prices and updates in the Honda buyer guide.

Photos by Mashfique Hussain Chowdhury