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2017 Honda Civic Hatchback’s a car of many firsts

You’d be hard pressed to find sitting in the annals of Honda history, a U.K. manufactured Civic that made it onto the showroom floor of U.S. dealerships.
Honda_Civic_Hatchback

Such is the case with the manufactured in Swindon 2017 Civic Hatchback. For me, an “old school” gearhead with more than one English car and motorcycle electrical, mechanical horror story to tell, is the first stumbling block to bounce past on my way to the local Honda shop -- to check out the first European Civic to grace these shores in any large numbers, ever... Hey, I’m sure that 10th generation Civic Hatchback will be stellar, “Bonkers” if you will.

First 5 door Civic hatch in the U.S. since the 1980’s

The last time U.S. Honda fans had access to a 5 door Civic hatchback was way back in 1991. That was the last year Honda imported the minivan-like Civic EX to the U,S., with the next available Civic hatchback to cross the pond in, correct me if I’m wrong, I want to say 91, as a 3 door hatchback Civic Si, with hatchback variants phased out in the U.S. by 06.'

I do like to the Type R of that era, though tough to find with reasonably low miles on the used car market.

First Turbocharged Civic Hatchback in North America

Or anywhere really. According to Honda, 2017 Honda hatchback will be the first (optional) turbocharged gasoline engine, 5 door hatchback. ever produced by the maker -- it’s engine, “made in the U.S.A.. Here’s your Honda history lesson for the day.

“World compact architecture”

2017 Honda Civic hatchback shares manufacturing architecture with Civic sedan, coupe and the venerable near future 10th generation Civic Type R. I’ve spent much seat time in the 2016 Honda Civic turbocharged Touring. It’s impressive! And. if any indication of things to come with Civic hatchback, these are exciting times for Honda hatchback fans.

The promise of manually shifted turbo power
2017_Honda_Civic_Hatchback

Now doesn’t that sound cool! While attending Honda’s San Diego area Civic coupe media event, I experienced a turbocharged 6MT equipped Civic coupe. Honda has promised the availability of a 6-speed, close throw manual transmission “throughout” all future Civic trim levels -- That includes the turbocharged option. I’ll take my hatchback with that drive configuration please!

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Comments

John Goreham    August 9, 2016 - 12:25PM

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I love Honda's progress. I owned the first model year Honda Civic (an Si Hatchback) with a VTECH engine. If I were shopping for a car in that class now I would start with the Civic Turbo.

Chris (not verified)    August 9, 2016 - 2:38PM

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Wish Honda/Acura bring back the RSX/INTEGRA. A great 3door hatchback with Type-R roots!

And it's a v-tec engine. VTECH is a phone company.

Fatbloke (not verified)    August 10, 2016 - 7:56AM

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I saw another car transporter full of five door Civics heading to Southampton yesterday. Really starting to like the look of this car, the wheels look fab.

geolemon (not verified)    August 10, 2016 - 9:45AM

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I'm not understanding the comments about hatches (3 or 5 door) not being available after 1987.
.
My mother (and then I) had the aforementioned 1987 Civic Wagon, although not the nicer EX trim.
They bought it to replace a 1982 Civic Wagon that they loved.
That was not the "last" or even end of that particular model run - that generation of Civic ran from 1987-1991. For 1992 they did a light exterior refresh and replaced the vertical lights that our '87 had with more modern horizontal wrap tail lights, and softened the formerly sharp lines of the sheet metal. Those 'otherwise the same' 5 door Civic hatch / wagon continued on into until 1995.
(1996 was when I bought my 1995 EX coupe, not liking the bulbous lights of the new '96 redesign - which I still own as a supercharged toy today)

5 door Civic hatches were available elsewhere in '96-'00 but not in the USA - at least until the Honda Fit was introduced in '01 - which is basically a Civic wagon. For that matter, although it didn't have a Civic badge, it was probably the truest Civic that existed in '01, at least until the current generation (which still could be argued too large to be nimble).

2000 also marks the last year enthusiasts could really care about the Civic - that generation removed the independent dual-unequal-length A-arm suspension that made the Civic such a great performance platform and replaced it with standard econobox up-down MacPherson struts.

Regardless, during all those years, 3 door hatches were also/always available, and those continued right (without pause) through the '00's here in the USA. '00-'05 if you wanted a hatch you had to get the Si is all.

The new Civic looks good, it's bigger for guys like me who now drive mid-size cars - but without the unequal-length A-arm suspension, I'm still keeping my '95 for autocross duty and will just keep leasing whatever has the best deal out there for my daily drive.

Fatbloke (not verified)    August 11, 2016 - 10:57AM

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Just found some more info-

Orion Highway Vessels left Southampton UK Jul 29, 2016, 20:04 UTC and arrived in Baltimore Aug 08, 2016, 09:04 UTC.