Honda Civic Fans Talk About Their Favorite Generation Of The Popular Car

There have been 11 generations of the Honda Civic. A Reddit user took to the subreddit r/whatcarshouldibuy to ask folks what their favorite generation of the Civic is. The answers will be illuminating, especially for fans of Honda in general or the Civic in particular.

These Are The Most Popular Honda Civic Generations

Nostalgia seems to play a part in people’s preferences, as older generations tended to get higher marks than newer ones. People are remembering the cars they grew up with. There may also be a bit of a backlash to today’s tech-heavy cars, or perhaps a dislike of current styling.

As always, these comments are lightly edited for clarity and grammar

“8th gen my beloved,” said the first person to respond. The eighth generation of the Honda Civic ran from 2005-2011.

“8th Gen is my favorite styling wise. I always prefer latest and greatest though,” another said.

“Sixth gen hatch is where it peaked for me. Had one with 240k miles and that thing just refused to die no matter how bad I treated it,” said another respondent. “The newer ones got too big and the styling is trying way too hard now. Don't even get me started on the CVT in the current models. My dad had a 4th gen wagon back in the day and I still think about those boxy lines sometimes. Something about simple cars just works better.”

The sixth-generation Honda Civic ran from 1995-2000, while the fourth-generation car ran from 1987 to 1991.

Concern about the increasing size of vehicles over the years plays a part in the responses.

“The front seats of the current generation Civic is as big as the 2003-2007 Accord if that tells you how much bigger they've gotten.” one Reddit user said.

One person went way back in the day for the second-gen (1979-1983) cars.

“My mom owned a 2nd gen, coolest car ever. Still not sure how 2 adults and 3 small kids could fit in it,” they said.

Some folks liked more than one more generation: “4th through 6th gen. 3rd gen wagon. Anything newer just ugly to me. Except the newer Type R,” one said. The third-generation Civic was on sale from 1983 to 1987.

“1st gen, 2nd gen, 8th gen, and 9th gen are my personal favorites,” another one said.

The first-generation Civic ran from 1972-1979 and the ninth-generation ran from 2011-2015.

Style, Nostalgia, Size Matter

One thing you’ll notice scanning the Reddit page is that the two most recent generations, the 10th and 11th, don’t get a lot of love. The 11th generation is, of course, the current car, with that generation starting in 2022. The tenth-generation car ran from 2015-2022.

That 10th-gen car ran for a few years longer than most model-generations do, especially models produced by Honda, so there could’ve been a bit of overexposure at play.

Again, it may also be that certain generations resonated with people because people were either children being carted around in those models or were getting them as their first cars once they got old enough to drive. It could, as noted above, be a bit of backlash against the larger size of today’s cars, and/or the fact that today’s cars are so tech-laden. Older cars were a bit simpler to operate.

It’s hard to know without knowing the ages of respondents.

It does make you take notice, however. One would think that today’s cars, with modern styling, better on-road performance, increased fuel-economy, increased safety features, and a whole bunch more comfort and convenience features, would do better, but perhaps not.

Take a look at the whole thing to get a sense of the gamut of opinions when it comes to Honda Civic generations.

Images: Honda

About The Author

Tim Healey is an experienced automotive writer and editor from Chicago. He has covered automotive news at Consumer Guide Automotive, Web2Carz, AutoGuide, and was the managing editor at The Truth About Cars. Tim is a member of the Midwest Automotive Media Association. You can find him on Facebook, X/Twitter, and on LinkedIn.