HONDA isn’t standing still in Australia’s hottest new car segment, the small car class. It’s just released the eighth-generation Civic – one of the world’s oldest and most respected nameplates. Sadly, right now we must do without a hatchback, but at least the not-so-small sedan ticks all the right boxes for style, comfort, space efficiency, refinement, choice and – most crucially – value. It did it with Accord and Odyssey, and now it’s Civic’s turn to show its rivals just how serious Honda is about doubling sales here by 2010.

EP Civic GLi sedan
Released: October 2000
Ended: February 2006
Family Tree: CivicHonda may have sold more of the cheaper, less sophisticated and oh-so-conservative Civic sedan, but that was only because it was cheaper than the funkier EU Civic Vi hatchback. Everything about the sedan felt dull – from its 88kW/150Nm 1.7-litre SOHC engine tied to a four-speed auto or five-speed manual gearbox to the very Plain Jane cabin layout. It seems the EP sedan is the last of the dull Civics, and not before time too.
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