Honda Civic EX Sport Line

To be honest, I really quite like driving the Civic, any Civic really, so when the invite came through to drive the new EX Sport Line I jumped at the opportunity, even if it was a 3-1/2 hour drive to Maidenhead.

So, what makes the EX Sport Line different to other models? I’m not sure if it’s obvious, but there’s a certain Type R style about it. Of course, I’m being a tad facetious, the EX Sport Line certainly looks assertive with its Type R inspired body kit, and there’s more additions on the inside, but we’ll get to those later.

ON THE ROAD I had plenty of time to ponder this during the interminable 5-hour drive back to Muddy Towers.

It was quite a miserable day, hence the reason I’m using Honda’s stock photos, and with my esteemed motoring writer colleague John, from the Star and Express, we took the Obsidian Blue Metallic Sport Line for a good 3-hour mooch around Reading, Maidenhead and Ascot.

The route included a lot of town and city centre driving, narrow single track lanes and pretty much everything in between.

Throughout the drive the Civic was just too subtle for its own good. It was good, obviously, but whilst John and I were tootling along, chatting about this and that, and putting the world to rights, there didn't seem to be any occasions that the car made us sit up and take notice.

foot down on an open stretch of road found us nodding to each other in mutual admiration. What I’m saying is, probably quite badly, is that the Sport Line did everything is should, with ease.

Switching the adaptive dampers from hard to soft made a noticeable difference, though for the majority of our drive we left them on standard as it was a good balance between comfort and hooligan.

The steering is as pleasurable around town as it was on a winding country roads, lightweight without being feeling too flimsy.

The 6-speed manual gearbox was also a joy, and would be my pick. The CVT auto wasn’t bad either, it has its place but I think the Civic suits the manual better.

Fuel wise, Honda reckon you should achieve between 42.2mpg to 47.1mpg on the WLTP cycle, however we saw figures around the mid thirties, but as I said, there was a lot of city driving involved.

INTERIOR Not only is it a lovely place to be, with decent visibility ’n’ all, but it now has an actual volume knob, a chunky one at that!

Although we didn’t fiddle with the infotainment system that much, it remains centred around a touchscreen, but there’s now a line of shortcut buttons down the side to make life easier for the driver, and the climate controls are more straightforward to operate, too.

New to the Sport Line is red stitching detail on the seats, steering wheel, gear shift boot and door panels, whilst the drilled aluminium pedals add an element of sportiness.

Of course there’s the Honda CONNECT infotainment system as standard which incorporates DAB radio, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and a reversing camera.

My only complaint was that there’s a rather jagged piece of plastic on the centre console right where my left knee rests, which got a painful after a while. Though Muddy Madam reckons it’s my own fault and I shouldn’t ‘man-splay’ as much!

As ever, quality is excellent with all knobs and switchgear to hand, though the steering wheel can take some time to get used to due to the amount of switches it houses, though it isn’t as bad as a Subaru.

A quick look in the boot and the Civic flaunts one of the biggest boots in this class, and the same can be said for its rear seats, though I didn’t have the opportunity to test them properly.

CONCLUSION The Civic remains practical, fun to drive and well built, and even though we’re a 4x4 magazine, I’d sill like to get my hands on one for a week.

According to the PR team, the Sport Line has been developed to deliver a compelling blend of sporty appeal, value, and efficiency, and I think they’ve got it spot-on.

Price - £25,510 (EX Sport Line)