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| Photos by Ulysses Ang |
The Honda Civic is in a very peculiar situation. Next to its other stable mates: City, Jazz, and Accord, it’s quite pedestrian in every sense of the word. Designed during the 2008 economic downturn, Honda banked that buyers would opt for a simple compact sedan with solid but unremarkable virtues: spacious, frugal, and reliable. Instead, all of its competitors moved in a completely different direction, offering cars with features a class or two higher. The initial supply problems (Thai floods) didn’t help things either. And though the Civic is still selling pretty well, it’s not anymore as lauded as its predecessor (at least for critics). Knowing very well that the compact segment is shrinking and the battle getting all the more competitive, Honda rushed in to refresh the Civic this year. The question is: is it enough?
