We’ve spent 5 weeks and 1,000 miles with our 2022 Honda Civic EX (11th gen) and that is enough time to share our initial impressions of Honda’s next generation Civic platform.

We bought this white EX sight unseen before it even came off the truck. You have to act fast to get a new car right now! First thought when you see the car from the outside is that it has a more mature look compared to the 10th gen. The lines are less aggressive and there are fewer of them. Honda really tamed down the looks to appeal to what we feel is a much broader audience. That being said, it's not a bad looking car. We saw all the hate the car got upon its announcement a few months back (baby Accord, etc.), but the look is really not bad. It doesn’t jump out at you like the CivicX but you get a car that looks like it costs more than it does.

LED headlights and taillights are standard all around. Honda sensing is also now 100% standard on all new Honda cars moving forward. While this can be annoying on the track, from a daily driver and safety aspect this is a decision we support 100%. Honda Sensing is the Honda’s suite of driver assist and technology. Including but not limited to 

• Collision Mitigation Braking System

• Road Departure Mitigation System

• Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) with Low-Speed Follow

• Lane Keeping Assist System 

Basically a bunch of features to help keep us safe and focused on the road.

Making our way under the hood, (which is our favorite part) you see what looks pretty similar to the previous generation. Both an NA 2.0l and Turbo 1.5l options are available. We of course opted for the GDI turbo engine so we can continue to push this little 1.5l engine to the limits. It still uses Earth Dreams technology: DOHC with cam phasing, a tiny intercooler and intake manifold, etc. While under the hood it looks similar, it has actually changed quite a lot. This engine is much more like the Accord 1.5T But we will save that for another blog.

Making our way towards the back we find a very good sized trunk which gave us plenty of room for our bags and filming equipment. The exhaust is totally boring and needs an aftermarket upgrade ASAP as the tone just won’t cut it. 

Driving impressions are solid. The car is responsive and easy to drive. It doesn’t fight back and it doesn't want to kill you. The CVT is very uninspiring and not our choice for a test car but at the time of writing of this blog, no manual was available to the public yet. 

Our team has product development well under way for this new generation of Honda. We have already put on a bunch of parts to see if anything we already sell will bolt on. One does and you can see it in the images above. Most of the others do not.  

Stay tuned for all the fun 11th gen stuff we got coming.

-Vincent