New generation Honda Civic has continued to beat its rivalling trio in its second month as 369 units were sold in April 2019
Honda commenced pre-orders for the new generation Civic in February and it officially entered the domestic market on March 7. Within two weeks of its launch, Honda stated to have received more than 1,600 bookings for the executive sedan. After a hiatus of more than six years, Honda showcased the tenth-gen Civic at the 2018 Auto Expo alongside the CR-V.
While the CR-V went on sale in October 2018, Honda took a little longer to introduce the new Civic and its initial response has been nothing short of brilliance. The major part of Civic’s bookings is for the 1.8-litre i-VTEC petrol engine producing 141 PS and 174 Nm and is mated to a CVT automatic transmission with sequential paddle shifters.
This has been the first time the Civic is being sold with a diesel powertrain as its absence led to the discontinuation of the nameplate in 2012. The Civic is positioned in such a way to attract owners of the City wanting an upgrade and as expected it decimated the competition in its very first month as 2,291 units were sold in March 2019.
| Model | No. Of Units |
| Honda Civic | 369 |
| Skoda Octavia | 227 |
| Toyota Corolla | 177 |
| Hyundai Elantra | 85 |
The Civic occupied more than 80 per cent of the segment’s sales while all of its rivals combined could only manage just over a quarter of its total. In April 2019, the Civic did top the charts in its D-segment again as 369 units were retailed ahead of Skoda Octavia, Toyota Corolla and Hyundai Elantra.
With 227 units, the Octavia endured 27 per cent YoY fall while the Toyota Corolla’s numbers declined by 33 per cent compared to the same month last year. The Elantra was the most affected as only 85 units were dispatched in April 2019 at a de-growth of 43 per cent. It can be argued that the Civic did eat into the sales of its rivalling trio.
The 1.6-litre four-cylinder Earth Dreams diesel that can also be found in the CR-V kicks out 120 PS and 300 Nm and is connected to a six-speed manual transmission only with class-leading fuel economy of 26.8 kmpl. The Civic is priced from Rs. 17.70 lakh (ex-showroom) and comes with a lot of segment-first technologies.