New Honda Civic Launching On March 7; Rival Elantra Facelift Coming Too This Year

New Honda Civic Launching On March 7; Rival Elantra Facelift Coming Too This Year

The Civic nameplate will officially be resurrected in India on March 7 while the facelifted version of a key rival, Elantra, will also be launched later this year

Honda Cars India is taking pre-bookings for the new generation Civic across all authorised showrooms present in the country for an initial token of Rs. 31,000. Scheduled for launch on March 7, the executive sedan is making a comeback to the domestic scenes after more than six years of absence.

The Japanese manufacturer endured tremendous success with the Civic nameplate when the eighth generation model was sold between 2006 and 2012. However, due to the lack of diesel engine in the lineup, Honda couldn’t respond to the then increasing trend of customers wanting to own the different fuel.

Resultantly, Honda had to show the exit doors for Civic. The tenth generation Civic will offer a diesel engine for the first time as the 1.6-litre Earth Dreams turbo motor used in the CR-V produces 120 PS and 300 Nm, and is mated to a six-speed manual transmission only with segment-topping claimed mileage of 26.8 kmpl.

2019 honda civic first drive review india gaadiwaadi-7

The 1.8-litre i-VTEC petrol engine, on the other hand, develops 141 PS and 174 Nm, and is mated to a CVT auto with paddle shifters. The 2019 Civic has an appealing exterior while the upscale interior comprises of notable segment first features and technologies. Brought into the country via CKD route, the Civic is locally assembled at Honda’s Greater Noida plant.

It will compete against Toyota Corolla Altis and Skoda Octavia while another key rival in the form of Hyundai Elantra will receive a facelift during the course of this year. It’s not a mere facelift by any means as Hyundai has incorporated several styling changes to foster more enthusiasm as part of evolutionary design push.

2019 Hyundai Elantra Facelift Spotted Testing India

The interior will also get subtle changes like updated infotainment. No mechanical changes are expected as the 2019 Elantra will continue to use its existing engine lineup. With the arrival of Civic and Elantra facelift, the competition in the segment will certainly heat up as the new-gen Corolla and Maruti’s flagship sedan based on the Corolla will likely be introduced next year.