Honda Civic 1.6 i-DTEC 2018 review

We’d be stretching the truth ever so slightly if we said the Civic diesel was an exciting car to drive. But then again, an oil-burning family hatchback is never going to be the sort of car to set your heart racing.

That’s not to say the Civic isn’t an impressively capable car, mind. While it’s not particularly quick - it dispatches the 0-62mph dash in a leisurely 10.5 seconds - where it scores big points is in the ride department.

You get the sense that there’s very little that will upset the Civic. Its suspension copes well over rough and uneven surfaces - even the mottled Roman roads of our test route didn’t make it flinch - absorbing jolts with little fuss, and never managing to feel anything other than planted and stable. Its adaptive dampers limit vertical travel well, and even set to their sportiest setting, the Civic feels calm and collected. Quite why a diesel Civic needs adaptive dampers is another question entirely.

It steers well, too, even if there is little in the way of feedback from the electromechanically assisted variable-ratio rack-and-pinion steering - although that’s the norm these days, isn’t it? It doesn’t roll a particularly noticeable amount through the bends, and sudden changes in direction don’t upset the Civic’s balance too significantly either. We’d like to say that it grips well, too, but the roads of our Italian test route didn’t provide much in the way of sharp bends.

It did have an abundance of faster, gentler stretches of Tarmac, though, which revealed the Civic’s excellent refinement at cruising speeds. The 1.6-litre i-DTEC is quiet, and happily sits at motorway speeds. It does lack some in-gear shove, though, but this is solved by working the six-speed manual gearbox, which is precise in its action and has a pleasingly short throw.

The interior isn’t the last word in luxury, with abundant plastics throughout, but you can’t fault it as far as ergonomics are concerned. The Honda Connect infotainment system is a fly in the otherwise perfectly acceptable ointment, owing to the fact that it’s not particularly responsive, and lags behind the competition as far as its graphics are concerned. Thankfully, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto go some way to remedying this.

Diesel isn’t exactly flavour of the month at present, owing to increased government taxation and an apparent policy of misinformation surrounding its environmental credentials. Still, Honda expects diesel models to account for 31% of all UK Civic sales, so it wouldn’t seem that all hope is lost.

There’s a lot to like about the Civic diesel, too. It’s comfortable, drives well and is a refined long-distance tourer. Our £24,925 top-spec EX model came with plenty of standard kit and, next to similarly equipped rivals such as the Ford Focus and Seat Leon, is expected to hold significantly more of its value.

However, the case is the same for its petrol-powered rangemates, which we’d opt for in a heartbeat. Not only are they cheaper to buy, they perform better, yet still won’t leave you wincing at the fuel pump.