THE outgoing Honda Civic was always a car I'd buy with my heart. Yet - as anyone who's ever tried to get into the back of one will testify - it's absolutely not one you can buy with your head.
I had this point proven to me at a Honda dealership last night, when I was invited to play Spot The Difference between the Civic you know and love, and the new model, which goes on sale at the end of the year. I haven't driven the new model yet but after poring over both in nauseatingly boring detail I can tell you Honda has eliminated the old car's biggest problem; that you bang your head if you're getting in the back.
The old car's worst feature, amazingly, is a byproduct of its best; that its styling is such a brilliant aesthetic achievement. In 2006, just as Ford's restyled Focus was losing its Blake's Seven looks, along came Honda with something that looked like it'd been stolen from the set of Bladerunner. Here was, in a field of humdrum hatchbacks, something which looked and felt genuinely radical and edgy. It's just a shame the rear doors had a roofline which cut right across where your head naturally goes as you're getting into the back seats. I don't think I've ever got into one without ending up with a very sorry feeling scalp!
However, Honda's engineers realised this, and set the best boffins at their Minor Injuries Avoidance Department to the task of eliminating it from the new model. There are, if you're thinking of buying a 2012 Civic, many things which count in its favour, but its single biggest advancement is the saving you'll make in packets of frozen peas and Elastoplast. The funding crisis hitting the NHS hard will surely be softened as the queue of Honda Civic rear passengers at Accident and Emergency departments up and down the land disappears as the Honda faithful flock to the new arrival. People who wear hats will no longer fear for their headgear if they're asked to get into the back of a Civic.
Whether the new arrival's as appealing as the old one is something I'll only know once I've driven it, and I've got high hopes for Honda's latest effort. If its handling, performance and refinement are anything like as good as its rear door access, it'll be a hit.
For a car that's retained the original's wedgy shape, the Minor Injuries Avoidance Department have done a cracking job.
