• Just one petrol hybrid engine option
• Stellar fuel economy whether in town or on the motorway
• A plug-in car would be cheaper for the right driver, though

What are the running costs?

We found no need to worry about which version of the Honda Civic will be the cheapest to run as all cars use the exact same powertrain and return identical fuel economy and carbon dioxide emissions.

According to WLTP testing procedures the Civic will return up to 56.5mpg combined. That’s an excellent figure and about on a par with the similarly powerful 2.0-litre variant of the Toyota Corolla. And like that car, it’s a self-charging hybrid which meant we could get the best out of it even if we didn’t have any way to charge a plug-in car at home.

During our time with the Civic, we found around 54mpg easy to achieve in mixed driving, while urban driving with a fairly light right foot saw that figure leap to over 60mpg with ease. Considering the Civic is actually a pretty powerful car this is a seriously impressive figure. Long motorway journeys will usually result in a sub 50mpg rating though.

Combined CO2 emissions of just 113g/km should keep company car fleet managers happy too, though admittedly most would prefer you drive a plug-in hybrid with even lower official CO2 figures – even if you never end up plugging it in.

Over a long stint, our long term tester found the Civic’s MPG would vary greatly depending on his style of driving. Take it away, Keith:

‘You see, the waters become murkier and the mpg differs wildly depending on what kind of driving you do. Around town it’s a real mixed bag. On short drives, say, two miles, I’ve seen mpg as low as 40. While longer drives, say around five miles, produce more like 50mpg, sometimes even more than that. Prolonged stretches of motorway driving results in scores in the low 40s.’

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Servicing and warranty

Honda dealers tend to be small, local businesses with a reputation for good customer service. Not that they particularly need it, as Hondas very rarely go wrong, so you’re unlikely to need to head back to the dealer for any reason but your yearly service.

It’s a shame though that Honda won’t back up this excellent reputation for building sturdy cars with a warranty to match it – like Toyota’s 10-year ‘Relax’ policy. The Civic’s warranty is a comparatively stingy three years or 60,000 miles.

Reliability

• Good reputation for reliability
• No recalls
• We ran one for six months with no faults

Honda has spent years building up an enviable reliability rating, and it seems this Civic may well continue to expand on the Japanese firm’s reputation. So far there have been no recalls to speak of and during our long-term testing, we had nothing negative to report.

No owners reviews have surfaced yet, but the previous generation Civic has an average score of 4.5 stars, which is excellent. Owners appear to be very pleased with their purchases, so we’d hope to see similar levels of customer satisfaction with this model.