Should you buy one?

Yes. If you’re in the market for a new family hatchback, the Civic should be at the top of your shopping list. Though we sadly don’t think it’ll tempt many motorists out of their SUVs, it’s good enough to and it certainly gives Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf buyers something to think about.

The Civic’s small model range might be seen as a negative by some, and it’s true that this is a fairly premium car with no basic entry-level model. But apart from that, we don’t think the lack of choice is a problem at all because instead of having to choose a compromise one way or the other out of a vast list of different engines, you can have the best of all worlds with a hybrid powertrain that’s powerful, good to drive and almost ludicrously efficient into the bargain.

Even the base model Civic has lots of equipment but for a small bump in price we’d opt for at least mid-level Sport – though the Advance does seem very tempting particularly with its sunroof that brightens up the interior.

If you want a plug-in car, an SUV or a bargain-basement people-mover, the Civic won’t be for you. But for everyone else, we think it’s an absolutely cracking car.

What we like

The Civic catapults itself to the top of the hatchback class for driving dynamics. To get better handling than this in a family car, you’d need to opt for a performance-focused sub-variant like a Ford Focus ST. The interior is sensible and ergonomic and it’s superbly comfortable.

What we don’t like

Headroom in the rear could be better, it’d be nice to have USB-C ports, the safety tech can be a tad intrusive and we’d like a way to lock on regenerative braking.

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