Witness the extreme over-styling that is the Honda Civic
The Honda Civic started with humble beginnings, but has since become a hot hatch monstrosity! The latest Civic models, both standard and Type R, are full of styling gimmicks and plastic trickery. This change in direction has split opinions on whether the Civic has never looked cooler or if this is a move in the wrong direction…
If you’re not exactly sure what we’re talking about, here is a small tour of all the race inspired cosmetic enhancements that can be found on Honda’s latest Civic. Although the image below is of a Type R, you’ll find that a lot of the RICE styling features are also found on the standard models as well.
Starting with the back, you can see the ridiculous (but somewhat awesome) spoiler which is comprised of 3 separate parts, only found on the Type R. It’s functional at high speeds and it looks cool, no real complaints here, apart from the fact that there are two spoilers. Even the ordinary Civic models can come with a dual spoiler set-up, with the large Fast and Furious spoiler being replaced with a smaller one.
On the rear bumper, you can see what is possibly the biggest offence of all, fake air vents. But not only are they fake, they’re also on the back of the car, which is a rather peculiar place to put an air vent. These eyesores are found on all the new Civic models, with there being two variants of the fake vents which can be seen below.
On the back of the roof, you can see that the shark fin antenna is accompanied by a series of bumps and what can only be described as a pair of cat ears encompassing them. Apparently put there to improve airflow, if you can believe that. These “air flow” features are only found on the Type R and are less extreme on the standard versions, thankfully.
Just below the “faux” vents, you can see a “faux” carbon fibre lip running across the back which is thankfully, only on the Civic Type R and not on the other models. Also found on the Type R are some crazy wheel arches, some more air vents on the side and a side skirt.
On the side of the car you can see that the rear window comes to a neat point towards the rear of the car. This is thanks to a useless triangular piece of plastic which, once seen, cannot be unseen. Not exactly RICE, but still irritating to us nitpickers.
Moving to the front of the Civic, we’re met with more offending fake air vents, but at least they’re on the front this time, where air would actually enter the car. If they were real. But alas, this time they’re not completely fake because there is a small hole in the plastic where air actually can pass through!
To finish off our grand tour of fakery, let’s end on a high note, or rather, a dull note. That dull note being the noise coming from the exhaust. Unfortunately international regulations had to be met, resulting in a rather underwhelming sound being produced by the car. However, that didn’t stop Honda from giving the Civic a twin tip exhaust, and the Type R a triple tip exhaust, just so you’ll be even more disappointed when you rev the engine only to hear what sounds like a Toyota Aygo. There are some Civic variants that feature a downswept exhaust, which looks much more civil.
Car design used to consist of considering the lines of the body, the beauty of the lights and the shape of the grille. Nowadays it’s like car designers browse eBay for inspiration of what they can tack onto the car to make it look cool. Sometimes, less is more.
It’s almost like Honda have fully realised that the humble old Civic has gained a reputation for being a young modder’s car. Rather than fight it, Honda has just fully embraced it and done all the RICE-ing for them.
Let us know what you think on the matter!
For more articles like this, receive our weekly e-newsletter, including partner deals and all things motoring, register your email below.
Please note: You cannot subscribe to Smart-Motoring unless you put a tick in the checkbox below to indicate have read and agreed to our privacy policy.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.