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Business News/ Companies / Honda surprises with unveiling of Civic at New York show
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Honda surprises with unveiling of Civic at New York show

The revamped Civic, slated to go on sale this fall, will come in sedan, coupe and 5-door hatchback versions

Honda decided to go with a more aggressive and sporty design to stand out on a crowded market for small cars. Photo: ReutersPremium
Honda decided to go with a more aggressive and sporty design to stand out on a crowded market for small cars. Photo: Reuters

New York: Honda Motor Co. unexpectedly showed a Civic coupe concept at the New York International Auto Show as the auto maker seeks to boost sales with a sporty update of the popular small car.

The revamped Civic, slated to go on sale this fall, will come in sedan, coupe and 5-door hatchback versions, said John Mendel, executive vice president of Honda’s US sales unit. The Civic, the company’s second-best-selling car in the US, has been losing its edge among younger customers.

“I don’t think we were as sporty in this last generation as we once were," Mendel said. “I still think we have a strong focus on performance and dynamics across our lineup. But what the market is telling us is, particularly millennials and gen Y, is that they want dynamics. They want sporty."

Even as fuel prices fall, the Civic is vital to Honda because of its sales and profitability and because it’s an entry point for many of the Tokyo-based auto maker’s customers. Honda’s US design team led development because Americans have bought half of the 20 million Civics that Honda has sold globally.

Honda sold 325,981 Civics in the US last year, a drop of 3% from 2013. Among the company’s cars, only the mid-sized Accord sold more. The two models are the best-selling cars to buyers under 35 during the past 11 years, Honda said, citing IHS Automotive data.

‘More expressive’

The Civic concept shows Honda is trying to bring life back to one of its most important cars, said Eric Noble, president of the CarLab, a consulting firm in Orange, California. The current Civic was too conservative and lost its way with younger buyers, he said in a telephone interview.

For the redesigned Civic, “the styling is much more expressive," Noble said. “Design had a much bigger role in this car than any other previous generation Civic."

The auto maker decided to go with a more aggressive and sporty design to stand out on a crowded market for small cars.

“It’s a dramatic departure from where we are," Mendel said in an interview. “Everyone else has been upping the ante. We can up the ante, too."

Honda will put its new VTEC turbo engine in the revamped Civic, Mendel said.

The company wouldn’t release more details about the redesigned car, which will be built in Alliston, Ontario, and Greensburg, Indiana. Bloomberg

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Published: 02 Apr 2015, 09:07 AM IST
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