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Honda Civic Gallery
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| PERFORMANCE RATING: |
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Three engines are on offer, an 83bhp 1.4 and 140bhp 2.0 petrol and a 140bhp 2.2-litre diesel.
We haven't tried the 1.4 petrol, but with a quoted 0-62mph time of 14.6sec, a lack of performance could be an issue. The 1.8, though, pulls reasonably well, posting a 0-62mph time of 8.9secs. This VTEC engine feels most responsive when mated to the six-speed manual gearbox, less so when matched with Honda's i-SHIFT automated manual transmission. Shifts are slow and clumsy, much more so than with a conventional automatic transmission. We don't think the efficiency gains are worth it, either.
Predictably, the star of the range is the 2.2-litre diesel. Here is an engine that develops nearly twice the torque at half the revs (251lb ft at 2,000rpm) of its equally powerful 140bhp 1.8-litre petrol sibling. So performance is flexible, relaxed and gratifyingly punchy in that crucial 2,000-4,000rpm rev range. It's also a refined cruising engine, much more so than its petrol sibling.
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