What’s it like?
Few nameplates or model lines are as well-known in the car business as the Honda Civic, which has been going continuously across since it first appeared in 1972. Many generations of the Civic make for excellent second-hand buys, given Honda’s enviable reputation for reliability, but this buying guide focuses on the Mk10 version which appeared in 2015 – and which was eventually replaced, in 2021.
It’s an array of the usual suspects that the Mk10 Civic competes against – things like the Volkswagen Golf, Skoda Octavia, Kia Ceed, Nissan Pulsar, Subaru Impreza, Opel Astra, Ford Focus, Peugeot 308, SEAT Leon and Renault Megane, among more – but the Honda has all the right tools to tempt in used buyers.
Which model to go for?
Production of this Civic began in 2015, but it didn’t arrive on Irish shores until early 2017 – so a bit of a delay. It was sold here with two body styles, the first being the more obvious five-door hatchback, that then joined a year later by a four-door saloon which went under the American nomenclature of ‘Civic Sedan’.
All models of the Civic were front-wheel drive, and gearboxes here can be broadly broken down into either a six-speed manual, used by the majority of used cars on the market today, or a continuously variable transmission (CVT) as the automatic option.
There were three main powertrains for the regular Civic range, and then a fourth for the outrageous, range-topping Type R model. Starting with the former trio, the petrol options were the 1.0-litre, three-cylinder VTEC Turbo, with 129hp and 200Nm, which could do 0-100km/h in 10.9 seconds, and then the 1.5-litre, four-cylinder VTEC Turbo, which upped outputs to 182hp and 240Nm, and accordingly trimmed the 0-100km/h sprint to 8.2 seconds.
It didn’t arrive at quite the same time, but Honda soon introduced a diesel to the line-up which was called the i-DTEC. It used a turbocharged four-cylinder unit with 120hp and 300Nm, recording 0-100km/h in 9.8 seconds, and at the time Honda could claim the Civic i-DTEC had a fuel efficiency rating of 3.5 litres/100km (80.7mpg) – although those numbers were gleaned under the last of the older NEDC tests. On the more modern WLTP scheme, the diesel’s economy would be more realistically in the 60-65mpg zone, which is still excellent.
All three of these powertrains were offered in both the hatchback and the Civic Sedan, but the final powertrain option was a monster 320hp 2.0-litre VTEC Turbo petrol engine for the Type R, which was only ever sold as the hatch. This could punt the hot Honda from 0-100km/h in 5.8 seconds, but the Mk10-based Civic Type R is not a common find on Ireland’s second-hand market.
That’s a shame, because it’s one of the best high-performance hatchbacks ever to have made production, but luckily the regular Honda Civics are all good to drive and you won’t go far wrong with any of them – apart from us offering one caveat here about the 1.0 VTEC Turbo, which is that there is an issue with the wet-belt timing to consider (see below).
Does anything go wrong?
Mainly, it’s electric gremlins, squealing brakes, and – on the diesel models – issues with the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) valve and diesel particulate filter (DPF) to watch for with the Civic Mk10, but the biggie relates to the 1.0-litre VTEC Turbo petrol engine and its ‘wet’ timing belt. So if you want the three-cylinder Civic, you need to make sure the belt-replacement work has been done at least once if the car has covered up to 100,000km. If not, walk away and look at another variant if needs be.
Honda issued seven recalls for this generation of car, which pertained to low tightening torque on the wheel nuts; a defective moulding in the fuel-pump impeller, leading to cracking; the possibility of the fuel-pump impeller swelling and ceasing operation, due to incorrect resin density; a build-up of sulphur in the catalyst caused by the ECU’s programming during repeated acceleration and deceleration; a missing side vent in the front-seat backrest, preventing deployment of the side airbag; valve material causing the ABS to malfunction; and a plastic filter breaking into the vehicle stability assist (VSA) modulator.