THE CIVIC was actually better than its eighth-overall rank suggests. Kinda. Despite a strong showing in five of the six dynamics tests, with top-six results in the brake, circle and slalom tests, among others, a poor result in the high-speed lane change dragged its score down. And quite rightly, we might add – sure-footed high-speed dynamics are an absolutely vital part of a vehicle’s crash-avoidance skill set.

Interestingly, and going against the popular perception that smaller cars are more agile, the Honda managed an entry speed of just 105km/h into the lane-change exercise – just 3 and 4km/h better than Territory and RAV4 respectively – before its rear end started doing the pendulum thing. Every vehicle you could expect might beat it here, did, with the exception of the Corolla. This result was at odds with the Honda’s solid performance in the slalom (sixth), demonstrating that swerve and recover ability is speed-dependent.



The Civic’s reversing vision was poor for a small car – our ‘average-height two-year-old’ was obscured at any closer than 5.43 metres from the rear bumper, which placed the Honda ninth. Incredibly, its result here even put it behind the much larger Territory and Commodore.

Despite the 1240kg Civic VTi being lumped with an auto-backed 1.8, it put its 103kW/174Nm to excellent use in the overtaking discipline, ranking a credible sixth, beaten only by the sixes and the 2.0-litre Lancer and Mazda 3.



Similarly, the hot-lap test favoured the more powerful cars, but here the Honda’s blend of capable dynamics (below 100km/h, at least) and moderate straight-line acceleration saw it rank fifth ahead of Commodore and Territory and trailing only the Corolla, Focus, Mazda 3
and the hard-charging V6 Aurion.