The Honda Civic has been the ubiquitous Japanese hatchback. And it’s time to get the party poopers out as the Civic is now 50 years old!
The Civic has been quite a significant car for Honda as back in the day the Japanese carmaker had to establish a foothold in the four wheeler market which was booming at the time. Having established itself as a leading motorcycle brand, Honda entered the car market in 1963 but got true success in 1973 with, you guessed it, the Civic.
And so it doesn’t come as a surprise that since then the Civic has been one of the main stars of the hatchback market with more than 27.5 million sold across 170 countries since its launch in 1972.
The succeeding generations of the Civic have been able to take forward the original’s success and, most recently, the 10th generation Civic won ‘Middle East Car of the Year 2017’ in the ‘Best Compact Sedan’ segment.
Entering its sixth decade of production, the Civic is still setting the standards with the Type R version of the latest 11th gen car setting the lap record for a front-wheel drive car at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan. The latest gen Civic has also won the ‘North American Car of the Year’ award at the start of this year. From 1972 to 2022, the Civic has been and looks set to be the ultimate hatchback.
