Honda Civic hatch confirmed

HONDA has finally confirmed that it will relaunch the mainstream Civic hatch in Australia.

Likely to be dubbed Civic Euro, the English-built five-door model is due to arrive by next June, joining the Civic sedan and Type R hot-hatch released in Australia during 2006 and 2007 respectively.

Honda Australia’s managing director and CEO, Yasuhide Mizuno made the announcement at the Paris motor show last week, thus ending months of speculation as to when the radically styled European hatch would arrive.

“We will introduce (the Civic hatchback) in Australia, maybe before June next year,” Mr Mizuno revealed.

More details are likely to emerge closer to the release date. An example is expected to be presented at Honda’s stand at the 2009 Melbourne International Motor Show in March.

The long-awaited Civic hatch will follow the facelifted version of the Civic sedan range, which is due in the first quarter of next year.

However, Honda will only bring in up-spec models powered by a 103kW/174Nm 1.8-litre single-overhead cam i-VTEC four-cylinder petrol engine.

Prices are expected to be in high-$20,000/low-$30,000 range, against premium competitors such as the Volkswagen Golf and Peugeot 308.

The current Civic Sport 2.0-litre sedan’s $30,490 opening price serves as an indication to where Honda is most likely to position the Civic hatch.

This is due to the decreasing value of the Australian dollar against most international currencies.

The Civic hatch diesel is not on the shopping list for now, as unfavourable exchange rates and no automatic transmission availability for the time being make it an unsuitable choice for the Australian market.

Instead, Honda is expected to blaze a diesel path in Australia with the diesel version of the Accord Euro sedan (and perhaps wagon) when an automatic transmission version comes on line from about 2010.

Speculation suggests that Honda Australia is also awaiting the revised version of the current Civic hatch, which made a splash at the 2005 Frankfurt Motor Show.

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