Skip to main content

2016 Honda Civic review

Still as pragmatic as ever, Honda's 2016 Civic piles on the creature comforts

2016 Honda Civic
Jeff Zurschmeide/Digital Trends
2016 Honda Civic
MSRP $18,640.00
“In terms of value for your money, there’s no better choice on the market.”
Pros
  • Larger inside
  • Peppy 1.5-liter turbo engine available
  • Good looking
  • Loaded with tech
  • Great value for the money
Cons
  • A 6-speed manual option with the Turbo engine would be nice
  • No hot rod Si or Type R model yet

“Why you can trust Digital Trends – We have a 20-year history of testing, reviewing, and rating products, services and apps to help you make a sound buying decision. Find out more about how we test and score products.“

Through ten generations, the Civic has been the car of choice for singles, young families, and empty nesters alike. Honda has been refining the Civic since 1972, well before most of this year’s Civic buyers were born.

Recommended Videos

Today, the Honda Civic is the fourth best-selling car in America, and the second in its class of compact cars. The only vehicles ahead of the Civic are the top-selling mid-size Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, and the top-selling compact Toyota Corolla. Honda moved 335,384 Civics in 2015, up 2.9% from 2014 levels. That kind of sales performance doesn’t happen by accident.

What makes the Civic so popular now, and what has made it popular for decades? Simply put, it’s value for the price. The Honda Civic has always delivered reliable and affordable transportation that is fun to drive and reasonably comfortable. If you want, there’s usually been a sporty version as well, with some models of the Civic ranking among the most popular sports cars of their era.

Today’s Civic

The Civic was completely redesigned for 2016, though most of the basic parameters stayed the same – the Civic will always be a compact, front-wheel-drive, economy car, available as a four-door sedan and two-door coupe. A hatchback version is on the books for 2017. Honda isn’t going to mess with success too much.

One change Honda did make is that the new generation Civic is larger than previous models, both inside and out. The 2016 Civic is 2.9 inches longer and 1.8 inches wider than the outgoing model. The new Civic’s interior dimensions are almost as big as the mid-size Accord. Headroom, legroom, shoulder and hip measurements are all within an inch or two of the bigger sibling. That gives the affordable Civic an advantage with buyers who are looking for a more spacious ride without the commensurate price hike.

Honda also updated the 2016 sedan bodywork to be more aggressive, with sportback four-door coupe styling reminiscent of an Audi A5. The coupe styling echoes the previous generation, but with a bit more panache than the plain-jane cars of the last 10 years. The goal was to give the Civic some of the attitude that it’s been missing, and where competitors like the Kia Forte, Hyundai Elantra, and Ford Focus have grabbed the initiative.

Engine and transmission options

The 2016 Civic is available with two engines – a normally-aspirated 2.0-liter four-cylinder good for 158 horsepower and 138 pound-feet of torque, or a turbocharged and direct-injected 1.5-liter VTEC engine rated at 174 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque. The two-liter engine is available only on the two most basic trim levels, LX and EX. The higher EX-T, EX-L, and Touring models get the turbocharged engine, which is well-suited to the car and gives plenty of power where you need it.

Honda has been refining the Civic since 1972, well before most of this year’s Civic buyers were born.

The transmission story is mixed. Only on the most basic LX trim can you get a 6-speed manual transmission. All other Civics use some variation of continuously variable transmission. The lower trim levels get the basic M-CVT, while the higher trims with the turbo engines get the newer LL-CVT as used in the Accord. The LL-CVT gives the best driving experience of any CVT on the market, avoiding the high-revving, rubber-band-driven feeling endemic with other CVTs. But it would still be nice to have the option of a 6-speed manual transmission with the 1.5-liter turbo engine.

Sadly, it seems the days of the Honda Civic Si sports car may be gone for good, but observant performance fans will note that Honda has a 2.0-liter version of the turbo direct-injected VTEC engine that puts out 306 horsepower in the Type R currently available in a few world markets. Hopefully that car will make it to America in 2017.

Before we close the book on engine and drivetrain, let’s note that the Civic with manual transmission gets 27 mpg city and 40 mpg highway, and that bumps up to 31/41 with the M-CVT. The turbo cars get 31 mpg city and 42 mpg highway with the LL-CVT. All 2016 Civic models run on regular gasoline.

As a side note, the Civic Hybrid still exists, but it’s the last-generation 2015 model.

Technology and safety

Honda has a pretty good technology story, but you’re going to want to visit the dealer and check out the Civic’s 7-inch touchscreen interface to see if it meets your needs. This is a somewhat polarizing feature, as it lacks any knobs at all. When I first got into the Civic, I went to turn up the radio and inadvertently set the heat to 88 degrees. Volume control is an area on the left of the screen, or (much more conveniently) on the steering wheel controls.

The Civic supports both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, which are great features. You also get HondaLink smartphone integration, which comes with its own app for your phone. As you would expect, you also get Bluetooth and a USB port.

2016 Honda Civic
Jeff Zurschmeide/Digital Trends
Jeff Zurschmeide/Digital Trends

On the safety side, anything and everything the modern world has to offer is available on the Civic, but you might have to buy the top trim level to get it. The lane departure warning and lane-keeping assist, for example, is optional on all trims except the top Touring level, where it is standard.  It’s the same with the adaptive cruise control with low-speed following, the road departure mitigation system, and the forward collision warning and automatic collision mitigation braking system. All are standard with the Touring trim and optional on lower trims.

The exception is the Honda LaneWatch feature, which uses a camera on the right side mirror to put a picture of your right-hand blind spot on the display screen whenever the right turn signal is activated. This turns out to be a really excellent feature, and it’s standard on all trims above the most basic LX level. Once you get used to it, you’ll wonder why all cars from all manufacturers don’t have this feature. All 2016 Civic models get a standard multi-angle rearview camera, which is super useful.

Price and options

You can get into the 2016 Honda Civic LX for $19,475, inclusive of all fees, if you can drive a stick. The CVT will cost you an extra thousand dollars, so if you’re on a budget, it’s time to learn to pick your own gears. At the top of the line, the Touring edition costs $27,335. The other eight trim levels (with and without options) are in between, obviously, but they’re all over $20,000 and five of them are over $23,000.

With that in mind, there’s very little reason not to buy the Touring edition and get all the good stuff. You’ll enjoy navigation, all that safety gear, a better interior, heated front and rear seats, the top engine, a 450-watt stereo, and all the best goodies.

On the road

I had the Civic Sedan in the Touring trim for a week. That means I had the 1.5-liter turbo engine with the advanced CVT and all the goodies. On the road, the Civic is pleasant, with no bad manners and peppy performance. The car corners flat and rides smooth.

But having owned several Civics over the years, going back to a 1975 Civic wagon in college, the 2016 model seems to lack some of the eager impudence that made prior generations so great. Or maybe I’m the one who has lost the eager impudence, because there’s absolutely nothing in the 2016 Civic that I can point to and complain about. I certainly don’t miss the thumb-wrenching torque steer of my old ’75 wagon, nor the “I think I can, I think I can” passing technique of my old 1990 hatchback.

The final analysis on the 2016 Civic is that this car has everything it should have to attract today’s buyer. This car has respectable performance, adequate comfort, up-to-date tech, world-class safety, and we can expect it will have Honda reliability and longevity. With all that, there’s every reason to expect that the 2016 Honda Civic will stay at the top of the sales charts, and will probably take back the top spot.

Jeff Zurschmeide
Jeff Zurschmeide is a freelance writer from Portland, Oregon. Jeff covers new cars, motor sports, and technical topics for a…
The week in EV tech: From sky-high dreams to ground-level drama
tesla robotaxi feud alef in transition flight

Welcome to Digital Trends’ weekly recap of the revolutionary technology powering, connecting, and now driving next-gen electric vehicles. 
Buckle up, folks — this week we’re taking off with a look at the futuristic dream of flying electric cars possibly gliding above U.S. roads sooner than you think. But before we get carried away, let’s bring it back down to the bumpy road of present-day realities.
Even if you’re mostly interested about the tech powering the electric vehicle (EV) revolution, it’s become increasingly hard to avoid the politics around it: You guessed it, we’re talking about this week’s public feud between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump.
What does this have to do with EV tech? Well, quite a lot actually. For starters, the technology behind Tesla’s Autopilot and Full-Self Driving (FSD) modes may return in the crosshairs of regulators: Despite the names, these are still driver-assist features that require active driver supervision, and until Trump’s election, they had been under heavy scrutiny by safety regulators for several years.
Last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration  (NHTSA) launched an investigation into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with FSD. Big questions remain about the driver-assist system's performance under adverse, yet naturally-occurring conditions such as fog, sun glare, rain, and snow.
When Musk, who spent about $275 million to help elect Trump, was appointed to head a newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), it raised more than a few eyebrows about his power and influence over the regulators who are supposed to oversee traffic safety, and therefore Tesla.
It didn’t help that the Trump administration followed Musk’s recommendations and relaxed crash-reporting requirements put in place since 2021, while also relaxing rules to accelerate the deployment of fully-automated robotaxis.
The Trump/Musk clash takes place just as Tesla is due to launch its robotaxi pilot progam in Texas later this month. While Trump is now threatening to pull billions of dollars in government subsidies and contracts from Musk’s companies, it’s unclear whether he might pressure the Department of Transportation to again tighten the regulatory screws on Tesla. What is clear is that Trump has never been a fan of electric vehicles and is already trying to end federal subsidies on EV purchases and leases. And while he had made a big deal about buying a bright red Tesla Model S back in March, Trump now says he wants to sell it.
Back to the tech
Meanwhile, Tesla is still required to respond to information and data requests from NHTSA regarding the safety of its robotaxis by July 1. And ultimately, it should come down to the performance of the technology.
For Autopilot and FSD, Tesla has opted for less expensive navigational tech relying on multiple onboard cameras that feed AI machine-learning models. But especially for so-called adverse driving conditions, it’s the more expensive technology relying on a blend of pre-mapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar (a laser-light radar) which has received the nod of regulators.
Waymo, the sole robotaxi service currently operating in the U.S., and Zoox, Amazon’s upcoming robotaxi service, both use that blend of navigational tech.
For its robotaxis, Tesla is said to have upped its game in terms of autonomous driving with its Hardware 4 (HW4) technology, which does include radar sensors and promises enhanced environmental perception.
Will that be enough for Tesla to convince regulators, catch up with Waymo, or compete effectively with Zoox?
We’ll have to wait and see.
Flying cars
In a recent edition, we noted that while consumer confidence about robotaxi technology is on the rise, most people also want more data before they hop into a self-driving vehicle.
What about flying taxis? According to a recent survey by Honeywell, nearly all U.S. airline fliers, or 98%, said they would consider using a so-called electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle, or eVTOL, as part of their travel journey.
But while the buzz around flying electric vehicles has mostly focused on air taxis— like Archer Aviation’s Midnight, expected to fly athletes around the 2028 LA Olympics, or Joby’s slick air taxi, backed by Toyota — one California startup is shooting for something a little more... driveable.
Meet Alef Aeronautics, a Bay Area company that wants to put the “car” back in “flying car.” This week, Alef announced it has received over 3,400 pre-orders for its electric flying vehicle, the Model A — and get this: it’s not a futuristic prototype gathering dust in a lab. Alef says production could begin by the end of 2025, or early next year.
On the ground, the Model A operates like a low-speed electric car, complete with hub motors in the wheels and—wait for it—a real steering wheel. You can legally drive it at up to 25 mph on public roads, parking it in a normal garage like any other EV. It’s refreshingly manual in an increasingly hands-free world.
But when it's time for lift off, the steering wheel takes a backseat. For vertical takeoff and flight, the Model A transforms into a drone-like aircraft. Its cabin rotates sideways to create lift, and eight electric rotors—controlled by a flight system and joysticks—take over. No pedals, no yoke, just a bit of joystick magic (or autopilot, if you prefer).
The Model A has already received the nod from regulators for test flights.
While the $300,000 price tag won’t fit everyone’s budget, the company is clearly betting on a future where you don’t have to choose between a car and a flying machine—you can have both.

Read more
8 key things you need to know from Apple’s WWDC 2025 event
From a fresh look and updated names, to new features, more intelligence and live translation
iOS 26, iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 shown on devices.

The WWDC 2025 keynote ran for just over an hour and a half. For those of you who don't fancy sitting through the whole presentation, we've pulled out the key things you need to know from the latest Apple event.

1. Welcome to the 26 club

Read more
Tesla’s robotaxi service is almost here, but it’s not the car you want to see
Silver Tesla Model Y Juniper side

Tesla chief Elon Musk has said that the automaker is aiming to launch its robotaxi service on June 22, in Austin, Texas.

“Tentatively, June 22,” Musk said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding: “We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift.”

Read more