2018 Honda Civic Buying Guide | Sedan questions answered

The Honda Civic traces its ancestry all the way back to 1972 and earned a lasting reputation as a fuel-efficient, reliable and affordable car during an era of rising fuel prices in the United States. It remains one of the top-selling cars even as trucks and utility vehicles threaten to eclipse the entire market.

As you'd expect of a nameplate of its age, the Civic has consisted of many iterations. While its styling for years tended toward the unremarkable, Honda gave the Civic a fastback-inspired makeover for the 10th and current generation, starting with the 2016 model year, with a more aggressive, chrome-wing face, long wheelbase, boomerang-shaped taillights and plenty of sheet metal creases.

The 2018 Honda Civic in five trim levels: LX, EX, EX-T, EX-L and Touring, with manual transmissions an option on the LX and EX-T models. You can also buy coupe and hatchback body styles, plus the high-performance Si and Type R versions, but we'll focus this buyer's guide on the four-door sedan.

Our buyer's guide aims to help you make an educated decision about whether to buy the 2018 Honda Civic. We'll touch on safety and reliability ratings, engine specs, horsepower, fuel-economy ratings and pricing, and we'll conclude with a summary of Autoblog's most recent test-drive review of the Civic.

What are the Honda Civic safety ratings?

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gives the 2018 Civic its top rating of five stars for overall rating, side-crash and rollover-crash protection. It gets four of five stars for frontal crashes.

Over at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which conducts its own crash tests, the 2018 Civic earns "good" ratings for crashworthiness across the board, plus a "superior" rating for front crash avoidance and mitigation, with optional equipment. IIHS gives the Civic a "poor" rating for headlights, one of the organization's newest areas of scrutiny, and an "acceptable" rating for ease of use of its child-seat LATCH anchors.

Visit the NHTSA and IIHS websites to review ratings on the specific vehicle you're researching, since ratings may differ for Civics from other model years.

Is the Honda Civic reliable?

J.D. Power has not reviewed the Honda Civic going back at least as far as the 2009 model.

NHTSA has reported no recalls of the 2018 Honda Civic.

Find a 2018 Honda Civic Sedan for sale near you.

How much interior and cargo room does the Honda Civic have?

Headroom is greatest in the LX model, which doesn't feature a sunroof, freeing up 39.3 inches in front and 37.1 inches in the rear. All other trims, with sunroofs, measure up at 37.5 inches in front and 36.8 inches in back. All models offer 42.3 inches of legroom in the front seats and 37.4 inches in back.

Trunk volume is 15.1 cubic feet in all models save for the Touring, which offers 14.7 cubic feet.

What are the Honda Civic engine specs and horsepower?

Honda equips the LX and EX models with a 2.0-liter inline-four-cylinder engine that makes 158 horsepower and 138 pound-feet of torque. On higher trim levels, it comes with a 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, which boosts output to 174 hp and 162 lb-ft of torque.

How fuel efficient is the 2018 Honda Civic?

The most fuel-efficient models are those with the 1.5-liter turbo-four engines mated to an automatic transmission. They return 32 miles per gallon in the city, 42 mpg on the highway and 36 mpg combined.

The standard 2.0-liter also delivers respectable numbers, topping out at 31 mpg in the city, 40 mpg on the highway and a combined 34 mpg.

Manual-transmission versions top out at 29 mpg city, 38 mpg highway and 33 mpg combined.

How much does the Honda Civic cost?

Opting for the entry-level 2018 Honda Civic LX will set you back $19,835, including the $895 destination fee, while the top-of-the-line Touring model climbs from $27,695, including destination.

Use Autoblog's Smart Car Buying program powered by TrueCar to search out competitive local pricing and savings on the 2018 Honda Civic.



Autoblog Honda Civic review

Autoblog's most recent review of the Civic was for the 2016 model year, when the current 10th generation launched, featuring a new powertrain lineup, exterior styling and other upgrades to the car's refinement and ride.

In his review, Seyth Miersma praised the car's engine lineup, quiet interior and refinement. "Aggressive targets and excellent engineering have wrought a Civic that should be one of the best cars in the segment to drive and live with," he wrote. "Just as it was with the Civics that built the reputation, this is a car worth giving a damn about."

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