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June 4, 2010
  2010 Honda Civic Sport. Click image to enlarge |
The sleek profile of the Civic Sedan makes it look low and sporty, and you might think there isn’t much headroom, but the Civic’s roof is taller than it looks (1435 mm/56.4 in.) and four adults will fit comfortably in the Civic sedan, even though the moonroof eats up some headroom. The Civic’s raised centre rear seat makes it uncomfortable for a fifth occupant, though. As well, while rear legroom is sufficient, footroom under the front seats is shallow.
The seats in the Sport model are covered in a unique and attractive black velour/black-and-white cloth combination with white stitching, and the same soft velour covers the head restraints and armrests. It looks great, but this kind of velour attracts lint and dust, so regular vacuuming will be required.
The front seats are comfortable but there’s a bulge in the lower lumbar area of the seatback which presses into the lower back – this may be an attempt to make up for the lack of a lumbar adjustment, but not everybody needs that much lower back support. The driver’s seat is height adjustable, and with the leather-wrapped tilting and telescoping steering wheel, most drivers will find a comfortable position. Unfortunately, heated front seats are not available in the Sport model.
  2010 Honda Civic Sport. Click image to enlarge |
The Civic’s split instrument design is odd, but the large white-on-blue speedometer display just below the base of the windscreen is easy to read, and the illuminated speedometer behind the steering wheel is also in clear view. Beside the tachometer is a transmission gear indicator and odometer, but there’s no average fuel consumption readout. Unlike other vehicles in its class, the Civic doesn’t offer a Bluetooth hands-free phone system.
The centre instrument panel protrudes rudely into the cabin so that the radio and heater are easy to reach, but I find the dash a tad imposing. I still hanker for the last generation Civic’s vertical heater dial arrangement next to the steering wheel.
The standard 160-watt stereo with AM/FM/CD/MP3 with four speakers is the same stereo in the DX model and it proved adequate in sound quality for this small sedan. It includes an auxiliary input and USB connector for music devices.
The shift lever for the automatic transmission has a big, grippy shift knob and is easy to reach but it would have made more sense to put the shift lever to the left of the handbrake lever instead of on the right, in my opinion.
   2010 Honda Civic Sport. Click image to enlarge |
For cabin storage there are two small open bins to the left of the steering wheel, and two centre bins ahead of the shift lever with a 12 volt power outlet and auxiliary jack. Directly behind that are an open coin bin, the shift lever, and two cupholders with spring-loaded cup grippers and a sliding cover. Under the padded armrest between the front seats is a storage bin with a USB connector inside. Additional storage can be found in the front and rear door pockets, and front passenger seatback map pocket.
As our test car had the automatic transmission, placing full coffee cups behind the shift lever wasn’t a problem, but it would have been if the car had a manual transmission. Two more cupholders are found in the folding rear armrest.
The Civic Sport includes split folding seatbacks released from inside the trunk which can be opened remotely with the keyless entry device. The trunk is roomy for a compact car (340 litres/12.0 cu. ft.) and fully lined, but its U-shaped hinges intrude on trunk space.
Like all Civic sedans, the Sport has two front airbags, two seat-mounted side airbags, and roof-mounted curtain airbags for both rows of seats, five three point seatbelts with pretensioners, front active head restraints, rear child door locks, and rear upper tethers and lower anchors for child seats.
Positioned between the base Civic DX and uplevel EX-L trims, the Civic Sport sedan is better equipped than the DX and looks sportier, but it has the same powertrain and suspension, so performance is comparable.
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