Cars I hate a little bit less than the amount I usually hate them: Honda Civic Sport Hatchback in Sonic Gray

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 04/27/2017 at 15:10 • Filed to: None

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The Honda Civic hatchback is a car I have mixed feelings about .  It’s a nicely-equipped, roomy, affordable, comfortable, fuel-efficient, versatile little hauler with an above-average 1.5 liter turbo motor. These are all good things. But it’s also fugly. Why’d you have to make it so bad-looking, Honda?

The problem with the Civic hatchback’s styling is it takes an already awkward-looking car in the Civic sedan, and compresses it into a shorter overall length. All the weird styling elements like the windows with chrome trim along their top but not bottom edge, get smushed to look a little bit worse.

Seriously, I hate the chrome window trim on all of the body styles of this generation of Civic. It’s crap. It’s extra terrible on the hatchback because unlike the sedan which has real C-pillar quarter windows, the hatchback has stupid fake black plastic C-pillar quarter “windows” that aren’t windows at all.

Also, the hatchback has gaping not-vents in its bumpers that try to look sporty which totally don’t go with the small base wheels and tall tires. Those are most definitely not sporty-looking.

The only thing positive I can say about the hatchback’s styling is it’s not quite as awkward as the coupe.

Fuck that window trim, and fuck this green color, in particular.

I also kinda hate that the Civic Si with its slightly uprated horsepower, stiffer suspension, bigger brakes, and lovely-lovely close ratio manual transmission with an honest-to-god helical gearset LSD are not available on the hatchback. Yes yes, I know the hatchback is made in England and the Si is unique to America and only made in American factories that aren’t set up to build the hatch, but still. Honda went out of its way to make not one but two Sport trims on the hatch but you only get the actual good sporty stuff on the sedan and coupe. Or the Type-R hatch, of course.

But the other day, I happened to see a Sonic Gray Civic Sport hatchback. All Civic hatchbacks have blacked out grilles but the Sport replaces all the chrome trim, adds some tacked-on looking black lower body spoilers, and bigger wheels that at least flow with the styling while also making the brakes look tiny. Fog lights get added to the lower corners of the front bumper to visually break up the ridiculously large wannabe-Lamborghini not-vents.

I definitely noticed it, because it’s an almost non-metallic looking gray, kinda like the original Audi TT, and overall it made the styling more...something.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say it looks good, but it at least looks less bad. So that’s something, I guess.

wkiernan > Textured Soy Protein 04/27/2017 at 15:20

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That damn thing is so ugly it’s painful. Clutter clutter clutter. All those black mesh vents and fake-vents are the worst part.

I’m sure it’s superbly engineered and terrifically reliable. You can even get one with a manual transmission! This is exactly the kind of car I really like. But my problem is, the only way I could live with a car so gaggressively* unsightly is if I put my eyes out, and then I couldn’t drive at all.

* that was a typo, but it works so I didn’t fix it

EDIT: I went to Honda’s web site and I see they have a 2-door coupe. It’s not gorgeous but it is far, far less ugly than the sedan or the hatchback. I could live with one of those.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Textured Soy Protein 04/27/2017 at 15:21

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I saw one IRL for the first time the other day. Was surprised. I liked it alot better than I thought. Still don’t think it counts as a hatch unless it’s a longroof though. To me, this is a fastback sedan.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > Textured Soy Protein 04/27/2017 at 15:22

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The hatch is awkward, the coupe is ugly, the sedan is bad.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > wkiernan 04/27/2017 at 15:22

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See one in person yet?

Bytemite > Textured Soy Protein 04/27/2017 at 15:23

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Lol that Civic coupe looks so much like the Accord coupe...my how they’ve bloated.

AM3R, lost another burner > Textured Soy Protein 04/27/2017 at 15:25

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Someone up the street from me bought one, and I absolutely love it. Looks awesome in this color in person. Would legitimately consider one if I wanted a car in that market segment.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Textured Soy Protein 04/27/2017 at 15:28

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I felt the exact same way when I first say Sonic Grey. “Okay I still hate the new Accord... i mean Civic, but I hate this color and trim less.”

Textured Soy Protein > AM3R, lost another burner 04/27/2017 at 15:30

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My reaction was something along the lines of, “hmm, that’s interesting, I’m not sure what to make of this.” It’s still a weird looking car but the color combo works.

Really the biggest issue I have with this generation Civic is while I like the hatch the best since I like hatchbacks and all the body styles are ugly in their own way, if I got a Sport hatch I think I’d be constantly griping that it’s not an Si.

wkiernan > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 04/27/2017 at 15:34

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I’ve seen the hatchbacks all over the place but I don’t remember ever seeing one of the two-door coupes on the street. I went back to Honda’s website and searched the local dealerships, where I saw about 20 coupes, but all but one of them had the CVT. Still, I only need one car, right?

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 04/27/2017 at 15:37

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I hated it up until I saw a Sport trimmed one. I really like it. I wouldn’t get one, but I like it.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies 04/27/2017 at 15:40

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Me feelings too. Not the car for me, but definitely a decent looking car, or at least the sport trimmed one is. I’ve probably seen one of the others, but never noticed.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 04/27/2017 at 16:00

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That said, the rear bumper is awful. The fake plastic grills are completely unwarranted.

Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig > Textured Soy Protein 04/27/2017 at 16:11

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THANK YOU. All my walker friends are all, “Eugh, I looove it. I like the boomerang taillights. Looks speerrrrrty.”

This was the last good looking Honda Civic:

This new thing is a mess of lines and creases and silver trim and fake vents.

interstate366, now In The Industry > wkiernan 04/27/2017 at 16:24

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I’ve seen the coupe in person. I personally find it uglier than the hatch and sedan.

LongbowMkII > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 04/27/2017 at 16:27

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i cannot tell the difference between the sedan and hatch.

phenotyp > Textured Soy Protein 04/27/2017 at 16:44

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That color is really an achievement. Possibly the best-looking grey I’ve ever seen. Especially good in bright sunlight.

NJAnon > Textured Soy Protein 04/27/2017 at 17:14

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Too much black plastic=in 8 years it will be all faded and then the cycle starts all over again.

Textured Soy Protein > NJAnon 04/27/2017 at 17:30

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Generally gloss black stuff is less likely to fade.

NJAnon > Textured Soy Protein 04/27/2017 at 17:44

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I hope im wrong. I always hope Im wrong when it comes to Honda/Acura. :P

TheBlacktopExperiment > Textured Soy Protein 04/27/2017 at 21:56

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No colour can save this car. Calling it “fugly” is a compliment. I think it’s far beyond hideous. It’s almost like in the last two years, Toyota and Honda had a war on who can make the ugliest car. Toyota tried with the Prius (and won), and now Honda is trying to make their civic ugly enough to compete with the Prius. The weird fake vents, the light shapes, the cuts, the appearance of body mass (it looks fat), the windows. Everything about it is wrong appearance-wise. If I could stare at it long enough without puking, I could name at least 50 things that myself, and many tasteful individuals, would consider a poor choice in design. I actually feel like gouging my eyes out with a steak knife if I look at the new civic longer than 15 seconds. And the new Prius is worse.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Textured Soy Protein 04/27/2017 at 22:50

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the grill headlights, and side and tailights don’t bother me, but the fake vents are atrocious on the type r.

I do like the colors offered.

Lokiparts > Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig 04/28/2017 at 14:29

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...Maybe the last good looking Civic hatch back (althought that’s debatable too). But if anything the 8th Gen’s were probably the last truly good looking Civics. They had a very clean modern design with none of the ridicilous overwrought elements of the new ones.

...Although I may be slightly biased since I own one.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig > Lokiparts 04/28/2017 at 14:31

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I also own an 8th gen, and while I agree that it’s much cleaner than its successors, I don’t love the styling. It feels bloated and heavy.

Lokiparts > Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig 04/28/2017 at 14:35

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Oh yeah it’s a pig compared to the older Civics. But I still think it looks alot nicer.

Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig > Lokiparts 04/28/2017 at 14:41

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Yeah. And it’s growing on me. I just can’t really call it a good looking car. It reminds me of a pug somehow. Small, but not in a good way. Pugs shouldn’t exist.

Lokiparts > Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig 04/28/2017 at 14:46

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It’s the front bumper it’s just too big and round and plain. It makes the car look bigger than it really is. Honestly that’s one of the reasons I have been trying to find a Acura CSX front end for mine.

arl > Textured Soy Protein 04/28/2017 at 19:06

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That new Civic is hideous. It’s like someone threw a bucket of hot wheels cars, lego blocks, jelly beans, and glue together, shook it up, and whatever came out - that’s the design they went with. Did I mention it’s ugly in a way I haven’t seen ugly in a while?