And what the drawings reveal is a Civic design that is—hallelujah!—interesting. That’s right, after more than a decade of shovel-nosed yawnmobiles—the current-generation model landed with a thud not only with us, but even at Consumer Reports, which put it on a Top 5 Cars to Avoid list—Honda has turned up the heat once again for the 2016 model. The design also shows that about 90 percent of the angular awesomeness of the Civic coupe concept previewed earlier this month at the New York auto show will carry through to production.
The most notable of the concept’s aesthetic features to make it to the new model is the beveled arch of LED taillamps on the coupe. The sedan’s rear end gets a similar taillamp treatment, sans the center section, resulting in C-shaped LED units that are cool in their own way. Also carrying through are the wide headlamp and grille features, although the production cars appear to be getting thick chrome uppers whereas the sportier concept wore blackout graphics. The headlamps, too, will get projector-looking innards, but the thin running lamps are very close to those of the concept. Front and rear fascias have also been toned down from the show car—no surprise there—but they’re likely to be amped right back up again for Civic Si and Type R models, the latter version having already been approved for the U.S. in this next generation. The Type R will come only as a five-door hatchback, however, and that’s the one body style not included among these patent images.
Both models feature very low-looking noses and high rumps, with stretched rooflines and a particularly slick rear deck treatment on the sedan with buttress-style elements. (See the CivicX.com story for more views.) We will have to wait and see how this all comes together in the metal when the final products are revealed sometime in the next few months—the sedan arrives this fall—by which time we also hope to see some representation of the hatch model, as well. Based on what we see here, though, the Civic is shaping up quite nicely.
Source: caranddriver.com
