I drove by a local Honda dealer today in Irvine, CA, and they had about 30 of the new 2012 Civics on their lot. The window stickers all show 39mpg highway. The roofline is very aerodynamic, short hood, short trunk. I can definitely see a resemblance to hybirds (Prius, Insight) in the general shape. The rear has a trunk, but it's short. Very aerodynamic car. The interior and external styling look great. I'm hoping the 44mpg city, 44mpg highway Civic Hybrid comes out soon. In summary, the new Civic is on dealer lots and it's very aerodynamic and looks aesthetically good! Here are some photos: http://automobiles.honda.com/civic-hybrid/ .
I agree. I've seen the new Civic a few times and it looks very sharp all around - front end is sharper. Wrap around headlights are ver nice. Nice character line on the side. Rear is great. They moved the parking brake back which used to interfere with knees. Not anymore. They will sell boatloads of these cars. Civic Si with 2.4L will have many drooling. Haven't seen the Civic hybrid yet, but it looks to be a nice improvement - no more pizza slice wheels. HF gets those now.
There's a little ad running here showing someone flicking a new Honda Civic off the screen, says, buy a Corolla instead. Regarding Toyota's interior design practices found on the current Corolla - when you have a steering wheel that is unusually more horizontal, somewhat more like a bus, and the left footrest is a tiny little thing with a kick panel (likely covering fuses) jutting into the footspace, and more, makes me frown. I'll take the new Civic interior over Corolla anyday.
I liked the Pizza wheels. One thing we found out (through an accident with our previous 2'nd gen): if they're dinged they can be machined down a bit. The hybrid is very late to the party: a few more months and it will be 7 years since introduction of second generation.
I drove a rental 2010 non-hybrid Civic 3200 miles while on vacation out west in June. Drove it 80+ mph most of the time since the speed limit was 75. Got 39 mpg over the 3200 miles, I was quite impressed. I get 55 mpg in New England at 45-65 mph but I'm not sure my Prius would do much better than 39 mpg at 80+ mph.
