Civic puts Honda back where it belongs

Time was when the Honda Civic was a favourite of sophisticated ladies of a certain age, smitten as they were by the solidity and smartness of the Japanese family car.

It was a car seen by owners as being upmarket enough to be brought to the golf club and yet affordable enough to warrant investment. Somewhere around the mid-term of its 40-year existence, it hit a popularity peak among the so-called beige and grey brigade (check their twin sets and shoes) and was a particular darling because of its understated sophistication and bombproof reliability.

That unalloyed appeal was largely down to Honda’s reputation as being the BMW of Asian car makers and thus the acceptable face of Japanese motoring among a cabal who would never otherwise associate themselves with so-called foreign hordes.