Gone are the funky styling, its back to bland old Honda for the Civic’s next iteration.
Honda’s current generation Civic is undoubtably an interesting looking car. Some have fallen for the transformer-like edgy look of this current 10th generation mid-sized sedan. Judging by the decline in Civic sales however, this radical redesign may have been a step too far in the wrong direction for customers to handle. Thus, to remedy this Honda has dramatically scaled back on the garishness in the Civic’s next iteration.
The renders you see here of the next generation Civic shows the extent to which the Japanese automaker has toned down the design of its bread and butter sedan. Rendered by Kleber Silva, the same guy who imagined the chunky-looking next generation HR-V, these images here are close to what we know thus far of the 11th generation Civic’s design.
Much like on the leaked patent drawings of the next-gen Civic, gone are the current Civic’s bold front grille and angular rear lights that give this generation its unique design. In its place at the front is a simpler front end aesthetic, that is almost similar to what is seen on the new Accord on sale today.
New slimmer but longer LED headlights give the Honda Civic a more less aggressive demeanour. A cleaner, sleeker bumper design further declutters the front end aesthetic. The large black surrounds for the fog lights have been slimmed down significantly in this render, with body coloured lower fin-like structures breaking up the lower front air dam. There is some similarities to the current (facelifted) Civic’s design however, namely in the large black trim that runs above the honeycomb grille, proudly housing a large Honda badge.
Moving along the side, the renders of the next generation model shows that it will probably be quite similar to the outgoing on in terms of design. With the current Civic’s signature kink on the bottom of the window line, in addition to the chrome trim running on the top of the window line, being brought forward to the next iteration of Civics. Even the dark grey alloy design looks to be similar to the ones on the current Civic.
That said however, while the side may look similar to the current car, the same sentiment is not shared when looking at the rear end of the next-gen Civic.
Round the back is perhaps the most significant departure in design to the current Civic. The futuristic sickle-shaped tail lights has been relegated to the history books, and in its place is a more conventional (read: boring) looking rear light cluster. Large twin exhaust tips that are presumably fake attempts to spice the rear end up somewhat, but the rear end design is undeniably a tad bland and uninspiring.
Cover up the Honda badge at the rear and it could be any manner of boring sedan on the market. This sentiment however is most likely going to be the saving grace of the Civic. People were intimidated by the current polarising design, that most thought were too fussy and even garish. Thus most likely in an attempt to regain its slipping market share, Honda has decided that bland is beautiful for the next generation Civic.
What is perhaps more interesting to think about though is that looking back at the previous iteration’s of Civic, it’s design always follows the pattern of wild, bland, wild, bland… Just look at the game-changing 8th gen FD Civic with its low, wide body and a tiered dashboard design. It was then followed up by the slightly more subdued 9th gen, before getting back to the current mad design of the 10th.
So if history were to teach us anything, is that the generation of Honda Civic after this next one is going to be one interesting looking car.
