Honda is keen that we keep driving its cars

The new Honda Civic will be the most fun yet, engineers promise us. It sits on an all-new platform and there has been renewed focus on making it as dynamically adept as European rivals, where in the past, just Japanese market competitors have been targeted.

And it all fits in with Honda’s principle that driving should still be something that’s fun, according to chief engineer Mitsuru Kariya. Even when autonomous tech lands.

“The pleasure of driving is an essential part of Honda’s quality,” he told TG. “We surely believe in autonomous driving, it will definitely come. But we believe in the hope there will always remain the option of driving yourself.

“That is still the pleasure of mobility. It’s not just sitting there going from A to B. We believe you should be able to select periods you drive autonomously, and then when you drive yourself. Honda would like to be different to other manufacturers, not forgetting the roots of the automobile, even one equipped with autonomous technology.”

The Mk10 Civic gets new suspension components and a variable steering ratio as part of its renewed effort to take on rivals dynamically, and these will all make their way into the new Type R, which is said to be markedly sharper than before. So it should be, when it wants its Nürburgring record back…