Features

It starts to make more of a difference on a smooth road. The car itself is much lower than the old Civic, with a track that's much wider, so the footprint for the physics is much more stable when it comes to working out complicated stuff like the suspension's 'angle of dangle'.

The base of the dynamic pyramid being that much broader, it supports that faster steering and greater castor on the front suspension - meaning the Civic turns in like a deranged bunny, but never feels loose or about to fling itself into a suicide slide.

It certainly helps on the tight and twisting mountain roads that we're currently barrelling around - solid responses, predictable reactions and a surprising amount of mechanical grip when there aren't any bumps to upset things.

That's partly a symptom of the use of a torsion-bar rear suspension. Honda has foregone a more complicated independent rear set-up to make use of the torsion bar's more compact design.

It means less ability to soak up small-amplitude lumps - hence the stiff ride - but gives a nicely low centre of gravity and helps enormously with interior packaging, because the actual bits of linking metal sit low in the chassis profile; good for smooth roads and big loads, bad for ironing out back road bad vibrations.

That simple rear suspension does, however, mean that Honda can provide the inside with some very neat features. There's a false boot floor that sits almost unnaturally low in the boot, capable of eating a decent-sized suitcase, and hiding it from prying (and then thieving bastard) eyes.

The seats fold flat from one-touch flaps on the backrests, or you can stand the seat bases up and walk through the back of the car from rear door to rear door, a feature made possible by repositioning the fuel tank under the front seats.

OK, so the boot has a funny-shaped aperture, and access to the rear seats is truncated by the thick C-pillar - but you can get a bike in there. The trade-offs are obvious.

Ride in the back and big feet can't be tucked under the front seats (the space is now full of fuel tank) and that C-pillar - apart from making reverse parking sensors a must for any prospective Civic driver - is in peripheral line-of-sight, making the rear accommodation a trifle claustrophobic.