2012 Civic expected to double Honda sales

 The main selling point for the new Honda Civic isn’t just the design, according to CEO Takanobu Ito. He claims that the new Civic is more advanced than any of its rivals. However, industry observers think that one disadvantage is that it doesn’t have turbocharging in the petrol range. Its blocks are also not appealing considering that the trend now is for downsizing. Honda has set a target to sell 100,000 units on average each year. This is more than double this year of what’s expected this year.

He said that since this model has a drastically different performance and fuel efficiency, it’s expecting a high volume, says Ward's Auto. The five-door Civic will be competing against the Ford Focus, which comes with a new generation of smaller EcoBoost engines. The Civic will also go up against the VW Golf. Ito said that the new Civic is available with a choice of two petrols and one turbodiesel. The base 1.4-liter generates 100hp and has a fuel economy rating of 5.4 liters per 100 km, while emitting just 129 grams of CO2 per kilometer.

Meanwhile, the 1.8-liter petrol delivers 142hp and may come with an automatic gearbox. It has a fuel consumption rating of 5.8 liters for the manual and 6.3 for the automatic. The 2.2-liter i-DTEC diesel with an output of 150hp uses up just 4.2 liter of fuel per 100 km. Essentially, they’re still the old engines but they have been modified to be more fuel-economic and have less emissions.[via : 4wheelsnews]

photo : 2012 Honda Civic Euro-spec