Honda’s English-built Civic five-door hatchback is headed ‘down under’.
Australian and New Zealand will get VTi and VTi-L levels of specification and the 1.8 i-VTEC petrol engine with six-speed manual or five-speed automatic transmissions, stuff.co.nz reported.
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Honda changed the hatchback’s automatic option from an automated manual to a conventional torque converter unit with the recent redesign and this is likely to have influenced the decision to sell the hatch in Australia and New Zealand where a high proportion of buyers opt for automatics.
The hatchback, sourced from Honda’s Swindon plant, goes on sale in July.
A small number of previous generation three-door hatchbacks with sport specification were sold in Australia but Honda New Zealand has not offered a five-door Civic since the 2001-2005 generation.
Sourcing from Japan and, more recently, Thailand – with which Australia has a free trade agreement – had limited recent Antipodean Civic lines mainly to sedan versions.
