Well, looks like we’ve landed an exclusive. This here is the first 2012 Honda Civic to be reviewed in the UAE. After months of spy photos by readers spotting these mysterious cars all over Dubai, the Japanese firm has finally gone official with their new compact contender.
We’ve already known for months now that the first shipment of 2012 Honda Civic sedans were on sale in the UAE quietly. According to Honda, the Japanese carmaker “faced immense challenges in its production capabilities due to the earthquake & tsunami disasters in March 2011.” Honda was in short supply of the new models, so they did not actively advertise the fact that limited numbers were already available, which was likely sold out easily enough. But Honda has now released full details about their new model.
We’d heard rumblings that Honda had a batch of 2012 Honda Civic sedans shipped to the UAE, but backed off from properly launching the new model due to the supply shortage after the Japanese earthquake. These cars apparently went on sale quietly, and one of our readers snagged these photos of the Civic at one of Honda’s dealerships in Dubai.
This exclusive original video has been a long time coming. We drove the 2010 Honda Civic Type-R a year ago when it was first launched in the UAE. We made this little video, largely due to the efforts of Faisal Khatib, with support from me and Marouf Hussain. Think of it as our very own tribute to Japanese engineering.
The “all-new” 2012 Honda Civic has been unveiled, at least in U.S. guise. It remains a good car, but it is not as ground-breaking as the outgoing version was back in 2006, and in fact looks like a facelift rather than a full redesign.
This here is the 2012 Honda Civic “concept” which debuted at the 2011 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
This is a sketch released by Honda of the 2012 Civic “concept” that will debut at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show in January. From the looks of it, this may be the coupe version that is available only in the United States.
Say what you want about the Americans, but they are a serious bunch when it comes to safety. The U.S. government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — NHTSA — is the one that mandates airbags and tyre-pressure monitors in all new cars, subdued automakers into making their roof strength higher while inadvertently making outward visibility worse due to thicker pillars, and is set to force rear-view cameras on all new cars by 2014 thereby making car prices higher. And if that weren’t enough, there are not one, but two agencies in the U.S. that conduct crash tests, one being the NHTSA and other being the private Insurance Institute for Highway Safety —
The adoption of the more stringent Euro 5 emissions regulations means the Honda Civic Type-R hatchback will no longer be legal for sale in Europe. Although the Type-R hatchback is built in England, the British factory will continue to produce the hot hatch for other markets around the world.
Today’s recall of the day is brought to you by Honda. About 383,000 Honda Civic, Accord and Element crossover vehicles from the 2003 and 2004 model years are being recalled in the U.S. for an ignition lock defect.