Natural Aspirations: 2019 Honda Civic Coupe Sport Review

The 10^th generation Honda Civic has been quite popular in Canada and throughout the world, like every other Civic before it. The Honda Civic has been the best-selling car in Canada for the last 19 or 20 years. It’s a no non-sense car that gets the job done, but it’s also not too bad to drive and is offered in a lot of configurations like sedan, hatchback, and even coupe. Last week we had the opportunity to review the 2019 Honda Civic Coupe Sport, which is a new trim that wasn’t offered when I first reviewed the Civic coupe a few years ago.

Trims & Prices

The Civic Sport Coupe slots above the base LX trim and below the Touring and Si trims. The LX and Sport trims are offered with either a manual or a Continuously Variable Transmission, our review car came with the CVT. The Touring is only offered with the CVT and the Si is only offered with a manual transmission. Prices for the various trims of the Civic Coupe are listed below:

Engines

The Civic Coupe is offered with two engines, which are the same engines that are offered on the Civic sedan. The engines are a 2.0 liter naturally aspirated 4-cylinder engine, producing 158 horsepower at 6,500 rpm and 138 pound-feet of torque at 4,200. This engine is available on the LX and Sport trim and can be paired with a 6-speed manual or a Continuously Variable Transmission. The other engine is the 1.5 liter turbocharged 4-cylinder, producing 174 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 162 pound-feet of torque between 1,700 – 5,500 rpm on the Touring trim. The same engine on the Si trim produces 205 horsepower at 5,700 rpm and 192 pound-feet of torque between 2,100 – 5,000 rpm.

According to Honda, the 2.0 liter naturally aspirated 4-cylinder with the CVT transmission should consume 9.3/6.6/7.5 liters/100 kilometers in city/highway/combined driving. I averaged 7.2 L/100 km in pure 70/30 city/highway driving without the a/c on, this number is based on the on-board computer’s readout.

Driving

I’m quite used to the 2.0-liter 4-cylinder on the Civic, as we have a 2016 Civic in the family with this engine. It is a pretty decent engine and does the job in our Civic sedan, however, since the Civic Coupe Sport is a sporty car, I prefer the 1.5-liter turbocharged engine, like in our previous review. Or, if the 2.0-liter engine was my only choice, then I’d definitely go with the 6-speed manual rather than the CVT.

I have praised the CVT on the Civic, as it does a good job and has simulated gear shifts, which makes it feel more like an automatic transmission. However, the Civic Coupe is a sporty car, and if you drive it a bit more like a sporty car, then the CVT does feel like the old CVTs where you keep expecting to change gear but it never does. In normal driving, the CVT on the Civic Coupe Sport is fine, it just doesn’t feel right when you shift it into “S” on the transmission.

Interior/Styling/Tech

Nothing much has changed in the Civic since we last reviewed one of these, we have reviewed pretty much every version of the Civic, so have a look at our previous reviews if you want to read up more on the interior, technology, and features available on the 10^th generation Honda Civic.

The main difference I noticed is the addition of a physical volume knob, the lack of which pretty much everyone I know in the auto industry complained about. So, I’m glad Honda listened to the reviewers and customers and added this small knob, which makes a big difference.

Final Thoughts

I think the 2019 Honda Civic Coupe Sport is a pretty good car, personally I would either go with the manual mated to the 2.0 liter naturally aspirated engine, or go for the more powerful 1.5-liter turbocharged engine, which is only offered with a CVT, having a 6-speed manual with that would be pretty awesome… which can be had with the Civic Si.