00:00 I'm Aaron Gold for Motor Trend, and today we're getting our first look at the 2022 Honda Civic
00:04 Hatchback. This is the version of the Civic for young, pretty, dynamic people like you. But does
00:10 this car have the youth appeal that Honda says it does? Let's take a closer look.
00:13 Now, we all know that cars are dead, and SUVs are where the marketplace is at, but Honda is not
00:25 giving up on the Civic, because, believe it or not, the Civic is the number one car for first-time
00:30 new car buyers. And Honda knows that if you get a customer in for that first purchase,
00:35 there's a good chance you will keep them for life. Now, in previous generations,
00:39 young buyers preferred the two-door coupe, but with the last 10th generation Civic, it was the
00:43 hatchback that they wanted. They liked that practicality, and they liked that visual
00:47 relation to the Civic Type R. So, Honda has once again invested in this hatchback body style.
00:54 Now, they made some significant changes to the shape of this car compared to the old hatchback.
00:58 Less frumpy, less lumpy, they've taken away those spoilers and given it this nice, clean, simple,
01:03 coupe-like profile, which is really good-looking. This hatchback, by the way,
01:07 is made of, well, we're supposed to call it resin, not plastic, but it's very light and lets them
01:12 use these spindly little hinges that give you a bigger cargo opening. Slight changes up front
01:18 compared to the Civic sedan, where the sedan is supposed to look like a baby Accord, they've
01:22 changed the way on the hatchback that the hood meets the grille, giving it this unique honeycomb
01:26 pattern to the grille, very sharp-looking. Now, one of the coolest things for enthusiasts like
01:31 us is that you will be able to get the Civic hatchback with a stick shift, and not just in
01:35 the cheap model either. The Civic Sport offers a 6-speed manual with the 158-horsepower 2-liter
01:40 engine, and the Sport Touring, this car here, lets you get a stick with the 180-horsepower 1.5 turbo.
01:46 The Civic hatchback also gets a little bit more aggressive tire than the Civic sedan,
01:51 and its body structure makes it a little bit stiffer. Now, the Civic has always been an entry-level
01:56 car, and it had kind of an entry-level interior, but they've really gone upscale with this 11th
02:00 generation car. The hatchback's interior, by the way, is pretty much identical to the sedan,
02:04 and it has these really nice touches, this metal honeycomb grille that hides the vents. Look at
02:09 these climate controls. They look nice, they feel nice, they make nice sounds when you turn them,
02:14 and it really gives this entry-level car a much more upscale feel. Thank you for joining us for
02:20 this first look at the 2022 Honda Civic hatchback, and for more, visit us at MotorTrend.com.
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