2012 Honda Civic - it's quiet
Honda are continuing to tease the 2012 Honda Civic ahead of its Frankfurt launch, this time with information on its refinement.
As we said on the last story we ran about the 2012 Honda Civic, Honda are taking its launch very seriously, And they’re doing the normal new car tease too, but in a very Honda way.
Instead of being lazy and just divvying up a new arty photo of the new Civic once a week for a month, Honda are going the Jaguar XJ school of car teases (just in smaller numbers). Which means proper detail with each tease and some proper thought in the presentation.
The first episode of the 2012 Civic tease was four weeks ago when Honda sent us some proper, grown-up detail on the suspension and ride, some photos and a video (all disguised).
A fortnight later we got news that the 2012 Civic would be cleaner and more powerful than the outgoing Civic, with CO2 emissions as low as 110g/km, which means nothing in road tax for the first year (and only £20 a year after that) and some appealing BIK rates.
And now, bang on the two-week schedule, we get news of the efforts Honda has made to improve refinement and comfort in the new Civic. And more photos (we’ve only used one – there’s a limit to how many photos of a 2012 Civic in disguise you need to see) and a new video. Thorough.
Honda say they have worked on every detail of the 2012 Civic to optimise refinement. That’s meant testing the Civic Europe-wide on a variety of roads, using Honda’s anechoic (great word) chamber at its R&D in Swindon to fine-tune insulation and calling on their earlier F1 experience to get low drag and high-speed stability.
Kazuo Sunaoshi, the Honda man in charge of the Civic’s chassis, said:
We did not improve the noise and refinement of the new Civic through just one technique, it was the accumulation of lots of little details. My big challenge was to match the noise and vibration levels of our European competitors. I am proud to say that we have achieved our goals.
And you can see and listen to all that in the video below from a set of Honda talking heads. Which won’t give you the thrill of the week, but will make you realise that if they put this much effort in to developing and then presenting their products, it’s no wonder they never break.
But maybe a couple of chorus girls halfway through the VT would help?
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