HONDA CELEBRATES WITH BIG HELP FROM CIVIC Honda has recently celebrated building its two millionth car in the UK. The celebration model was a CR-V off-roader but to me the car that really shouts the success of the Swindon plant is the Civic. It was not the model that set the ball rolling there back in 1992, that honour went to the Accord. But the Civic has accounted for more than half of the Swindon output. Work at Swindon first started with pre-delivery inspection of imported cars before they were dispatched to the dealer network and three years later, in 1989, the site of a former airfield near the Ermin Way Roman road started building engines. Soon after, Accord production started in 1992. The Civic followed in 1994 and has been rolling off the lines at Swindon ever since. Honda thought differently from Toyota and Nissan, who also build cars in the UK, because it went to an area where car making was already established rather than somewhere totally new. Pressed Steel Fisher made car bodies in Swindon for years and these days it’s BMW that’s turning out body panels there instead. Never let anyone tell you that car production in the UK is dead because that’s simply not true. We make loads of cars here every year, with many going for export to bring in foreign currency. The rest of the world really still does love our cars. Some of the Civics built at Swindon are now going as far as Russia. It would be nice to think we were taking revenge for all the durable but dreadful Ladas the Russians sent here but we are fairer than that so the Russians are getting payback in a very superior product. It took 13 years to build the first 1.5 million Hondas at Swindon – the last half million has arrived in three years and that’s in no small part due to the halo effect of the Civic Type R, the red-blooded hot hatch that enthralled the world in its first generation and was even exported from Swindon to Japan. Some critics say the new generation Type R is not as good as the first but I still reckon it’s a bit extreme for me. So instead, to celebrate this Honda milestone, I borrowed a Civic Type S, the S standing for Softies as far as I’m concerned. I like cars that go well but I’m also fairly attached to my internal organs and want to try to preserve them a bit longer. After all, they’ve done almost 56 years and it’s a bit early to think about chucking them out just yet. I like the Type S because it is great fun but it’s also very endurable. You can go for miles in it without wishing the next corner was the last on the journey. It will take a thrash down country lanes but won’t trash the experience because the ride’s too hard. It handles well enough to give the right amount of fun. One thing I learned from looking at the silver test car is that this latest Civic is very colour sensitive. In the past I have compared the car to the Austin Allegro, not that the Russians would mind as even that was better than the Lada. But Honda probably does. The trouble with the Civic is that it does not wear dark colours well. It just sits there like a dark blob. Lighten the colour, though, and it immediately looks sleeker. I’m booked in for a respray in the test car’s Alabaster Silver next week but somehow I think I’ll still look vast. Never mind, I can always console myself with another doughnut. The Type S has a 140 bhp 1.8 litre engine coupled to a six speed manual gearbox. It may be a sporty motor that can get to 127 mph and sprint from 0-62 mph in 8.9 seconds (not quite matching my astounding leap from chair to fridge) but it will also give 38 mpg without any effort on the driver’s part at all. This doesn’t quite get to Honda’s combined consumption claim of 42.8 but I won’t criticise. At the same time, it’s also a decent family motor. You can get four adults into it easily and three children across the back can be done without a squeeze. At £16,277 it seems fair value and for that you even get a Type S door sill garnish. Wow! Who could possibly want for more? Maurice Hardy The Honda Civic Type S is my type of sporting hatchback. It’s quick, never brutal, and thoroughly enjoyable. In three door form the latest Civic also looks rather better than it does as a five door, even though the five door has the same coupe styling with hidden rear doors. Maybe it’s something as simple as the door handle being further back along the car’s flanks, I don’t know. But whatever it is, it works. Honda has given plenty of thought to this Civic and there’s a lot of attention to detail. For instance, there’s stowage space under the rear seat, an area left as a void on most cars. It’s a great place for hiding odds and bits, especially if you have children who accumulate a lot of clutter in the back of the car. When it’s not needed, you can just shovel it out of view. The fascia in this generation Civic takes some adjusting to, with most of the instruments set for viewing through the steering wheel but the speedo above it, just below the windscreen base. It looks quite futuristic but it’s also a bit messy and can cause confusion when you want to quickly check the car’s speed and look in the wrong place. Honda employees obviously love the cars they built, though. We go past the Swindon plant quite a lot and the roads in this part of Wiltshire absolutely bristle with current generation Civics. We thought they were mainly development cars or something but the people at Honda assure us it’s just employees (or associates, as they call them) keeping each other in jobs. And loving the product, naturally. Annette Hardy Car: Honda Civic Type S 1.8 i-VTEC GT Does it fit your ego?... 0-62 mph: 8.9 secs Top speed: 127 mph Bhp: 140 @ 6300 rpm Torque: 128 lb ft @ 4300 rpm ...and your wallet?... Price: £16,277 Urban: 33.6 mpg Extra urban: 51.4 mpg Combined: 42.8 mpg CO2 emissions: 156 g/km Insurance Group: 9 Best bits: sporty; not brash; good for British jobs.