New Honda Civic Turbo Will Get Manual for 2017 Model Year

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

A purported screenshot of a Honda ordering screen over at CivicX shows the new turbo-powered, tenth-generation Civic will be made available with a six-speed manual transmission starting next year.

The only engine available with a row-your-own box for this year’s Civic is the naturally aspirated K20 2-liter four that cranks 158 horsepower — 16 horsepower fewer than the turbocharged mill — in the base LX model. Starting with the EX-T model, Honda is planting its 1.5-liter turbo into many of its trims with a CVT only to start.

The recently announced Civic Coupe will get the same powertrain options as the sedan — manual only on the base model, CVT everywhere else — when it goes on sale in March. It’s unclear if the coupe would receive a mid-year update to add manual transmissions.

It’s unclear if the announcement that a manual would only arrive for 2017 would have any impact on the coming Civic Si’s powertrain.

Honda has already announced that the 2018 Civic Type R — when it will be available in the U.S. for the first time — will be powered by a 2-liter turbocharged four. That could leave the Civic Si with a variant of the 1.5-liter turbo four with VTEC (from Europe) or Honda’s aging 2.4-liter naturally aspirated four.

Assuming you don’t want to wait until next year for a third pedal in your turbo Civic, there’s always “sport” mode?


Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • Lot9 Lot9 on Nov 24, 2015

    Honda has lost their way with their transmission. After driving the new CR-v, it is nothing like the prior models. Their cvt tranny is junk! They need to go back to the drawing board these transmissions. Having owned Honda and still do...but I would not buy a new model,today. Honda's reliability has dropped, too. t Once they get their act together, maybe I will look at them again. There are better selections in the market, today.

    • See 2 previous
    • Thornmark Thornmark on Nov 25, 2015

      >>There are better selections in the market, today.

  • Demetri Demetri on Nov 24, 2015

    I wonder if they can squeeze a little more power out of that K24. If they carried it over to the new Si, I'd probably be ok with it as long as they hold the line on price. It isn't the engine keeping me away from the current model Si, it's the rest of the car. Still, I think it's much more likely it gets the 1.5T with the boost turned up, or a detuned version of the 2.0T from the new Civic Type-R.

  • Dantes_inferno Dantes_inferno on Nov 25, 2015

    Honda - the gold standard of the Racing Inspired Cosmetic Enhancement scene.

  • Sgeffe Sgeffe on Nov 26, 2015

    When I test drove a CVT Accord, my impression was that of a normal automatic without shift points. A CR-V I had as a loaner exhibited a little more CVT-ness, but was still reasonable. Will be interesting to see the next-gen CR-V next year

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