2021 Honda Civic pricing and specs detailed: Why is the Toyota Corolla, Kia Cerato and Mazda 3 rival more expensive?

Honda has raised the prices of its evergreen Civic range, with jumps of up to $1400 from the last time of reporting less than four months ago, despite there being no change in equipment or specification levels.

Now kicking off from $23,590 before on-road costs for the four-door sedan – and $200 more for the better-selling five-door hatch body style – the base VTi and VTi-S (which are powered by Honda’s long-lived 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine) jump $1000, while the 1.5-litre turbo-propelled RS, VTi-LX and VTi-L variants are up by $750, $1200 and $1400 respectively from the time of our last report.

These price hikes only apply to the Thai-sourced models, with the UK-built Civic Type R hot-hatch remaining for now at $54,990. Note, too, that the two cheapest grades – VTi and VTi-S – still aren’t fitted with the Honda Sensing ‘driver assist technology’ bundle that includes autonomous emergency braking (AEB), forward collision warning, lane-keep alert, lane-keep assist and adaptive cruise control, among other safety items.

It is believed that – as with many other manufacturers including Toyota – currency fluctuations have forced the higher costs to be passed on to consumers. This was the reason Honda pushed up Civic prices just this past August.

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“In recent months, the effect of exchange-rate fluctuations, impact of COVID-19 and competitor activity have all necessitated price changes across a number of model lines,” according to a company spokesperson.

“Despite challenging conditions with the Australian dollar over the past few years, for the most part, Honda Australia has absorbed those influences and maintained very stable pricing right across the vehicle range.”

Next year will most likely be the final full year of the current, 10th-generation Civic.

While Honda recently released a Civic Concept that points to the 11th-generation sedan due out internationally later next year, Australians will have to wait well into 2022 for the model change, since the company has since confirmed that only the five-door hatch version will be imported next time around.

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Although the existing Civic is one of the more seasoned small cars on the market at four and a half years old, its sales have remained comparatively firm at 5923 units to the end of November, as its 32.7 per cent volume slide this year is almost exactly in line with the rest of the segment.

This places the Civic in sixth spot in a VFACTS segment of 16 small cars, behind the Volkswagen Golf (8738 sales), Mazda3 (11,850 sales), Kia Cerato (14,621 sales), Hyundai i30 (16,691 sales) and Toyota Corolla (20,592 sales).

Within Honda, the Civic is also outsold by the smaller HR-V (6789 units to date in 2020) and larger CR-V (7964 units), with the former SUV also set for a complete redesign next year.

2021 Honda Civic sedan pricing before on-road costs

2021 Honda Civic hatch pricing before on-road costs