Honda has started mass production of the eighth generation Civic in Swindon, Wiltshire. Mass production begins just seven months after the concept version was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, underlining the company's long term commitment to building cars in the UK.
The new car is scheduled to go on sale in January 2006, with other new models in the Civic range to be launched over the next 12 months -- which ones Hondas isn't saying yet though there will at some point be a Type-R. Honda reckoned that it expects to sell more than 35,000 Civics in the UK next year, although the plant also builds cars for the rest of Europe.
The new UK built Civic hatchback will feature Honda’s acclaimed, high-performance 2.2 i-CDTi diesel engine, an all-new and highly efficient 1.8 litre i-VTEC petrol engine and a 1.4 i-DSI petrol engine.
This will, said Honda, be the first time that the plant has got to mass production in the UK without the car first being produced in a Japanese parent plant.
C'mon - where's the Type-R?
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