CIVICS USED TO COME in a lot of different shapes and sizes, from the stubby little CRX to a tall, four-wheel-drive wagon. But long ago, the funneling effects of mainstream consumer tastes (a fancy way of saying that we are all sheep) caused Honda to pare down the Civic line to its two best-sellers, the sedan and coupe. America even got its own Civic platform, while Europe and other overseas markets continued to enjoy a hatchback body style, which was last seen around these parts as the 2002–2005 British-built Si hatch.
Well that Anglo-American pipeline is back in business, as Honda’s Swindon, England, assembly plant once again swings into action to produce a Civic hatchback for America. The return of the hatch as a younger, sportier, and more male-oriented alternative…