The all-new Honda Civic hatch may be one of the most practical cars in its segment, but it lacks a crucial item that used to be standard: Magic Seats.
The Honda Magic Seats system in the previous-generation Civic hatch would allow the seat bases to be folded up to allow a large storage area, and the seat backs could also be folded down flat for extra convenience. To see just how clever they are, check out our video on the ninth-gen Civic hatch.
Those brilliant seats are still standard in the Jazz city car and HR-V small SUV, but in the new, tenth-generation Civic hatch, they’re missing.
Why? Honda Australia senior product planning manager Chander Balasubramanian said that it’s simple – the new car has a new platform, and the Magic Seats, no matter how magic they may be, don’t fit.
“It’s a platform thing,” Balasubramanian said.
“Especially because the car has gone a little bit lower. With the Magic Seats, you may know that the petrol tank has to be under the front seats, so the car body has to be raised up,” he said. “But to keep a sleek design for the new-generation Civic, we had to move away from the Magic Seats.”
That’s not to say the new Civic hatch lacks practicality. It has the biggest boot of its class at 414 litres – bigger than the Hyundai i30 (395L), Volkswagen Golf (380L), Toyota Corolla (360L), Subaru Impreza (345L) and Mazda 3 (308L) – and, as Balasubramanian said, “you still get a flat floor when the rear seats are folded down”.
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