I’VE always liked the Civic’s design since Soweto days- with its sloped roof, gentle curves and aggressive front end and in the case of the RS it’s no different.
Fitted with matte black 18-inch alloys, boot spoiler, door handles, mirrors and sporty RS decals round off a sporty looking exterior.
Yes, that’s the sporty Honda Civic RS- it drew ‘Queens and Chiefs’ of villages in the Bokone Bophirima province, envy me. Affinity if you may!
The Japanese car maker keeps unveiling premium offerings since 1980s, and the RS is one of its signature type, thanks to reliability and safety.
My journey to the province was under 4 hours as opposed to usual 6, as Amapiano genre music was blistering on the internationally recognised Bose speaker system.
Negotiating my way from a hell of potholes, one noticed the RS has been tweaked with the previous generation’s 1.5-litre petrol engine with a redesigned turbo, improving its outputs by 4kW to 131kW and 20Nm to 240Nm, the power front wheels via a CVT transmission and a torque that claimed 240Nm from 1 700rpm.
‘I like this car for you, malume,’ asserted my brother’s fiancé, as she investigated its interior upmarket both in terms of ambience and ergonomics, coupled with quality soft touch surfaces abound and the dashboard.
As we went for a drive to another ‘sophisticated’ dorpie in name of Delareyville, behind the steering wheel there is a 10.2-inch TFT digital instrument cluster that provides you with all the driving information you need and in the centre a nine-inch dash mounted infotainment system with decent graphics and quick response to inputs.
Yes, everything is digital. There’s a volume control dial and climate control dials with a classy chrome finish.
The heated and power adjustable seats provide decent support and are upholstered with leather and suede stitching adding to the interior’s classy feel.
Honda has loaded a ton of hi-tech features that include adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist and road departure mitigation to name a few.
As a purists- I nodded in agreeing with her- that this Japenese model should feature in one of my must-haves.
Although my province is not that popular with curves and hairpin turns, I tended to occasionally drive in Sport Mode, though there’s Eco and Normal, using the paddles did elicit a broad smile, as the likes of BMW, Mercedes Benz and taxis looked in awe, as I hit my dorpie Sannieshof, much to whistles and photo opportunities at the local market, as I went for replenishing my energy drinks.
The Honda Civic RS is designed to be a comfortable sedan with a bit of aggression, although at times I was tempted to go overboard, yes that temptation…but I still maintained 0-100km/h: 8.3 seconds and with top speed of 200km/h (claimed), thanks to its 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder, turbopetrol engine.
The suspension leans firm, so was handling on poorly infrastructure roads but when you do decide to give it some hard right foot the traditional well-mannered RS characteristics come to the fore.
Its fuel tank capacity is 47 litres but to tell the truth- one would have expected this reporter to yell and pull out his hair (that’s if I do have since bald is an in-thing) instead it was well maintained, as I only made a top-up only on Sunday, having been delivered to my doorstep the previous Wednesday.
The boot volume stands at 495 litres- it could accommodate the ‘Queens and Chiefs’ gifts at a go, stru!
At the time of a review, it was priced at R669 000 and comes with a five-year/200 000km warranty, and a five-year/90 000km service plan as well as three-year AA roadside assistance.
Verdict
Performance 1-10 (8)
Fuel 1-10 (6)
Top image SLM (The sporty Honda Civic RS made yours truly a hit with ‘Queens and Chiefs’ in my village).
