The new car, a unique 5 door hatchback for Europe,  is scheduled to go on sale in January 2006 and, with other new models in the Civic range to be launched over the next 12 months, is expected to boost European sales of the Civic series by as much as 50% up to 120,000 sales within the next two years.

Underlining the maturity of Honda’s UK car and engine manufacturing operations, the start of volume production of this new Civic at Swindon will be the first time that the plant has progressed a new model to mass production in the UK without the car being produced in a Japanese parent plant, a testament to the engineering skills of Honda's 4,000 Associates at the site.

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 liter i-VTEC petrol engine and a 1.4 i-DSI petrol engine.