The Honda Civic! A name that has put endless smiles across faces for years. But then that name disappeared. After more than half a decade, Honda has decided to bring back the Civic brand to India. It is slated to launch on March 7, 2019. Those who want to reserve one for themselves can put their name down along with a minimum booking amount of Rs 31,000.

Honda Cars India Ltd. (HCIL) has now announced that the tenth-gen Civic has entered production in India. It will be manufactured at the carmaker’s factory in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The real kicker is that the Civic we are getting is the one which features all the updates that it received in international markets with its mid-life update.

Fun fact: Civic is Honda’s longest running nameplate for cars. On a global scale, the Civic is currently the most successful Honda model.

Like it did with the latest CR-V, which was launched in October last year, HCIL will offer the Civic with the options of petrol and a diesel engine for the very first time. The former is a 1.8-litre mill that produces 140PS/174Nm, whereas the latter is a 1.6-litre motor which pumps out 120PS/300Nm. No points for guessing, the diesel engine is lifted directly from the CR-V. While transmission duties for the petrol engine will be taken care of by a CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission), the same for the diesel mill will be handled by a 6-speed manual transmission. Unfortunately, there will be no other engine-transmission combination on offer at the time of launch.

As far as features go, the Honda Civic will surely give the competition a tough fight. The list includes 17-inch alloy wheels, an electric sunroof, LED-powered headlamps, taillamps and DRLs, push-button start/stop, a digital instrument cluster, an 8-way electrically adjustable driver’s seat and a 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. On the safety front, the D-segment sedan will offer 6 airbags, electronic stability control, hill start assist, ISOFIX anchorages and a lane watch camera among others.

In India, the Honda Civic will compete with the likes of the Skoda Octavia, Hyundai Elantra and the Toyota Corolla Altis. That is a formidable list of rivals. Question is, will the new Civic get under a keen driver’s skin just as well as the eighth-gen model did? Only time will tell!