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| Economy and pulling power |
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The demand for more economic diesel engines has increased dramatically in the last few years and so it was inevitable that Honda would grace the popular Civic with a state-of-the-art version.
My test car this month was the 5-door version, which in SE trim carries a price tag of £13,995. It housed the 1.7 CTDi, which means common-rail, turbo diesel injection but we don't need to go into that. Suffice to say that the initials stand for fuel economy and plenty of torque (pulling power). Diesel engines are inherently heavier than petrol because they have to withstand greater pressures but the diesel Civic still manages to compete favourably with its 1.6i petrol-engined counterpart in terms of speed and surpasses it in the economy stakes.
For example, at 11.5 seconds, the diesel is only a second slower from 0-62mph and its top speed of 112mph is 3mph less. But compare the official fuel consumption figures; on the urban cycle the diesel, at 44.8mpg, will give you 12mpg more than the petrol; the extra urban is 64.2mpg, again, 12.8mpg more and the combined, 56.5mpg offers 13.7 more miles per gallon than the petrol driven car.
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