A rigorous round of real-world testing dubbed the ‘MPG Marathon’ resulted in 'impressive fuel-efficiency' of the new Honda Civic 1.6 i-DTEC.

In the test of 23 cars driven by independent journalists and company car drivers on UK roads, the Civic took third place for overall mpg, behind the Ford Fiesta ECOnetic and Renault Clio Dynamique – both much smaller cars than the Honda.

Over a 367 mile drive the Civic recorded an excellent overall mpg of 84.87mpg, just 4mpg behind the winner. It exceeded its official combined figure by some 8.12 per cent, placing it third place overall in percentage improvement on quoted mpg figures. The Civic also recorded the third lowest CO2 emissions of the models on test, with just 94g/km.

The MPG Marathon set out from Tankersley Manor, near Sheffield, on Wednesday October 9th. This year’s event was regarded as the toughest yet, with strong winds, long hill climbs and heavy traffic. Despite the conditions, Mark Armstrong-Read of Derbyshire NHS Trust steered the Civic to a podium place, thanks to both his own eco-driving skills and the no- compromise combination of performance and efficiency of the 1.6 diesel Civic. 

Lee Wheeler, Manager-Corporate Operations at Honda UK said: "The fact that our small diesel 1.6 i-DTEC powered Civic five-door finished a very respectable third in the MPG Marathon illustrates the key benefit our new Earth Dreams Technology to fleet users - far less trips to the filling station than many similar sized competitor models. Earth Dreams Technology can now be found in the Civic five-door hatchback and CR-V, and we look forward to bringing it very soon to our all new Civic Tourer".

The MPG Marathon is designed to be a true real world test that demonstrates the benefits to both the environment and the motorist’s back pocket of employing simple, smarter driving techniques. This year’s event saw the introduction of a new ‘navigational scatter’ format with competitors required to visit a number of fixed points via the route of their choice, as opposed to the fixed route used in previous years. As a result, drivers were faced with a number of decisions to find the optimum route, without incurring time penalties. The location, speed and direction of travel of each competitor were monitored in real-time by TRACKER satellite tracking technology fitted to each vehicle.