2019 Civic Sport Headlines Honda's Style And Safety Tech Upgrade

Honda has revamped the 2019 Civic, making its Honda Sensing advanced driver assistance and safety technology standard on the sedan and coupe, regardless of trim level. In addition to Sensing's clean sweep, Honda is also introducing a new Civic Sport trim with a manual transmission option.

The core of the 2019 Civic sedan and coupe is still the well-received 10th generation vehicle, which is currently America's number one retail-selling car. For the new model year, Honda has tweaked the styling. The front gets a new paint black upper fascia wing, atop a restyled lower fascia.

The front bumper has been reworked, too, and the grille is now lower. There's also a full-width front splitter, and chrome side pod accents. The headlamps – available in halogen or LED form, depending on trim level – have been redesigned, too.

At the rear, there's now a chrome accent on the lower bumper for the sedan. Both four and two door cars get new wheel designs, and the Touring trim gets larger, 18-inch wheels, replacing the old car's 17-inch design.

As for the tech, there's now Honda Sensing standard across the board. Whether you opt for the cheapest 2019 Civic LX, through to the maxed-out Touring, you'll get collision mitigation braking with forward collision warnings, road departure mitigation with lane departure warnings, and lane keeping assistance. Adaptive cruise control will also be included.

Finally, there's a new trim level. The Civic Sport slots in-between the current LX and EX, with Honda positioning it as a more sharply-styled option for those on a limited budget. It gets a piano black lower front fascia and side pod accents, while the sedan throws in a rear deckled spoiler and a splitter-style rear lower bumper with a chrome polygonal exhaust finisher echoing that of the Civic Si.

Honda throws on 18-inch 10-spoke alloy wheels, too, with a Berlina Black finish. Under the hood there's a 2.0-liter 16-valve DOHC VTEC engine, which will be offered with either a CVT or a 6-speed manual transmission. Inside, the 7-inch Display Audio infotainment system – with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – is standard, too.

No word on how much the 2019 Civic Sport will cost, at this stage. The current 2018 Civic LX and EX sedans start from $18,940 and $21,340, respectively, so somewhere around the $20k point seems likely.