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BabyDrive Verdict

The 2020 Honda Civic Hatch is a small five-seater hatch that looks great and feels great to drive! It's really instinctive and punchy to drive in this sporty RS spec but how good is it as a BabyDrive? Let's find out…

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2020 Honda Civic RS Hatch

As with all cars of this shape, the low roofline is a consideration and it definitely affects loading kids and child seats in and out of the back seats. Also, when bending down and in to do up harnesses and seatbelts get a little back-breaking doing it multiple times a day.

Two child seats fit in the back of the Honda Civic RS Hatch without room between them for a passenger or third seat. There are three top tether anchorages accessible through the boot so you could put one child seat in the middle seat and squeeze a passenger on either side if you needed to.

2020 Honda Civic RS Hatch fits two child seats

There are ISOFix points in the two outer rear seats too. We found legroom really tricky, with a rear-facing capsule installed there is room for a 162cm driver in front of it. Or with a forward-facing child seat installed there is room for a 182cm driver in front.

2020 Honda Civic RS Hatch legroom with two child seats installed

Space has been better applied to the boot, where we could fit ten shopping bags from empty or a medium-sized dog.

This is the same as the Mazda3 and Hyundai i30, one more than the Toyota Corolla and one less than the Ford Focus and Kia Cerato GT Hatch that both hold eleven shopping bags.

A twin stroller fits in the boot of the Civic Hatch with one shopping bag and all other prams and strollers we tested fitted with a few shopping bags beside them. See the below “Storage” section for more detail.

2020 Honda Civic RS Hatch with twin stroller in the boot

There is a great retractable roller blind in the boot of the Honda Civic Hatch that comes from the side of the boot rather than the back. It is sooooo much simpler to use than any other cargo blind I have encountered.

2020 Honda Civic RS Hatch legroom child seat top tether anchorages

Storage inside the cabin of the 2020 Honda Civic Hatch is quite good. There are two good-sized cup holders in the front and rear, a generously sized glove box and the door bins all hold large refillable water bottles.

There is a two-tiered phone charging/storage area in the central console with 12V and USB sockets.

The Honda Civic Hatch also has a left-hand indicator camera, which is a fantastic BabyDrive feature!

It comes on automatically when you indicate left, or you can turn it on with a button on the end of the indicator stalk. I found we turned it on for most entire journeys because my little one loved watching it! She thought we were racing the cars next to us!

2020 Honda Civic RS Hatch with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto

The media system does have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which is really handy and the media system is quite simple to navigate and use.

One of the things I loved the most was the easy to access day/night button on the top of the screen allowing you to very easily put it on night mode when it was nap time!!

The reversing camera image is a little pixellated but it fills the screen so you get a nice big image and you can turn the sensors off easily in the central console.

One of the main updates is the push-buttons down the right side of the screen, they are much easier to use than the weird touch-sensitive controls of the previous Civic Hatch I tested.

The 2020 Honda Civic Hatch is a great five-seater hatchback, however, in terms of practicality for a family, the roofline is very low and we would definitely be hitting kids' heads on it as well as our own! The legroom is tight if you need to fit rear-facing child seats too. However, it is such a fun car to drive and I would definitely enjoy that every time I do the school run!

The 2020 Honda Civic Hatch has a five-star ANCAP safety rating from 2017 models onwards and six airbags as standard.

 

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BabyDrive Indepth

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