A ninth generation for the nearly 40-year-old Civic sees a widened body, stiffened chassis, improved fuel economy and a new engine for the sport-inspired Si trim. Forty years is a long time, and the Civic began showing its age years ago. More importantly, and of more concern for Honda, class competitors that used to be nothing more than cheaper alternatives have matured better with age. What used to be sacrifices in the name of frugality have actually become legitimate rivals to the Civic's dominance – and they’re still less expensive.

With the U.S. Focus finally meeting up with its Euro counterpart, and with the Cruze making new waves, the Civic has plenty to worry about. Add in the Hyundai Elantra, and Honda faces a real triumvirate of trouble.

So how has Honda chosen to combat this? From the outside, not much has changed. Honda seems to be taking a page from Porsche or BMW design, which looks at model redesign as a chance for slight evolution rather than radical change. They can get away with it. The Civic simply doesn’t have the chops to pull it off. Inside, the changes are more obvious. While the 2012 Civic is exactly the same length as in 2011, a widened body and more sharply raked windshield have increased room inside. Specifically you’ll get 3 inches of extra shoulder width up front, a change welcomed by those of us who were sick of rubbing shoulders with front passengers. There’s also 1.6 inches of extra legroom in the back, which adds up to more useable travel for the front seats as well. Legroom isn’t worth much if you can’t use it without crushing knees in the back.

The widening of the body is good, but there are visual space enhancements as well. The aggressive rake of the windshield means more space in front of you, and thinner A-pillars have the effect of lightening the visual landscape to the corners, further opening the interior. The same effect is achieved with larger windows, and this all makes the interior seem much bigger than it is. Sadly, that also shows off the acres of hard, cheap plastic the interior is steeped in. The dash is a special eyesore with its wide expanse sitting beneath the windshield, making its ugly surface all the more noticeable.

These nits are especially easy to pick given the improvements the Focus and Elantra have seen of late, both sporting interiors that easily best the Civic's. The Cruze manages to best the Civic interior in another area – noise. While compact and economy cars aren’t known for their quiet cabins, the Civic has always been particularly loud. The Cruze has made a special effort to avoid this particular quirk, and it makes the noisy nature of the Civic all the more annoying. Trunk space is up in the Civic this year, with an additional half a cubic foot to bring the total in the sedan to 12.5. However, it’s still trailing class leaders like the Elantra and the Cruze with their 14.8- and 15-cu-ft trunks.

A new 5-inch display in all but the DX trim shows off Honda’s Intelligent Multi-Information Display (i-MID), which handles audio, Bluetooth and general vehicle systems, all controlled through a confusing array of more than a dozen buttons on the tilt and telescoping steering wheel. This nestles into the Civic’s two-tier instrument layout, which only gets more confusing with the addition of navigation. It’s non-traditional, but it does work well once you get used to the different layout.

Unfortunately, there are no changes to speak of in regard to the powertrain. The 2012 Civic gets the same i-VTEC 1.8-liter/5-speed combination that has been offered in the Civic since 2006. EX trims get a 5-speed automatic, while DX and LX trims get the additional choice of a 5-speed manual, both solid but disappointing offerings given the 6-speed units in the Focus, Cruze and Elantra.

The sport-inspired Si trim does get a new engine, however, a 2.4-liter i-VTEC producing 201 hp pulled from the Acura TSX sedan. That’s a paltry 4-hp increase over the 2.0-liter engine from 2011, but the 2.4 also offers 170 lb-ft of torque as opposed to 139 from the 2.0. That’s a substantial increase in the very useable lower end of the powerband. This does a lot to increase the overall driveability of the Si, especially around town, where it’s not always preferable to wind the engine up to stratospheric rpms just to pull out of a parking space. The Si also gets a new 6-speed manual transmission that helps to increase fuel economy as well. In fact, the entire range gets a bit of a boost thanks to aerodynamic and friction improvements – advertised by Honda as 3 mpg in highway mileage regardless of trim – and the Hybrid gets new lithium-ion batteries, which are smaller, lighter and more powerful.

Braking improvements would have been nice as well. EX and EX-L trims get 10.3-inch front and 10.2-inch rear disc brake rotors, which bring it to a halt from 60 mph in a disappointing 131 feet. Rivals do better and certainly better than DX and LX trims, which get a rear drum. The Si gets larger, 11.8-inch front rotors to be fair. All trims have an improved chassis, which Honda claims has a 10 percent improvement in rigidity, and testers have commented that the Civic feels tighter in 2012 despite carrying over the same front strut and multilink rear suspension.

So a host of small improvements bring the Civic close to its rivals but still allow it to fall short in most categories. Thankfully, the Civic will see no price increase in 2012 excepting a $100 bump for the Hybrid. Sadly, this still places it above the price points of its competition and in some cases several thousand dollars above. On top of all this, Honda America has recently issued a recall of 1156 Civics due to a potentially faulty fuel feed line. Honda claims most of the affected vehicles have yet to be sold and will be fixed before hitting showrooms, but still encourages owners to bring their Civics in to be checked for free.

The Civic undoubtedly has enough of a base built in its branding bank account to weather a lackluster update such as this, but if rivals continue to leap ahead, even that won’t last. Try harder Honda, or lose us all.