Honda Civic vs Honda Fit

It’s been almost half a decade since Honda introduced this latest Civic. That’s hard to believe, because this car has aged with remarkable grace. After a mild update for the 2025 model year, the 2026 Civic lineup carries over unchanged. It continues to offer sedans and hatchbacks, with or without hybrid power. Sporty Si and performance-tuned Type R variants are also available, but Honda still doesn’t offer the Civic with all-wheel drive. Does that matter? Seemingly not, because the Civic is Honda’s second-best-selling car (behind the CR-V), and one of the top-selling compact cars in America.

Verdict: You’ll pay a premium to buy a Honda Civic. In many ways, it’s worth the extra money. In others, not so much. Still, while there are better deals in the compact car class, few are as satisfying to drive, and that’s true even when the Civic is equipped with its base engine.

Once upon a time, buying a new car on a budget meant scraping the bottom of the barrel. Sure, it had a “low, low” price to get you in the door, but for that price, you did not get a whole lot of car. For most of its existence, the “econo-box” was a much-lamented auto segment.

But times have changed. Automakers like Honda and Toyota have committed to offering small, affordable new cars that are safe, comfortable, and filled with features one would commonly associate with more upscale cars. The standard-bearer for this effort is the 2018 Honda Fit. A car like this can make you ask, “Do I really need any more car?”

In the past year or more, we’ve tested dozens of new compact crossovers. And at the risk of sounding like a broken record, they are all basically high-riding hatchbacks. Their high ground clearance suggests capability, but in reality, accomplishes little more than what a hatchback already does. In that context, it's refreshing to see a car like the 2018 Honda Fit. It has cargo space that not only rivals but exceeds that of some compact crossovers. It also boasts many of the tech and safety features of those pseudo-SUVs. And it accomplishes all this in a small hatchback layout that makes for a great city car.