The 11th-generation Honda Civic would be making its appearance in Malaysia this year. However, leaked presentation images of the car popped up online yesterday, suggesting that something may be on the cards before the year is out. The product slides offer an overview of the variants that are supposedly coming our way – two variants are highlighted, and the first is a 1.5 litre turbo variant in E grade trim. Specifications for it include 16-inch five double-spoke alloys, full LED headlights and DRLs as well as two new features, a smart clear wiper and an auto opening rear trunk lid. The last looks to be mechanical system, utilising a torsion spring to get the dampers to perform a self-rise action.

The other is the more exciting piece of news, coming in the form of a 1.5L RS. The grade dresses up the Civic with quite a bit of black exterior kit – aside from a headlight extension with a RS emblem, mentioned items in the particular shade include door handle covers, side mirror caps and rear spoiler. The variant also gets twin tail pipe finishers and will ride on 18-inch matte black wheels (which is an inch larger than that for the Thai-market RS).

 

Inside, the cabin will feature black leather/suede combination seats, black headliner and red contrast stitching on the steering wheel and gear knob as well as sporty aluminium pedals. There’s also mention of door lining illumination, which will be new to the Civic. Like Thailand, Malaysia will also see a single powertrain choice for the new car – we’ve been told that the long-serving 1.8 litre naturally-aspirated i-VTEC four-cylinder base engine will no longer feature for the Civic.

No mention of tech details in the slides, but there should be very little deviation from the output of the 1.5 litre VTEC Turbo four-cylinder petrol engine seen on the Thailand and Indonesian-market models, with 178 PS at 6,000 rpm and 240 Nm of torque from 1,700 to 4,500 rpm on call. The mill is paired with a CVT. The automaker’s Honda Sensing system isn’t highlighted in the slides, so it remains to be seen if, as it is in Thailand, the entire local model range will feature the suite of driver assistance kit, which includes autonomous emergency braking (AEB), adaptive cruise control, lane centring assist, lane keeping assist, automatic high beam and front departure alert.