It’s easy to lament the loss of the modern crapcan car, but it’s difficult to ignore the role consumer preference plays in the current landscape of car affordability challenges. We live in an age where you can finance a pizza if you want to splurge on extra toppings, and even have someone on an eBike deliver it to you for a nominal fee. Sure, the concept of a luxury apartment now just consists of white walls and dreary grey faux-wood flooring, but in many ways, we have it pretty cushy. This push towards a dose of the sweet life for John and Jane Q. Public explains the new Honda Civic Sport-L perfectly, a slightly cushier version of a popular compact car.
On the face of things, there’s nothing revolutionary about the new Civic Sport-L. It still looks about the same as any other new Civic, it’ll drive about the same as any other new Civic, and it doesn’t even have Honda’s smooth but occasionally problematic hybrid powertrain. However, the firm founded by Soichiro has layered on the extras like Chipotle guacamole.
See, the “L” in Sport-L stands for leather, which means many toys reserved for the top Touring trim have trickled down to this non-hybrid model. Stuff like leather upholstery, heated power front seats, dual-zone automatic climate control, illuminated vanity mirrors, and the capitalist decadence of a passenger side seatback pocket. How petit-bourgeoise.
This is all despite leather being a bit of a crap material for mass-market car seats. See, leather isn’t leather, even though it’s all hide-of-beast. At the tippy-top, you have full-grain leather, which is typically aniline-tanned, shows lovely natural markings, and patinates beautifully. It’s breathable, supple, durable, the stuff extraordinarily expensive sofas are clad in. Most automotive leather isn’t that. Instead, it’s coated leather, usually grain-corrected too. Buffed, stamped and typically coated in resin, it’s often relatively cheap stuff that doesn’t necessarily take well to conditioning due to the resin treatment. This sort of leather is what covers the seats in my aged BMW 3 Series, and after nearly two decades on the face of this planet, the rear bench feels like those clear plastic slip covers your grandmother had on her sofas. Not brilliant.
Regardless, leather is still a sign of decadence, an aspiration. It doesn’t really matter that cloth won’t crack, doesn’t get scaldingly hot in summer or frigid in winter, and offers superior breathability. It also doesn’t matter that pleather’s become genuinely astounding in softness and durability. No, consumers want the genuine thing—even if it’s relatively low-grade—and are willing to pay for it.
Indeed, the Civic Sport-L starts at $29,790 for the sedan and $30,990 for the hatchback. On the one hand, that’s only $1,500 more than a regular Civic Sport, but on the other, dancing around the $30,000 mark feels like huge money for a mid-range Civic. Still, general sales figures suggest that people are still willing to pay the Honda premium, and if a business case didn’t exist for the Sport-L trim, Honda wouldn’t offer it.
In some ways, I understand. My daily-use headphones are a pair of Bowers & Wilkins PX7s and I’d see myself having a difficult time downgrading from that. I’d also have a difficult time picturing myself in a daily driver that doesn’t have heated seats or a decent stereo. Once we get used to things that scratch a certain itch or fulfil a certain desire, chances are we aren’t going back. After all, what’s effectively a large pizza per month on a finance term in exchange for getting what you want?
While you ponder that, there is one other change to the Civic for 2027. The Sport Touring Hybrid models add the same sort of simulated paddle-shift setup seen in the new Prelude, so you can rifle through fake gears if it suits your liking. Is it worth splashing the cash on the top trim for? Probably not, but it’s certainly an interesting bonus.
Top graphic image: Honda
Our old 2013 Honda Odyssey EX-L (now at 200k relegated to ‘spare car’ duty) has some of the crappiest, leather-masquerading-as-vinyl seats I’ve ever owned.It’s like city bus grade vinyl, it will last forever but you won’t enjoy it at all. Yes, they have held up pretty well (a bonus with kids) but luxurious they are definitely not. Hard, slippery, cold in the winter and searing hot in the summer. Honda leather is just not that good. The ‘leather’ in our Golf Alltrack, while not great, it much better overall.
OEM leather frequently sucks. The aftermarket leather seat upholstery I installed in my NA Miata is so much nicer than any factory leather I’ve owned. Granted, it came from a factory in Pakistan and probably didn’t start off as a cow, per se, but it’s buttery-soft and takes conditioning beautifully.
When I bought my ’24 Integra I grumbled about the lack of “real” leather. The leatherette, however, has been brilliant. Soft, wears like iron, looks great, easy to take care of. It’s still a bit weird to me that you can’t get leather upholstery in the Acura that’s based on the Civic, but I don’t miss it.
I will never apologize for wanting real leather in everything I buy; it will be a cold day in hell before I willingly choose “vegan leather” or cloth, no matter how many people shriek about their supposed benefits.
-Hot in summer, cold in winter? Who cares, I have heated and cooled seats.
-Less durable? Treat it well, condition it, and take care of it.
Good job Honda, give the people what they want.
I realized circa 2002 after owning a car with really nice leather seats for 3 years that I really hate leather and would pay extra the alcantara feeling cloth. It lasts sooo much longer without any cosmetic issues compared to real Alcantara and is infinitely more comfortable just from how easily it deforms around you and how breathable it is. It’s also not brutally cold when you sit down in the winter, nor scalding hot in the summer.
I have a Land Rover with real, supple, glorious cowskin and I want to drive pantless it’s so baby soft. My wife’s new CR-V which has the crap leather that feels like a cheap bondage suit. Which admittedly also feels nice against my naked butt.
The experiment in Canada with the Acura EL, and CSX shows there’s a market for upscale Civic.
I don’t see the issue.
I’ve never wanted leather seats. Hot in the summer, cold in the winter. My old 500 Abarth had everything except leather seats (& the Tom Tom GPS that just plugged into a hole in the dashboard).
I think I’m more forgiving of an aggressively priced car like a Honda Civic having inexpensive low-grade leather (although pleather/vinyl or what Tesla calls “Vegan Leather” would be preferable). I am less forgiving of premium cars having cheap leather. You can spend $120,000 on a brand-new Mercedes-Benz GLS 580 and get what I would consider to be very cheap, grainy-feeling, unpleasant leather; Mercedes-Benz makes you pay extra for the good stuff. BMW, too.
As for Hondas with non-cloth, my very first car was a 1990 Honda Accord EX. My parents bought it from some sort of salvage/car lot operation in 1998 and it gave us good service. It was one of the earliest examples of a MY1990 Accord, with a build date in mid-1989, and had a J-VIN, indicating that it had been built in Japan and not in Marysville, OH, like most other Gen. 4 Accords. It also had all the options, as I can recall: power windows and locks, a power sunroof, fog lights, color-keyed bumpers and mirrors, and alloy wheels. It had a purple-ish/eggplant-colored interior…including a vinyl (not leather) seat upholstery that I’ve not seen on any CB7 Accord before or since.
If people want to buy it great, if in a year or two Honda makes this the only trim not so great.
Also eff most leather seats as the cheap pretentious garbage they are. The only cars I’ve owned with leather seats that actually felt opulent were my ’83 533i (thick sumptuous leather like all but the highest end modern cars wouldn’t dream of) and my ’08 Cayenne, which in spite of being owned for years by my careless father in semi arid Montana were still in great shape and free of cracks and wear marks. Every other car with leather made me wish I had gotten the cloth seats. Sadly from what I’ve seen in the great post Covid cheapening of everything even leather seats are no longer as bulletproof as they used to be.
Honda is adjusting the Civic range in the wrong way. They should be trickling down the hybrid powertrain down to the cheaper models, not making the ICE models more expensive. I want a Civic Hybrid without a sunroof.
What about cloth seats and adjustable lumbar instead?
Cloth + heated is a great combo too, my wife’s Subaru has this and they get warm nearly instantly without all that crap leather between the heating element and your butt+back.
( It’s just shocking to me that the Civic does not offer adjustable lumbar on ANY trim level )