There are few roads more famous than Mulholland Highway. Cutting its way through the Santa Monica Mountains, it's a road you see in movies, hear about in songs, and – most importantly – read about in car magazines.

Journalists have headed to Mulholland for years for the opportunity to flog the daylights out of some of the best street legal performance cars they could get their hands on. It was only a matter of time before I got the opportunity to do the same thing, and it was something I had been looking forward to for years.

The biggest question I had, though, was always what car I'd be driving when I finally made it to Mulholland. Would it be an Alfa Romeo 4C? Would it be a BMW M4? Would it be a Mercedes-AMG GT S? Perhaps an American classic like the Ford Mustang?

After years of buildup, that question was finally answered when I got invited to attend a recent vehicle launch in California. A large part of the drive route took place on Mulholland, and believe me when I tell you it lived up to the hype. It was all I could have hoped for in a legendary driving road.

The car, on the other hand, was a bit different than what I had imagined I'd be driving on my first Mulholland experience – a 2016 Honda Civic.

Honda

The 1.5 liter turbo Civic certainly wasn't the drift machine of my dreams, but you have to admit there's something satisfying about completely abusing a car so clearly ill-equipped for spirited driving. The squeal of the low rolling resistance tires and the flashing of warning lights that weren't worth paying attention to were a constant reminder that I was behind the wheel of an economy car, but yet somehow, I still had fun.

Most of the turns were extremely tight, giving the Civic plenty of opportunities to trip over itself. But it just didn't. I definitely wasn't going to set any hillclimb records, but it still felt remarkably nimble, especially for a Civic.

If you've driven a Honda Civic in the past few years, I highly doubt you used the word "fun" to describe the driving experience, so I understand if you're a little bit skeptical that the new one might be significantly different. Believe me when I tell you, though, that the new Civic drives much more like the Mazda3 than the Toyota Corolla.

In case it's not clear, that's a good thing. I would gladly take the Mazda3 on any great driving road, and I would even choose a loaded version over a base Audi A3. Anyone who has driven the latest Corolla can attest to the fact that trying to drive it on a road like Mulholland would be the kind of mistake you don't make twice.

Honda

Thankfully, Honda had no intentions of attempting to out-Corolla the Corolla with the latest Civic.

The turbocharged version is no budget Civic Si replacement, and the manual transmission isn't available on higher trim levels, but who cares? Economy cars need to get great gas mileage, and only a handful of people buy manuals these days. Besides, a new Civic Si and Civic Type R are coming soon enough, and those will be the versions enthusiasts will be interested in anyways.

Regular versions of the Civic are for people who care more about fuel economy and reliability than performance, and that's perfectly fine. At the same time, though, driving even the base version of this new Civic transports you back to a time when Hondas were actually sporty, cool, and even fun to drive.

Honda

The days when the Civic Si was cool are gone. The Prelude is gone. The CRX is gone. The S2000 is gone. The Acura NSX is coming back, but for now, it's gone too. The cool, fun Hondas of years past are all gone, and yet even though it wasn't a performance version, the Civic I drove was the first real indication I've seen in a long time that Honda legitimately intends to bring fun back to its lineup.

Yes, the Civic Si is still around, but when was the last time you saw someone driving one, much less heard of an enthusiast cross-shopping one against other affordable performance cars like the the Subaru WRX, the Toyobaru twins, the Volkswagen GTI, or either of Ford's STs? Heck, when you consider Honda's lineup over the past few years, I'm a little surprised it even offers the Civic Si at all.

I also found myself oddly hopeful.

If you strip away the CVT and near-luxury options on the new Civic, what's left is a fairly attractive car with an excellent chassis and strong brakes that even non-enthusiasts might accidentally find themselves having fun driving. Thanks to the fact that Honda sells hundreds of thousands of Civics per year, there's even a chance that Honda will end up creating new enthusiasts with this latest generation.

After all, while it's definitely not a canyon carver, it's a mainstream car that has the potential to show drivers that there's more to driving than simply getting from point A to point B without breaking down. Who knows where that little taste of joy could lead?

Honda

I'm not convinced that everyone who drives a new Civic will immediately follow it up with a Miata project car and regular attendance to their local autocross or track days, but some of them will at least end up interested in cars and the thrill of driving. In a time when autonomous vehicles are seemingly inevitable and everybody and their brother drives a crossover SUV, a mainstream car that might stem the tide is a welcomed relief.

If it were my money, I'd skip the base 2.0 liter engine in favor of the 1.5 liter turbo, even though you can get the base engine with a manual (but one that isn't the greatest ever). Enthusiasts should hold out for the upcoming Civic Si instead.



As for the 1.5-liter turbo, 174 horsepower isn't that much more than 158 horsepower, but you can feel a real difference in how the two engines pull thanks to the turbo's 24 extra pound-feet of torque and its more favorable torque curve. The manual is only rated at 31 miles per gallon combined, though, which is considerably less than the CVT's 35 MPG combined rating.

In the Civic EX-T, you get the vast majority of the features offered on the top-level Touring trim, including Apple CarPlay, and even if you choose to add Honda Sensing, the MSRP is only $23,200. It's probably going to be the volume seller and the one I recommend. Then again, if you're buying this car for your teen, the base model offers a good bargain at $18,640.

My time behind the wheel left me legitimately looking forward to what the performance versions of the new Civic will be like to drive. Real tires, a sportier suspension, more power, and a solid manual transmission should make the Civic Si a serious contender in the sub-$30,000 performance car segment, and the next Civic Type R should be an absolute monster.

We'll have to wait a bit to get to drive those cars, but when was the last time you heard someone say they were excited to drive an American Honda ? Maybe times really are changing.

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