Honda Civic 10th generation (FC/FK)

The tenth-generation Civic's goal was driving pleasure at the top of the C segment. Behind it were a sense of crisis over the dramatic progress of competitors around the world, and customers saying the Civic had become conservative lately. The development team adopted "OTOKOMAE" as its watchword, and demanded no compromise at all in every decision, at times even of those doing the evaluating.

At first there was no plan to offer a six-speed manual in the hatchback. The team begged for it because they wanted to drive one. They had long heard from Japanese customers that having only a CVT was boring; they wanted to drive it themselves, but above all they wanted to answer customers' voices.