For those who regularly travel into central London the Civic Hybrid makes good sense as, like all hybrid cars, it is exempt from the central London congestion charge. But while it’s cheap to tax, fuel economy in real life conditions won’t be as impressive as Honda claims. Insurance is group 7 though, which is reasonable for a car of this size but depreciation may be heavy when buying new, because of the high list price.

This is where the Hybrid excels – it emits just 109g/km of CO2 and can return 61mpg. But while this was mightily impressive when the car was launched in 2006, other manufacturers are now able to offer similar-sized diesel cars that are even more efficient and economical.

It may be clever – and relatively new – but Honda’s hybrid technology seems to be well engineered. In fact, the oldest running Insight (Honda’s first hybrid and alternative fuel car in the UK) has now covered more than 100,000 miles and still never misses a beat. Aside from that, this Civic Hybrid appears to be Honda business as usual: impeccable build quality and dependable reliability.