As Honda is gearing up for the Frankfurt Motor Show world premiere of the 2012 Civic hatchback, it gradually releases more details about its new European-market model.

This time, Honda tells us that its development team has focused on ensuring that the new Civic will offer optimal interior refinement. The company’s engineers used the Swindon factory’s anechoic chamber in fine-tuning every detail: for example, they had to modify the design and construction of the roof lining after studying its interaction with the rest of the bodywork.

Honda claims that the new Civic’s aerodynamic shape contributes to maximizing the car’s interior refinement on any kind of road surface. It even recruited engineers with Formula 1 experience to make sure that the Civic will combine “a low drag coefficient with excellent high-speed stability” and offer improved performance, reduced fuel consumption and reduce noise levels.

“We did not improve the noise and refinement of the new Civic through just one technique” explains the head of chassis development, Kazuo Sunaoshi. “It was the accumulation of lots of little details. My big challenge was to match the noise and vibration levels of our European competitors. I am proud to say that we have achieved our goals.”

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