The seventh generation of the Civic was introduced to the market in 2000, and three years later, it received a mild facelift that lasted for another couple of years.
Honda Civic sold more than 300.000 units per year in the U.S., making it one of the most wanted compact cars on the North-American market. It was available as a sedan, coupe, and 3-door hatchback. In Europe, it was available as a 5-door hatchback as well. But one of the sportiest version was the 3-door hatchback, which didn’t share too many parts with its siblings.

Honda Civic 3-door hatchback was considered as a love-it or hate-it car. Some considered it as a bread-van while others had some better words for it. In 2003, the Japanese carmaker decided to refresh the car’s look. The headlights featured new lenses to improve night-time visibility, while the lower bumper received a more aerodynamic form. From the sides, the side sills were inspired by the Type-R version. At the back, a new set of taillights with bigger clear lenses for the reversing lights and a small roof-spoiler enhanced the car’s look.
Inside, the Civic offered a new, aluminum-like, front fascia. It was made from plastic, but it looked better than the black one offered on the non-facelifted versions. For the instrument cluster, Honda installed new dials with different colors and letters but kept the same layout as before.

There was a choice of three engines in the Civic 3-doors. While the 1.4-liter and the 1.6-liter gasoline units were manufactured by Honda, the 1.7-liter diesel unit was provided by Isuzu.