Hmmm, while I’d love to say that yes, the shapely car you see before you is indeed the next generation Civic, it would probably be rather irresponsible of me to do so.

You see, while the lads over at Auto Express are quite keen to label this as the all new 2010 Civic there’s very little evidence available to support their claim. Honda themselves have made no releases related to a new Civic, nor have they even alluded to the development of such a model. Of course, the Civic will eventually be updated, but is this really it?

While the true nature of these images is open to question, the styling is undeniably appealing. The front bumper and headlamp clusters borrow heavily from Honda’s OSM concept, while those fat rear fenders almost give those on the 350Z a run for their money. The design of the rear is a little less dramatic than that of the current Euro-spec Civic, but for those that never warmed to the FN2’s split rear window that’s probably a good thing. There’s also a faux rear diffuser to keep the posers happy and while that rear light strip is about as thin as an Olsen twin, it’s thankfully nowhere near as frightening to look at.

It looks good and there’s no doubt the hard-core Type R version will look even better, but the question remains: is this what we’ll see on our roads come 2010? Time (and perhaps some official press photos from Honda) will tell.

Thanks for the tip, Nick!

[Source: Auto Express]
[Images: Auto Express]