Honda Civic design sketch gallery traces 50 years of evolution

The Honda Civic debuted on July 11, 1972. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, let’s look back on five decades of design sketches that have helped shape the car. Spanning 11 generations, the illustrations are taken from various stages of development of each chassis. Some are clear depictions of what the production versions turned out to be. Others are wildly different possibilities that from an alternate timeline.

Before we get into the design sketches, Honda has also released a “Happy Birthday” video to mark the occasion. Some of the design sketches appear in the video, along with fashion trends and the Japanese nicknames for each generation. Usually those were based on ad copy in the TV commercials at the time, and they stopped at the 8th generation. That’s also when the designs started becoming localized for global regions and the styling became more aggressive and serious. In any case, it’s a reminder of how far the humble Civic has come over the decades. Now, without further ado, some design sketches from Honda’s archives.