Sometimes our job isn’t always as simple as it may appear. Just a couple weeks after we tested and reviewed the pleasantly joyful 2022 Honda Civic sedan, its Hatchback alternative showed up. Now, this makes my job difficult – with the Hatchback twinning in nearly every single way possible to the sedan, forgive me if this review reads too similarly.

Apart from the sportback, fifth door styling at the rear and some neat looking LED taillights, the Hatchback is practically identical to the sedan. The two biggest differences between the Hatchback and the sedan come down to price and trim options. With the sedan starting at $22,350, the Hatchback carries a $1000 premium with the entry level LX starting at $23,350. As both variants climb up the trim option scale, the sedan leaves things in comfort mode with their Touring model topping out just under $30,000 while the hatchback likes to keep things fresh and funky, its top trim Sport Touring sees the spendy-uhh-er side of $31-grand.

Like the sedan, the hatchback offers two engine options. The two lower trim levels come standard with a 2.0-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine, all while the two upper half trim options, like this Sport Touring gets a happier dose of the turbocharged ways from a 180-horsepower 1.5-liter engine. As we experienced with the sedan, the CVT automatic is fine and dandy paired with this engine – lacking the initiative of the sport badging, its 8-seconds to 60-mph isn’t going ruffle the feathers of your passengers, but enough to get where thy needs going.

Unlike the sedan, the hatchback does hit a little different with the Sport and Sport Touring models that can be had with a 6-speed manual transmission – that includes a third petal at no additional cost. We were slightly disappointed that our sampler arrived with the CVT automatic when a manual was just a click away. But, c’est la vie.

Regardless of the transmission, the Hatchback, like the sedan is a fine-looking thing that is equally fun to drive as it is to look at. The chassis is the real party piece that features a taunt, euthanasic feeling. So then it was a wee bit of a let down that the suspension wasn’t as forgiving as we would have liked. Taking the sport badge to literal, the suspension was firm with unsettling jolts – even the steering felt unnecessarily stiff. They had the formula right in the sedan.

Like we experienced in the sedan, the new interior of the Civic is unquestionably spectacular. There is a minimalistic approach with a sleek dash design and a single line honeycomb design with embedded, hidden air vents. Every surface carries an upscale look with the use of attractive, gloss black trim and aluminum accents.

Feeling like its larger than it is, the Civic feels like a mid-size sedan with more than ample space for all passengers. Our Sport Touring was loaded to the gills with premium features like power adjustable driver and passenger seats, a digital instrument cluster, a large 9-inch infotainment system with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. All other models but the Sport Touring uses a smaller 7-inch touch screen and wired-mobile mitigation with an analog instrument cluster. Like most brands, the Honda Civic comes standard with all of the latest safety hardware. All models come equipped with forward-collision warning, lane-departure warning, collision mitigation, road departure mitigation, adaptive cruise control and high-beam assist. The Sport Touring is exclusive to featuring blind-spot monitoring and rear-cross traffic detection with low-speed braking control.

The Honda Civic has always been a crowd pleaser, and this hatchback continues to crowd surf on that high. With good looks and a fun-to-drive personality, its short of a Tinder profile, single ready to mingle.