One of the complains that has been leveled against the new 2012 Honda Civic is that it isn’t very dramatically designed. In fact, we said as much in our review of the Civic Si, commenting that this “boy racer” needs an injection of testosterone.

This may just happen, and far sooner than anyone could have predicted, with rumors that the 2013 model year car will get a styling update well-ahead of the usual mid-cycle refresh. According to one source a “very refreshed, and more aggressively styled Civic,” is set to hit the market in December of 2012 as a 2013 model year car. The news comes from a “grassroots” meeting between West Coast Honda dealers and corporate big wigs, where the dealers expressed their concerns with the new car’s styling and were reassured with the above comments from corporate.

With Honda having just launched the new Civic, the 2013 model year car is said to arrive late in the year, perhaps as far away as December of next year, giving Honda as much time as possible to revamp the car to help it compete better against popular new models like the Cruze, Focus and Elantra.

GALLERY: 2012 Civic Si

[Source: TOV]

Read AutoGuide’s 2012 Honda Civic review here, and 2012 Civic Si review here

As competition heats up in the compact car segment, Honda is hoping to lure customers with more than just the promise of a well-built, efficient and reliable sporty car. The Japanese automaker is also looking to appeal to your aesthetic sensibilities with a futuristic design similar to that found on the new CR-Z. This doesn’t surprise us as Honda has developed some more progressive designs lately, including the current Fit.

The next-gen Civic will more than just look like the CR-Z, however, with a hybrid variant getting a setup similar to the CR-Z’s, using the larger 1.5-liter 4-cylinder to deliver added power and fuel economy. Also planned for the 9th generation Civic is a 3-cylinder engine, although it’s not clear if that engine option will be available in North America.

Set to debut in 2012, the 9th generation Civic will go on sale as either a 2012 or 2013 model.

[Source: Car & Driver]