Honda's UK division has produced some rather intriguing, thought-provoking commercials over the years. Who can forget the Rube Goldberg machine that was the Accord Tourer in "Cog"? Or the wonderful shape-shifting showcase of the company's innovative history in "Hands"? The latest spot in the pantheon of greats is "Feeling", featuring the facelifted Euro-market Honda Civic range – regular hatch, Tourer and manic Type R.

Produced by Wieden + Kennedy London, the rather surreal 60-second ad depicts boffins working in a bullet-time environment to fine-tune the driving experience, as the various Civics traverse through rainy cityscapes, sakura-covered roads and dirt trails.

No detail is left unnoticed – birds, butterflies, flower petals, the dirt and water being sprayed from the wheels, the position of the driver's hands on the steering wheel and gear lever; they are all tweaked just so. Honda says in the video that "the most powerful thing you can build is a feeling" – and it really carries the message across here.

Though a standard TV spot, "Feeling" joins a number of recent ads built specifically for the web. There's "The Endless Road", featuring a CR-V literally driving endlessly in the time of day and weather of your current location; "Keep Up", which featured an ever-quickening sequence of words and challenges the viewer to keep up; and "The Other Side" that explored the Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of the regular Civic and its Type R sibling.

Of course, an all-new tenth-generation Honda Civic is due to be unveiled in the third quarter of this year, with a new 1.5 litre VTEC Turbo four-cylinder engine as well as a Type R hatch for the US market. Previewed by a low-slung lurid green coupé concept, patent pics leaked soon after suggested that the production models will keep the promise of striking styling; more recently, a hatch mule was spotted by our Euro spies.

Facelifted Honda Civic hatch
Honda Civic Type R at Geneva 2015