Who cares about the old Elantra or the new Sonata? I'm talking about the Civic here. And I would expect the Civic to be much better than whatever the test standards were before the new ones because Honda's always played up their safety R&D. And in your own words, I do find it surprising and frankly puzzling that a Honda isn't expected to beat safety standards like the Imprezza and Golf presumably do. I honestly put Honda at a higher level than what they're showing with these tests, so yes, I was surprised and disappointed about the results for the Civic, especially considering it likely won't be replaced for at least another year, if not longer.
That's the problem. You (and the original article) restrict the conversation to the Civic specifically, when most cars of the Civic's generation (designed in mid-2000s) fare similarly (Mazda3 and Versa get two stars; Sentra and Camry get three). This is a generational issue, not a Civic-specific issue.
And in case you're not aware, a new Civic is coming for model year 2012. It was originally planned to be here for model year 2011, though they ended up holding off for another year (the rumor is they decided to downsize it or keep the size constant instead of the original plan to make it larger than the 2006-2010 Civic). The Civic isn't any newer of a design than your Sonata is, and this generation Civic will continue be on sale for less than a year.
I don't know what sort of ads Honda runs in Canada, but in the States, they're best known for fuel economy and reliability. They're pretty good on safety, but I've never thought of them as heads and shoulders above
everybody else. I've never thought of them as current crash-test leaders like VW and Subaru, or historical safety leaders like Volvo and MB. Maybe they play up the "safety" card more in Canada, claiming to be the best of the best of the best, but I doubt most Americans think of them in that way.
EDIT: And even though the previous-generation Sonata isn't being sold anymore, YOU own one. You bought it not soon before I bought my 2011 Civic. So are you worried about how previous-generation cars perform on the new test or not? Because if you're not worried for your own sake, I'm not sure why you're worried for mine.