Autoblog

Keeping track of who's cribbing whose automotive designs is about to get even more difficult once Honda brings its new Euro Civic to market. If this rendering from Auto Express is to be believed, the new hatch is a certifiable stunner. That is due in large part to the fact it looks almost exactly like another stunner: the new Volkswagen Scirocco. Swap out the grille and the rear lights, and that Honda is... practically a VW.

The OSM concept at the British Auto Show was the appetizer for the next Euro Civic's looks -- there was simply more distance between it and That Other Hatch since the OSM had no top. Under the hood, though, Honda has vastly different plans: rumors include a 1.5-liter hybrid with 150 hp and a 2.0-liter for the Type R that could be assisted by an electric motor

The 2-door hatch will be a different proposition than the 4-door and aimed at a different buyer just like the current models in Europe. Not that it will make a difference to American buyers, because just like the car it (kind of) plays doppelganger to, the Civic hatch isn't coming to the U.S. Thanks for the tip, Colin!

[Source: Auto Express]

Click above for high-res gallery of the 2009 Honda Civic LX-S

Just last weekend we brought you some leaked scans revealing the new face of the 2009 Civic, and today Honda makes it official by revealing all the changes made to its popular small car. As we've already learned, exterior changes include a new front bumper cover that reshapes the bottom curve of the grille and features three prominently placed, more traditional looking air intakes in place of the single large opening on 2008 and prior models. Honda also claimed it messed around with the color combinations of the headlights and taillights, but damned if we could tell. There's also new alloy wheels for the EX, EX-L and Si models, and the latter pocket rocket gets standard fog lamps, as well. The only other exterior change is a new piece of chrome that's been placed above the rear license plate holder. Finally, Honda has added two new trim levels: the LX-S that comes with alloy wheels and sporty trim and DX Value Package that gets standard AC and an unspecified audio system.

2009 Civics will also offer Bluetooth for the first time on models equipped with navigation systems, and the EX, EX-L, Hybrid and Si get a new USB port to plug in digital audio players. Honda has also chosen to make stability control, or what it calls Vehicle Stability Assist, standard on these models only.

We've got Honda's full press release after the jump if you think we're making all this up, and high-res galleries of the new '09 Civic LX-S and Civic Hybrid below.

Click the picture above for a high-res view.

Aftermarket parts manufacturer Skunk2 has been churning out go-fast bits for Hondas since the mid 1990s. Initially named Skunkworks, the company's extensive racing efforts and an R&D facility only found in the dreams of most engineers have rocketed it to the forefront of today's sport compact market. Skunk2 is ready to move into the future and is seeking to offload its project EP3 Honda Civic RR in order to make room for something new. Built to show that the Japanese tuners could be beaten at their own game, and loaded with every possible item in the Skunk2 catalog, the ride carries an asking price of $17,000.

The project exclusively uses U.S. domestic market parts. The motor, built with Wiseco pistons, forged Cunningham rods and various Skunk2 components, churns out 254 hp and 190 ft-lbs of torque at the wheels. For the most part, the mods are limited to the performance and interior upgrades, though a few Civic Type R body trim pieces (technically UKDM) and lightweight Volk wheels (apparently domestic distribution counts as USDM) also find their way onto the car. No gaudy shopping cart rear wings or excessively louvered hoods for this rice burner. Check out the gallery for more EP3 images.


[Source: Skunk2]

Click the image above to see more photos of Franken-Civic

Car mods and great fuel economy are frequent topics here at Autoblog, but pair the two and sometimes they go together about as well as milk and whiskey. One gentlemen has modded his 1992 Honda Civic to achieve an alleged 85 mpg at 70 mph, but he had to beat the vehicle with a 500-lb ugly stick to get the job done. The would-be engineer used coroplast and aluminum (not papier-mâchié, as it would appear) to add a "front spoiler", underbody cover, wheel covers, and a missile-like "boat tail." We're not sure why the muffler is wearing a codpiece, but this guy seems to know what he's doing, so we'll give him the benefit of the doubt. The end results of the modifications are Prius-destroying fuel economy, very little drag, and zero chance of ever getting a date while driving it.

We do have to give props where props are due, however. If the fuel savings are legit, this rolling tribute to ugly is very impressive. The liftable wheel covers and inverted side mirrors are clever touches, as is the stow-n-flow storage compartment beneath the boat tail floor. In all, it's an interesting science experiment, but this Franken-Civic is more likely to elicit shrieks of horror than looks of awe.

[Source: Ecomodder.com via AutoblogGreen]

Each month, 13 million visitors use Edmunds to research cars and trucks, and once again Honda and Toyota dominate the site's list of top searches. The Honda Civic and Accord along with the Toyota Camry lead the hit parade, followed by six other Japanese models and the BMW 3-Series. The two Japanese juggernauts also owned the top truck searches, with the fuel efficient Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 taking first and second, respectively. The only other automaker to crack the truck/SUV/minivan category was GM, with the GMC Acadia coming in at number five, and the Saturn VUE rounding out the top ten.

It's interesting to note that the vehicles car shoppers research most aren't exactly the the ones that produce the highest sales volume, as evidenced by the Mazda3 besting the economy car sales champ Toyota Corolla by three spots. Also worth noting is that automotive stalwarts have a much larger presence on Edmunds than do new models like the Chevy Malibu or the Cadillac CTS. To check out the complete car and truck top ten from Edmunds AutoObserver, click the read link below.

[Source: AutoObserver]

There's high mileage, and then there's this. A 1995 Honda Civic is for sale in Atlanta with, count 'em, 939,899 miles. That's 200-plus miles a day. Every day. Including Sundays. For 12 years. It even has a CARFAX report from when the car had 907,000 miles on it. According to the seller, the car runs like new, with no leaks, no noises, no oil burning, and not even a scratch on the body. In fact, the only blemish listed is that one of the dashboard lights doesn't work, and that's only sometimes.

The car is on its ninth timing belt, ninth water pump, and fourth clutch. But the engine and transmission are original, as are the floor mats. The car even comes with records. The most incredible thing isn't the mileage, though. It's how the owner put the miles on the car: driving on business trips from Atlanta ... to Seattle ... and San Francisco. We want to know what kind of business -- or what kind of boss -- makes a guy drive across the country and back, and then some, every single month for 12 straight years.

To paraphrase The Proclaimers, if you buy this car then you can drive a million miles and you can drive a million more ...

Thanks for the tip, Ronnie!

[Source: Craigslist]

Click image for photo gallery

The Honda Civic Mugen RR (based on the new JDM Honda Civic Type R) is limited to a total production run of 300 cars. Japanese track fiends with ¥4.7million to spend on a spiffy, street-legal time attack weapon are its target audience -- and a receptive one at that. On September 14th at 9:00 AM local time in Japan, reservations for Mugen's ultimate Type R officially began being taken. By 9:10 AM, according to the Japanese enthusiast site, Carview, the 300th reservation was placed. However you want to parse the numbers (we're sure additional reservations were taken, in case some prospective buyers bail out), one thing's certain: all 300 cars are spoken for well in advance of the expected January delivery date.

Those lucky enough to secure the Mugen RR receive a lighter, more powerful and track-tuned Civic Type R that in the right hands is capable of lapping Japan's Tsukuba circuit in 1:06:38. At least that's what the folks at Mugen were able to wring out of it. We're sure some of the car's buyers will be looking to top that number as soon as they have a chance. With this thing, life is a driving game, and Time Attack mode is always on.

[Source: Carview]

Autoblog regulars will remember the ongoing feud between Honda Canada and the Canadian government. The conflict centers around Ottawa's new budget that contains the ecoAuto program, which offers between $1,000 and $2,500 rebates on certain fuel efficient vehicles and up to a $4,000 penalty on gas guzzlers. The Honda Fit, which is very popular in Canada, missed the cutoff for being eligible for a rebate because it consumes 6.6L of fuel every 100 kilometers, just one tenth of a liter more than the federal criteria for the rebate. The Civic misses the mark, however, by one-third to a half liter every 100 kilometers.

Honda threw a fit at what it saw as a federal endorsement of fuel economy over safety, as well as the unfair advantage it gave to competitors like the Toyota Yaris, which did qualify for the rebate but performed less well in crash tests. Honda even went so far as to offer its own $1,000 rebate on the Fit in protest.

In the meantime, Honda engineers have been going over the Fit to eek out a few more miles per gallon, and they've done it on the Fit equipped with a manual transmission. While confirming that they did not reduce the vehicles weight by deleting safety options to achieve the fuel savings, Honda was mum on exactly how it was achieved except to say "internal tinkering" was involved.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look they'll be able to perform the same miracle with the Fit that's equipped with an automatic, though in Canada the manual Fit sells more anyway. The Civic, which is less fuel-efficient than either Fit, has pretty much no hope of ever meeting the governments criteria for the rebate.

Thanks for the tip, Steve!

[Source: The Star]

The state of California has taken a hard line against illegal street racing, the type of which has on occasion led to the death of innocent pedestrians and the racers themselves. They're employing a new deterrent to make these illegal racers think twice about competing on public roads – crushing the impounded cars of those caught street racing. This Fox News video clip (click this link to view) shows a local reporter present at the inaugural crush who appears a little too excited about the event compared to the disembodied anchorman whose voiceover we hear in the backgroiund. The tuned Honda Civic hatch is flattened quickly inside the crusher's jaws, the extreme pressure popping out its windows like eyeballs and some of the hatch's contents ejecting out the back like vomit. Fortunately, it looks like the aftermarket rims may have survived. The Ron Burgandy wannabe behind the desk says it best at the end exclaiming, "Half the guys in the studio are crying at what you just showed us."

[Source: Fox News via GMInsideNews]

The latest news on the Honda vs, the Canadian government issue has Honda Canada now hoping to tweak its Fit and Civic models to qualify for Canada's auto rebate program (the so-called ecoAuto program). The ecoAuto program is a bit like the U.S. gas guzzler tax combined with our incentives for hybrids. Honda hopes it can improve the mileage on these two cars just enough to earn the $1,000 CDN rebate offered to buyers of fuel efficient vehicles that use less than 6.5 liters/100km. Honda engineers back in Japan are working on the issue and hope they can find a way to get better mileage, without sacrificing either car's safety or driveability.

The ecoAuto program gives buyers of the most fuel-efficient models rebates ranging from $1,000 to $2,500, but also penalizes gas guzzlers up to $4,000. Cars like the Toyota Yaris sail right under the specified economy ratings of 6.5 liters/100km, but Honda just missed with its popular Fit that achieves 6.6 liters/100km. The Civic, meanwhile, consumes about 7.0 liters/100km. In fact, Honda was pretty upset that the standard was set just below the Fit's ratings, and decided to offer $1,000 of its own money to buyers of 2007 models. Critics of the program have even called it "the Yaris subsidy program" since Yaris sales were up significantly more than Fit sales when the program was announced, but Honda's own rebates brought Fit sales back.

While Honda works to get that extra fuel economy, it doesn't even know if the standards will be the same in 2008. There is some talk that the qualifying criteria could be lowered on 2008 models. The reason for the possible change is that Canada was using the new EPA standards introduced last year to better reflect real world driving conditions. Those EPA ratings are now under review as a proper standard for the Canadian program. Sigh, such drama. We'll keep you posted.

[Source: The Toronto Star]