Honda Civic News
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News from next month's 2011 Detroit Auto Show is coming in almost daily now. The latest announcement: Honda will present the world debut of a concept car that shows the styling direction of its next--and crucially important--Honda Civic. In reality, this means that the Honda Civic Concept shown in Detroit will be a thinly disguised version of the ninth-generation 2012 Civic, which will go on sale in spring 2011. Today, Honda released a sketch of the "sleek and aerodynamic profile" of its concept. It appears to be either a two-door coupe or a three-door hatchback. From the image, the 2012...
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September 2010 Best Selling Hybrid Top Ten: Ford, Lexus, Nissan and ToyotaThere aren’t many of the usual suspects in the automotive industry that don’t have a hybrid vehicle these days. In fact, it is almost getting harder to name all the people who do, which makes those who don’t either forgotten or stick out in side-by-side comparisons. Ever wonder...
Jonathan McGrew -
Another Hybrid Study Misses the Point: It's Not About PaybackSometimes, you'd think that hybrid-electric vehicles were the most important development in the automotive world, if not the entire geopolitical sphere, in the last 15 years. They're not. More than a decade after they launched into the U.S. market, their market share hovers just south of 3 percent...
John Voelcker -
Ford, Mazda and Honda Make Best Back-to-School Cars ListPopular Small Cars Make the Exclusive List
Jonathan McGrew -
Honda Civic Si Takes 1st Place At SCCA RallyCross ChampionshipsA Stock Honda Civic Si Wins the Modified Two-wheel Drive Class
Jonathan McGrew -
Ouch! Honda Yanks Civic Hybrid AND Insight Off Sale In Canada[UPDATE: Honda Canada later clarified to Autoblog Green that it was not removing the cars from sale, but merely selling down available stocks, and that it would order more units from Japan when and if customer sales actually depleted its supplies of either model.] As early as last year's U.S. sales...
John Voelcker -
Honda is asking Civic Hybrid owners to bring their cars back to the dealership for a software upgrade, as the hybrid system's original power management tactics might result in a battery life that's shorter than intended.
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Only One Hybrid Car Pays Back Its Owners; Know Which One?One of the criticisms of hybrid cars has historically been that there's no payback, especially given the cheap gasoline prices in the U.S. The extra money you spend on a hybrid isn't returned in gas savings, say critics. Well, that may be true, especially when regular gasoline is averaging $2.77 a...
John Voelcker -
Honda To Launch Plug-In Hybrid Car in 2013, A Year After ToyotaIt's been a time of turmoil for Honda lately, with the company doubling down on hybrids and pulling back on its clean-diesel efforts. Now, according to a Reuters report, the company will introduce both a plug-in hybrid and a fully electric car for the 2013 model year. The electric car will be...
John Voelcker -
Honda Doubles Down on Hybrids, Dumps Clean Diesel To Go GreenAlthough Honda designed and sold the world's second hybrid-electric car, the 1999-2006 Insight, the company hasn't done nearly as well in hybrids as its larger rival Toyota. Now the company has reinforced its earlier suggestion that it would significantly beef up its hybrid efforts by providing...
John Voelcker -
California Yanks Prius Perks: No More Hybrid HOV-Lane AccessYou may remember that in California, 85,000 lucky owners of three hybrid vehicles were granted special stickers giving them access to High-Occupancy Vehicle lanes, even with only a single occupant in the car. Well, their luck runs out on December 31, the last day those stickers are valid. While...
John Voelcker -
Honda Spotlights Fuel Efficiency As New Company FocusWill Fuel Economy Keep Honda Ahead Of the Competition
Jonathan McGrew -
The Wait For the New Civic Design Gets Extended
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Natural-Gas Honda Civic To Oklahoma As U.S. Lags in NGVsThe U.S. buys more hybrids than any place else in the world except Japan. We have a handful of clean diesels, with sales slowly increasing. But the "other alt-fuel" for automobiles--natural gas--is barely a blip on the U.S. market. Nonetheless, Honda is plugging away (ahem) with its 2010 Honda...
John Voelcker -
Honda and Hyundai Tie For Best Small SedanConsumer Reports Ranks Both Civic and Elantra as Best Bets
Jonathan McGrew -
Green-Car Tip: Hybrid Vehicles Get Discounts, Incentives TooWhile the auto industry in general offers an average incentive of more than $1,000 off the sticker price of any new vehicle, many buyers somehow assume this doesn't apply to hybrids. Oh, but it does. You can get money off pretty much any hybrid out there at the moment, since gasoline prices are far...
John Voelcker -
Is Radiation From Hybrid Vehicles Cause for Concern?Could hybrid cars actually be dangerous to drivers? It seems like an unfounded question. How could hybrids actually hurt their occupants? A study conducted by a research committee funded by the Environmental Protection group of Israel suggests that hybrid could actually be harmful to the...
Eric Loveday -
New Hybrid Scorecard Slams Carmakers For Loading On LuxuryIt's long been known that hybrid buyers often choose them over luxury cars, and aren't buying them solely for the payback in gasoline savings. But a new Hybrid Scorecard, launched by the Union of Concerned Scientists, slams carmakers for inflating their prices by loading luxury into fuel-efficient...
John Voelcker -
All good things must come to an end, and it's the same with the wildwood weed ... err, with California's HOV-Lane access perk for owners of three hybrids: the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid, and Honda Insight. They are set to expire on December 31 of this year. Originally passed in 2005, the law opened California's high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, restricted to carpools, to a limited number of very low-emission vehicles even if there was just a single person in the car. THe law's goal was to give buyers an incentive to trade in their old cars for a far more fuel-efficient Toyota Prius...
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Green Car Sales: Winners and Losers of 2009It's beginning to look as if the worst is over for U.S. auto sales. The year that just closed was, in the immortal words of Queen Elizabeth II, an annus horribilis, with only 10.4 million vehicles sold, down 21 percent on 2008 and the lowest total since 1982. But some light seems to be appearing on...
John Voelcker -
EPA's Most Climate-Friendly Cars: All About Fuel EfficiencyThe dirty little secrets of Top 10 lists are in the methodology, as Forbes found out with its weirdly inaccurate "10 Dirtiest Cars" list. (It's the end of the year, so it's time for a lot of Top 10s.) But we see no such problems in the EPA Green Vehicle Guide, which rates vehicles not only on...
John Voelcker -
Civic Hybrid Owners Sue Company Over Gas Mileage Concerns, Owners Awarded $500-$1000 Off Next Honda PurchaseWhat happens if you purchase a vehicle based on the stated mileage claims listed on the window sticker only to later discover that your vehicle does not achieve the lofty numbers listed? In the case of the 2003-2008 Honda Civic Hybrid, the automaker has decided to award those who purchased the...
Eric Loveday -
Whoa There! Your Honda Civic Hybrid’s Mileage May VaryCalifornia Lawsuit Defines the Meaning of Caveat Emptor
Jonathan McGrew -
Cash or Coupon for Honda Civic Hybrid Owners In Mileage LawsuitIf you're one of the 120,000 people who own a Honda Civic Hybrid made between 2003 and 2008, you may already know about the proposed settlement to a lawsuit against Honda contending its advertising overestimated the gas mileage of your car. If you're not aware of the suit, read up quick. EPA...
John Voelcker