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Officially Official: Honda unveils updated 2009 Civic

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.
posted : 9/2/2008 @2:55:46 AM
Facelifted 2009 Honda Civic sedan gets scantastic reveal

Honda hasn't released official shots of the mildly facelifted 2009 Civic sedan yet, but it has started sending brochures to dealers. You know how this works: brochure > scanner > web > you, so here it is. Up front, the grille is reshaped to align Civic with its Honda brethren and the lower fascia gets a more aggressive three-opening treatment that lets the foglamps be pushed farther outboard. In back, the taillamps retain their shape, but the reverse light detailing is updated. Some models (from what we can see) now also get a trunklid chrome strip. Look for some new wheel designs sprinkled throughout, as well as two new trim levels -- the DX-VP (Value Package) and LX-S (Sport appearance package). Given that people are flocking to more economical cars, those additional offerings in the lineup certainly shouldn't hurt. We expect to see 4-door's front-end changes make their way onto the Civic coupe as well.
posted : 9/2/2008 @2:03:22 AM
LX-Prize: 80 MPG '87 Mustang with 400 HP

Doug Pelmar's 1987 Ford Mustang LX Coupe might have just become our favorite X-Prize competitor. How come? Well, first off, LX Coupes are awesome to begin with, but Mr. Pelmar's is even more special. Rather than neuter his 'Stang in the name of high efficiency, he's gone and created something that should contend in the X-Prize's "Mainstream" category, but would also be right at home on the pages of Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords. The car's engine runs on E85 for emissions purposes and has several modifications that Mr. Pelmar designed (mostly electronics, it seems) allowing it to run much more efficiently -- to the tune of a claimed 80 miles per gallon -- while producing 400 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque. He admits that he could squeeze more MPGs out if he dialed back the power some, but where's the fun in that? 80 MPG and 400 horses in a Fox body seems like a completely reasonable compromise to us.
posted : 7/3/2008 @5:34:34 PM
The official ride of the neo-Maxwell Smart? Vespa.Poor Maxwell Smart. In the original series, Agent 86 started off pretty cool with a Sunbeam Tiger before the relative demotion to a Karmann Ghia convertible. This summer's retread of the Don Adams vehicle has Steve Carell fighting KAOS with an appropriately crime-fighterly Vespa LX150. With fuel prices pushing or past $4/gallon in a lot of places, things are tight at CONTROL, and the Vespa gets better mileage than pretty much any car. If you want to see what it's like to roll like Maxwell Smart, pay a visit to a Vespa dealer, they're offering free Subway gift cards in exchange for a test drive or product demonstration (hear that, Neff? Free lunch!). A Vespa did feature in the original series, so giving a role to the scooter in the new version isn't without precedent, though an Eos might have been more historically correct.
posted : 5/26/2008 @8:40:09 PM

Daihatsu teams up with Provision to create 3D holographic dash

Forget about light-emitting diode (LED) or liquid crystal display (LCD) dashboards. According to Daihatsu, the next hot ticket will be 3D holographic technology. Daihatsu teamed up with Provision Interactive Technologies to implement a 3D dashboard for their latest concept car which debuted at the 40th Tokyo Motor Show. Attendees were so impressed with the technology, that Provision raced to file a new patent for the product they call "HLXX."

The HLXX technology utilizes a traditional 2D flat screen dashboard with a second 3D holographic screen. During normal operation, the driver views instrument gauges on the 2D monitor. If warnings or alerts occur, the 3D system instantly presents the information to the operator as a three-dimensional image -- facilitating immediate driver awareness and recognition, according to Provision. Daihatsu plans to incorporate HLXX technology into their vehicles by 2012. Until then, you'll just have to imagine what it looks like... as for obvious reasons, a flat JPEG computer image cannot replicate the hologram!

posted : 3/30/2008 @3:54:55 PM
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