Honda Civic
Honda Civic keeps improving.
While drivers still are grappling with higher oil prices this summer, it's ironic that a similar situation in 1973 set in motion one of the greatest sales successes in automotive history.
Honda at that time was three years into trying to convince Americans that its inexpensive, fuel-efficient Civic subcompact, powered by a compound vortex combustion control (CVCC) engine, was a good, if Spartan, buy. We didn't listen. We were driving big gas guzzlers with V-8 engines and loving them.
Honda struggled along with dismal sales but refused to give up, and even had the temerity to bring out a new model, a hatchback. Its debut in 1974, happily for Honda, coincided with the oil embargo and skyrocketing fuel prices. Civic sales shot through the ceiling (from 43,119 in 1974 to 100,000 in 1975), and the Civic became the benchmark for its class.
Since then, 10 million little Honda Civics have ridden the roadways of our planet in 140 countries and have been the company's best-selling models on a global basis for the past 20 years. By the end of this year, Honda estimates, the figure will rise to 15 million.
This icon of the Honda line is now into its seventh generation with the brand-new, redesigned 2001 Honda Civic arriving at dealerships in September. For the first time, the front-wheel-drive car is being built in factories in the United States, Europe and Japan, its home country, thanks to a new standardized manufacturing system.
Sticking with a proven winner is typical of Honda, whose forays into radical restyling have been few and far between, and mostly restricted to concept cars such as the jazzy Sprocket, a combination of a convertible, pickup and sports car. For production cars that make it into showrooms, the company has remained cautious, opting for safe style and subtle design cues that make no dramatic statements.
Under the hood, however, it's a different and daring story altogether. During its several reincarnations, Honda has been in the forefront of technical and environmental innovation since it developed the CVCC engine in 1973. This was the first vehicle to meet all emissions requirements without using a catalytic converter, while running on regular gasoline, a feat most manufacturers insisted couldn't be accomplished.
In 1977, the CVCC Honda Civic topped the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's first list of the top 10 most fuel-efficient cars. The second generation of the car, in 1980, added electronic ignition, and for the third generation in 1984, the distinctive CRX Honda Civic joined the lineup. Two years later, the CRX-HF Honda Civic was the first mass-produced four-cylinder car to break the 50-miles-per-gallon barrier.
The 1988 fourth-generation, sportier Honda Civic increased the car's original body size and introduced buyers to its 16-valve, double-overhead-cam engine. Four years later, Honda's patented variable valve timing and lift electronic control (VTEC) technology was added, providing additional lean-burn efficiency.
By 1992, when Honda rolled out the fifth version of its redesigned and re-engineered class-leading subcompact, there was a single-overhead-cam engine under the hood, complete with even better VTEC technology, and in 1996, when the sixth generation debuted, the company added continuously variable transmission (CVT) to the lineup. The CVT automatic-transmission-equipped Civics were the first automatics to make it to the EPA's top-10 list.
By now, Honda was on an environmental roll and getting the credit it deserved. In 1998, the automaker came out with a natural-gas-powered model, the Honda Civic GX superultra-low-emission vehicle, which the EPA called the cleanest internal combustion engine in the world. Last year, the 70-mpg Honda Insight, a gasoline-electric hybrid, hit the dealerships, as did the Honda Civic GX NVG, powered by natural gas. Today, Honda's environmentally correct, low-emissions vehicles include the VV hybrid, the Odyssey minivan, the Accord, the Civic and the S2000 roadster.
For its latest and seventh redesign, Honda is betting that today's high oil prices, along with a far more environmentally concerned public, will persuade buyers that the 2001 Honda Civic is as economical as it was back in 1973.
The Washington Times
August 25, 2000
Amadio, Jill