2012 Honda Civic Lx on 2040-cars

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Honda reveals Concept D crossover in China

Honda has, as promised, rolled in to the Shanghai Motor Show with the Concept D. Looking like a cross between an HR-V and a Decepticon, the Concept D previews a future crossover to be offered exclusively as the Japanese automaker's flagship model in China. The styling is certainly not for the faint of heart, with more angles than a geometry set, more vents than an air conditioner, a proliferation of LED lighting, gold spokes to match the bodywork and a sharply raked rear window with a giant wing at its peak. Details released with the trio of images remain scarce, but the production version of the concept you see here is slated to be offered in China through two of the company's local joint ventures, Guangqi Honda and Dongfeng Honda – albeit sure to be toned down some on the road from show stand to showroom. Honda Exhibits World Premiere of Concept D at Auto Shanghai 2015 BEIJING, China, April 20, 2015 – Honda Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd. (HMCI), a wholly-owned Honda subsidiary in China, today exhibited at Auto Shanghai 2015* the world premiere of the Concept D, a concept model for a new SUV model under development. *The 16th International Automobile & Manufacturing Technology Exhibition, Venue: National (Shanghai) Center for Exhibition and Convention Press days: April 20-21, 2015, public days: April 22-29, 2015 The Concept D shows the direction of a mass-production SUV model which is currently being developed exclusively for the China domestic market as a top-end SUV model that offers high-quality driving and a spacious cabin. Equipped with advanced safety technologies and other advanced features, a Concept D-based SUV model will go on sale from both Guangqi Honda and Dongfeng Honda, positioned as a new flagship model of Honda in China. ?Comment by Seiji Kuraishi, President of HMCI "Including this Concept D, which is a proposal for a new value that only Honda can provide as the pioneer of the SUV market in China. We would like to continue providing attractive products equipped with our advanced technologies to our customers in China. Toward this end, we will accelerate the localization of our business in China."

Honda Civic will show its hatchback in Geneva

Honda is bringing a conceptual look at the new Civic Hatchback to next week's Geneva Motor Show. But we think it'll be that in name only – Honda has a history of showing very production-looking 'concepts'. Given these recent spy shots, showing a very well-developed, five-door Civic, the production model should arrive before we know it. The new Civic is a seriously pretty car, and from some angles the four-door sedan already has a hatch-like appearance. We love the look of this cobbled-together prototype; the rounded-off rump in no way ruins the Honda's lines. There's even a center-mounted exhaust, which makes us super happy, though that might just be reserved for more powerful Si or Type R models. Standard five-door Civics will probably use the same engine lineup as the rest of the range – a naturally aspirated, 2.0-liter inline-four on the base end, and a turbocharged, 1.5-liter four in higher trims. Honda's also working on a turbo/manual pairing, which will likely be our powertrain du jour. We'll get a sort-of-conceptual look at the Civic Hatchback next week. Until then, scroll through the gallery of spy shots up top to see this little cutie from all angles. Related Video:

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.