Civic Still Canadian Car-sales King

Canadians still prefer the Honda Civic despite new offerings from Hyundai, Ford, Chevrolet and Mazda.

For the 14th year in a row, the Civic has been named Canada’s best selling car with 55,090 iterations of the Civic being sold. The runner up is the Hyundai Elantra, with the Mazda3 coming in next, followed by Chevrolet’s Cruze.

“First and foremost, we thank the thousands of Canadians who bought Honda Civic models this past year to make the Civic the number one car in Canada for the fourteenth consecutive year,” said Honda Canada in a statement.

And thank them they should since this model year Civic has been widely criticized for lackluster performance, sub-par quality and boring styling – things that never would have been said about Civics of the past. This, apparently, has not deterred Canadians and Honda should thank their lucky starts for that, as Consumer Reports for the first time ever did not recommend the 2012 Civic. It is rumoured that Honda is going back to the drawing board to address these issues. The changes could come as early as the 2013 model year.

[Honda Canada]

Canada’s Top 10 Selling Vehicles So Far in 2011

We’re half way through 2011 so it’s a good time to check in and see which models are most appealing to Canadians so far. Honda’s Civic is holding strong as the number one selling car in Canada, while Ford’s F-150 takes best selling truck and best selling vehicle overall.

Here’s the complete list:

1) Ford F-150 – 46,825 units

2) Ram Pickup – 30,459 units

3) Dodge Caravan – 29,986 units

4) Honda Civic – 26,371 units

5) Hyundai Elantra – 24,283 units

6) Ford Escape – 23,183 units

7) GMC Sierra – 22,225 units

8 ) Chevrolet Silverado – 19,233 units

9) Toyota Corolla -18,853 units

10) Chevrolet Cruze – 18,769 units

No big shockers here. I’m a little surprised that the Ford Focus didn’t make the list considering it’s now a credible contender. But Canadians obviously love their pick-up trucks and compact vehicles. Stay tooned to see where each vehicle places at the end of the year and if there will be any new additions to the list.

[Auto 123]

Details Arise on 2012 Honda Civic Si Powerplant

Honda showed the world its Honda Civic “concept” at the Detroit Auto Show recently, and I put the word concept in quotes because this is pretty much what the production car will look like. It will of course get more conventional wheels and lights, but expect the overall shape to be similar.

Most Canadians will opt for a regular Civic sedan, but a selected few among us with petrol in our veins will undoubtedly put the Si version on our shopping lists. The current Si makes 197 horsepower and 139 pound feet of torque. I’ve got to say, I’ve driven the Si and my immediate thought after stepping out of it was “meh”. I think the car overall is pretty underwhelming. One of the big reasons why is the engine and the way it is tuned. 197 horses may seem impressive but it really isn’t without good torque numbers to back it up – and let’s face it, torque is really where the actual power comes from. All anyone cares about it horsepower, but they really should be looking at those torque numbers too.

But according to Honda fanboys over at Temple of VTEC, the 2012 Si will get a new 2.4 litre engine known internally as the “K24″. It’s actually the exact engine that Honda uses in the current Acura TSX, which makes due with 201 horsepower. That means the new Si will likely see a power in the 200 to 210 horsepower range. That doesn’t seem like all that much boost, but torque numbers are expected to be as high as 170 pound feet. Now we’re talking.

Still, I think a lot more than engine power needed to be addressed  on the current Si, so let’s hope Honda spent some time on improving driving dynamics in the new Si as well.

[Temple of VTEC]

Oh Hi: 2012 Honda Civic Concept

Honda had introduced it’s Civic concept and it is very significant for us Canadians because the current Civic is the best selling car in Canada.

While it technically is a concept, it’s safe to say that most of the styling cues will stick around for the production version. When you’ve got the best selling car in Canada, and let’s face it, most of the world, you don’t want to mess too much with a good thing. Those LED lights and gunmetal alloys likely won’t make it to production, but you never know.

The grille and headlights are apparently carried over from the current generation Civic, while new tail lights and a redesigned trunk lid can be found out back. Overall it’s an evolutionary look, not revolutionary. Still, it’s an attractive design.

The Civic coupe concept takes styling cues from its big brother, the Accord Coupe.

Since these are concepts there is no info on powertrains, but Honda did mention that the Si will indeed return along with a natural gas version. So far there’s no mention of the return of the Civic Hybrid.

Hit the jump to see a rear shot of the Civic sedan and the Coupe.

[Honda] Read the rest of this entry »

Honda Civic Safe For Females, Death Trap For Males

This is interesting. According to USA today, the 2011 Honda Civic gets different crash test ratings for both males and females.

The National Highway Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) recently created new crash test standards, which means all cars were re-tested. The new standards include a “pole test” which simulates a side crash into a 10 foot pole at around 30 km/h.

The NHTSA is famous for its 5 star ranking system.

During the pole test the NHTSA used a female crash test dummy and a male crash test dummy. The female dummy did well as it resulted in a 4 star rating. But then they strapped the male dummy in for the test and it only got a 2 star rating!

What?

The NHTSA didn’t offer up any explanation. Is it because males are bigger than females? I don’t get it.

In addition, this is in stark contrast to the 2010 Civic’s overall rating of 5 stars. But thanks to this latest test, under the new standards, the Civic gets a mere 3 star rating overall.

In any event, if you are female and you are reading this you may want to reconsider buying your boyfriend that Civic Si for Christmas. It might just kill him.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t treat yourself to one since apparently it will protect you more than your boyfriend. Just don’t drive him anywhere in it.

[USA Today]

Oh Hi: 2012 Honda Civic

So I almost didn’t bother writing a blog post about this because as you can see from the video above, there really isn’t much to talk about here in terms of design. It’s more of an intense face lift rather than a full out re-design.

But since the Honda Civic is the number one selling car in Canada, I felt as though I should say something. And also because for some reason Honda didn’t feel it necessary to camouflage the newest iteration of its best selling car ever.

So here it is, the 2012 model year in the Middle East most likely doing hot weather testing. As you can see, the most significant update is the the rear with a completely new tail light design (is every car on the road gonna use LED’s now?) and a much higher rear deck that reminds me of the rear of a Nissan Sentra. Which isn’t exactly a good thing. The front facia is more familiar to the current version with the grille being more upright.

No word yet on power plants. Hopefully the Si sticks around but if it does, Honda better give it more power. The current version is quite the snooze fest. And hopefully they’ll be able to make it look good. Not like how the Nissan Sentra SE-R looks terribly awkward.

Expect official pics quite soon in light of this new video.

[Car Magazine]

Honda Canada to Discontinue Hybrids

According to various reports, Honda Canada has decided to pull the plug on the Insight and Civic Hybrid. This has yet to be confirmed by Honda Canada, but I also have it on good authority that this is the case.

The two mild hybrids haven’t exactly been a hit around the world (except for in Japan), but sales are particularly bad here in Canada. Canadians love the regular Civic however as it has been the best selling car for years with over 31,000 units sold. Honda Canada claims they don’t keep track of which specific trim levels were sold so they can’t say for sure how many of those units were Civic hyrbids. That’s bullshit. If they don’t track it, how do they know Civic Hybrids aren’t selling? They just don’t want the public to know just how bad the Civic Hybrid is selling. Luckily since the Civic Hybrid is build only in Japan, and the rest of the gas models are built in Canada, we can easily find out for ourselves. Over 600 Civics sold here were built in Japan. Therefore, since the only Civic built in Japan is the hybrid, likely that those 600 Civics were hybrid models. That means the hybrid Civic represents only 2% of Civic sales!

Likewise, and admittedly I’ve known this for a while thanks to some inside info I got from a local Honda dealership, the Insight is going to get the axe as well. The Prius wannabe never caught on here despite strong sales in Japan. Although I’ve never driven the Insight, most reviews are not favourable. In fact, Jeremy Clarkson called it “biblically terrible” adding “It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more.” God, I love Clarkson.

Anyway, good try Honda. Maybe you’ll have better luck selling the CR-Z here. Probably not though.

[Monvolant]

FAIL: Prius Driver Jailed for Racing?!

Huh?

I recently tested the 2010 Toyota Prius, and even though it isn’t the car for me, I came away quite impressed. One of the things that impressed me was its unexpected power. The Prius can get from 0-100 in 9.8 seconds. That isn’t fast enough to induce any sort of thrills, but for a hybrid, that’s pretty damned good. I even pondered whether I should even mention the Prius’ 0-100 time because I figured no one remotely interested in a Prius would really care. Speed = lots of fuel consumption after all. Apparently I was wrong.

Timothy Hird from Georgia seemingly had a fit of road rage as he was unimpressed with the way a Honda Civic was driving. He then decided to show non-hybrid owners just how fast his Prius could go by racing the Civic. There was lots of back and fourth yelling, and the Prius was apparently able to hold its own, but in the end, a close call with a police officer ended the Civic vs Prius affair.

Both drivers were booked for wreckless driving and Hird even got thrown in jail for it. All this just to prove your Prius is faster than people think?

[Top Speed]

Mazda3 Was Best Selling Car in Canada in April

Mazda’s 3 took top selling car honours in Canada last month.

The Honda Civic usually beats its competitors by a fair margin, but it seems as though Canadians are feeling that the Civic is a bit long in the tooth as Volkswagen was able to unseed the Civic back in February.

But don’t expect the new tougher competition to force Honda into redesigning its Civic. Even though Honda rigorously completely redesigns almost every model on a strict five year schedule, the Civic will be missing its redesign by a year or so. Honda claims new efficiency standards are to blame for the delay, but clearly it’s because the competition is churning out some decent product, and Mazda besting Toyota is the perfect example.

The Golf, the Corolla, upcoming Focus and Cruze aren’t going to wait around for you to reclaim the top spot, Honda.

Volkswagen Golf Best Selling Car in Canada for February

Watch out Honda, zee Germans are coming!

The Civic has been the best selling car in Canada for over a decade – they even have a television commerical boasting about the Civic’s longstanding success.

But that commerical may turn out to be a bit embarrassing now that VW’s Golf took top selling honours for the month of February for the first time ever.

Apparently we have all but forgotten about high gas prices because the Dodge Ram, Chevy Silverado and Ford F-150 were also among the top sellers last month.