You don't see these too often: Honda Acty

Japanese "Kei" class vehicles will occasionally pop up in the States for institutional use. Penn State has several for example. It's not often, however, that they appear for sale at your local Chevrolet dealer. (Alas, it's sold "As-is. No Warranty") This happy looking fellow is perhaps one of my personal favorites since I have a fondness for Hondas. This is a 2nd generation (mid 1990s) Honda Acty sporting "Real Time" four wheel drive and a 4-speed manual transmission driven by a 660 cc inline 3-cylinder.

It can carry 770 lbs of stuff... not bad.  I wonder if you can put a snow blower on the front...

Granted, it's probably horribly unsafe on the highway, but you could probably never find a way to register it. (though they can reach highway speeds which is perhaps the scariest part) Regardless, it would be fun to have one of these around the house for yard work, or even as the ultimate urban winter car. New, these sell for around $10,000 in Japan. No price was given on this example.

What Lies Beneath: Honda 4 Wheel Steering

Above: Early Honda 4WS prototype using two Accord front-ends sectioned together. Note the red tail/headlights.

In the late 1970s, Honda began researching the possibility of four-wheel-steering as a way of improving upon the basic fundamental design of the automobile. It was an ambitious project for a company, which, up to that point, had only been building cars for a decade or so. They recognized the advantages of having all four wheels steer a vehicle, though the issue would become more complex when choosing between a set of rear wheels that steers in the same or the opposite direction of the front set.
If the rear wheels steer in the opposite direction, the turning radius of the vehicle is reduced (in this case, about 3 feet) and tight-turns become easier to maneuver. However, same-direction steering allows for rapid changes in lateral movement - such as passing maneuvers - with far less actual rotation of the car's body.

Honda opted against picking one method or the other and engineered a mechanism to allow the rear wheels to steer in parallel with the front at slight steering angles, but opposite of the front under tight angles. A separate steering gearbox at the rear of the car performed the complex task of aligning the rear wheels via a solid shaft from the front of the car.

By using planetary gears and eccentric shafts, they were able to allow the rear wheels to turn in one direction, then re-center, and steer the opposite direction all while the driver turns the steering wheel in only one direction.


By 1988, Honda's 4WS system was finally available on the Prelude. Upon testing, the 4WS Prelude was able to not only significantly out-handle its two-wheel-steered sibling, but also embarrass some rather serious machinery from Europe in a slalom test.
Primarily, 4WS was only offered on the Prelude, though some markets did see a 4WS Accord around 1990. Honda continued to offer the 4WS feature on the Prelude throughout the rest of its model life, finally fading out in 2001. Honda wasn't the only car company to offer four-wheel-steering; Toyota, Nissan, and even GM did. However, it could be argued that theirs certainly set the industry standard for over two decades. Unlike many imitators, Honda's system was also fully mechanical, as well as offering variable geometry. With nearly a decade since Honda last offered the system, we are left to wonder if it will make an appearance again, though with such innovation and advantages, I'm surprised it's been this long.

What Lies Beneath: Honda CVCC

In 1975, amidst increasingly more stringent emissions regulations, Honda introduced their CVCC “ED-1” engine. CVCC stands for Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion, a unique form of the stratified charge concept. Honda’s idea incorporated a third intake valve into the head of their engine that brought a very rich fuel-air mixture into a small chamber next to the spark plug. The normal, larger, intake valve allowed a leaner mixture directly into the combustion chamber. When the plug ignites the rich mixture in the extra chamber, the flame spreads outward to the combustion chamber and ignites the leaner mixture. A leaner fuel mixture generally means fewer NOx emissions but a lower power output. The use of the additional rich mixture allows easy ignition, and then the flame flows outward to the combustion chamber and ignites the remaining leaner fuel mixture, thus, making the most of the fuel available and reducing emissions at the same time.

Diagram showing the head design of the CVCC engine:

The spark plug is highlighted in yellow

The rich-mixture valve and chamber is shown in green

The traditional lean-mixture intake is shown in red

The original CVCC used a carburetor system with two separate venturis and two separate fuel mixtures for the separate intake valves. Later, CVCC technology was adapted to other engine designs from Honda and received as many as three separate carburetors in CVCC-II form before finally becoming fuel injected in EW5 series engines of the mid 1980s – though these were only sold outside of North America. In addition, CVCC Hondas eventually received catalytic converters as well, further reducing the emissions of these cars. The system faded away at the end of the 1980s and Honda began experimenting with valves again with the introduction of VTEC. But that, of course, is another story. 

The cycle of the CVCC engine is illustrated above. 

An Inconvenient Truth About Hybrids

Above: Arguably the world's first 'hybrid' powered car. 1901 Lohner-Porsche

In the late 1990s Honda developed the Insight – the first mass-produced hybrid car to hit the market. It uses both a small gasoline engine and an electric motor powered by both a generating system and nickel cell batteries. The Insight was cute looking, purportedly got 70 miles per gallon, and rated as an ultra low emissions vehicle. There are a few reasons why a person may want to purchase a hybrid-powered vehicle. With the cost of gasoline now over $3.00 per gallon, the appeal of a vehicle that gets better fuel economy is easy to understand. With growing concerns over the environment such as global warming, a car that is rated as having ultra-low emissions is also appealing. So what’s not to like about the hybrid car? Driving a hybrid car is a symbol of just how much you love our earth and are also craftily avoiding paying as much at the pump. If you still wish do drive an obnoxiously large vehicle, you can even get hybrid SUVs from a few different manufacturers.

Unfortunately, what most people don’t realize is that it’s not quite that cut and dry. Somewhat ironically, the biggest problem with a car called the Insight (and hybrids in general) is what you don’t know about them. In the greater scheme, hybrids can actually be bad for the environment and most likely will never save you any money at all, if not simply end up being very expensive in the end.

The notion of an expensive economy car is of course oxymoronic. Yet essentially, this is what vehicles such as the Honda Insight or Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius and Camry Hybrid are like. According to Honda’s website, a base model Honda Civic with a standard gasoline powered engine lists for $15,400. This car is capable of 36 miles per gallon from a four-cylinder engine with 140 horsepower. Respectable statistic for a relatively inexpensive car. The Civic Hybrid meanwhile lists at $23,550. It’s capable of 110 horsepower and can get up to 45 miles per gallon. While this is 9 miles per gallon better than its more conventional brother, the $8,100 more price tag is a bit of an eye opener. Lets say for the sake of example that the average person drives 15,000 miles a year. If you divide that by the fuel economy of each vehicle respectively, you will find that the annual savings in fuel by driving the hybrid civic is 84 gallons. Therefore, if gas is around $3.50 per gallon, you will save just under $300 in fuel per year. That means that at the current fuel price, you would have to drive the car for over 25 years just to break even in regards to initial purchase price.  Rarely do people keep a car – especially an economy car such as a Civic – for anywhere near that length of time.

To look at it another way, CNN Money recently published an article citing a similar example of their own stating: “A hybrid Honda Accord costs about $3,800 more than the comparable non-hybrid version, including purchase, maintenance and insurance costs. Over five years, assuming 15,000 miles of driving per year, you'll make up that cost in gasoline money if the price of gas goes up immediately to $9.20 a gallon and averages that for the whole period.”

Lets say now that just for another example perhaps you actually were willing to keep a Honda Civic Hybrid for 25 years, or in the case of an average 15,000 miles per year, until it reaches 375,000 miles. According to an article published by The Second Supper, the Honda Civic hybrid requires that its battery packs be replaced approximately every 80,000 miles. The cost of replacing them averages around $5000. Therefore, a hybrid with 375,000 miles on it would have had new batteries replaced at least four times in it’s life at a cost totaling $20,000. Remember that the car cost $23,500 to begin with and has undoubtedly depreciated significantly. Those maintenance costs are based on the hybrid battery packs alone. This does not include anything else likely to fail in that time such as the other electronics, the engine and electric motors, and normal wear and tear.

An article on hybridcars.com points out something called the “Dust-to-Dust” report that studied all the new vehicles produced in 2006 and rated them on energy consumed over their lifetime. This factors in production, running, and finally disposal of the vehicle. It then breaks it down further based on the cost of the energy used and the likely lifespan of the vehicle and will actually show the cost per mile of driving each car. The industry average was $2.28 per mile. The Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius both ranked over $3.20 per mile, which is actually more than a Hummer H2 at $3.02 per mile. For comparison a non-hybrid Civic came in at $2.42.

So this leads into the actual environmental impact of hybrid cars. Not all hybrids are rated with the lowest possible emissions ratings as one may expect. In fact, Honda’s Civic Hybrid is rated ULEV or Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle. Interestingly enough though, the Porsche Cayenne SUV rates the same as well. While hybrids do use less fuel and also produce fewer exhaust emissions, they require a significant amount of nickel for their batteries. The nickel is mined from the earth in open cast mines. This sort of mining can be highly detrimental to the surrounding environment. As one source stated, a mine in Ontario that supplies nickel to Toyota has effectively created a wasteland within a 10-mile radius from the pollution and destruction of the process. The nickel is then shipped to a factory in China where it is processed for use in the battery packs. From China, it is then sent to Japan, where the Prius is manufactured and lastly, as in the case of a car purchased in the United States, the finished car is shipped overseas for sale. The amount of energy used in transporting the materials for production and back to the North American market alone must be astounding.

So to sum this all up, yes, hybrid technology does sound like a promising proposition and I’m not claiming there aren't some benefits to it. The problem remains however that this budding technology still leaves a lot to be desired. It is expensive purchase a hybrid and clearly not worth it from a purely economical standpoint and the environmental impact is far greater than one would really expect. Raping the earth for material to build hybrids is not a good way to show the earth you care about it. There’s a lot of hype and deception surrounding the hybrid car and anyone considering purchasing one should be made aware of it. 

(This was a speech I wrote for a class at Penn State University. Nevertheless, I think it's worth publishing here as well.)

Below: The Honda Insight - based on an idea Porsche abandoned over 100 years ago.

Before the Civic.

Everybody knows what a Honda Civic is. Chances are you've driven one or you know somebody who has one. They seem to be appreciated by two distinctly different crowds: they're the econo-mobiles of gas savvy consumers and they're the dustbin-exhaust fitted charriots of boyracers across the world. But what came before the Civic?

Go back to 1968, a lot of Americans didn't know what a Honda was because they weren't imported here. Only in 1969 did Honda import its first car, the N600. A 600cc two cylinder engine lodged in the front powered this two door car that was small enough to compete against the Fiat 500 and the original Mini. Shame they tried to market it in the late 1960s on a market dominated by land yatches with huge V8 engines and running on cheap gas. The N600 was a flop and production was stopped in 1972, replaced by the Civic. These are seldom seen today but they've got a following amongst the early Honda crowd.

This one is sitting in Centerville, Utah, and appears to be complete, save for the glass.

Road Test: 2008 Honda Civic Si Sedan

In the United States, it seems as if the Honda Civic is enjoying as much of a presence on our streets and highways as the (old) Volkswagen Beetle did in the 1960s and 70s. The latest generation of Civic especially. It's interesting how both cars are/were affordable, well built, efficient, and rather odd looking and really caught on in a time when fuel prices were rising rapidly.Be that as it may, the most recent Honda Civic Si is hardly comparable to the Volkswagen Super-Beetle "Sport" of the early 1970s which had nothing more than blacked out chrome accents and a different steering wheel. Honda took what is basically a sensible, economic, family sedan and put 197hp engine in it, a lot of 'racy' interior materials, added 17 inch wheels... then tuned the whole chassis at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. 

Even the GTI needs to beware.

Driving:

The first thing you notice about the Civic Si, like all of the latest generation of Civics, is how odd it is to sit behind the wheel of one. The bottom of the windshield disappears below the horizon of the dashboard like the sky over the vast plains of the mid-west. There seems to be acres of dashboard which is only broken up by some clever sculpting and the two-tier instrument panel. When looking at it from the outside, it all seems rather absurd. But when you sit down in the stiff, heavily bolstered sport seats, it all falls right into your line of sight perfectly. The steering wheel, as well as the red-accented instruments - which are a combination of digital and analog - is quite reminiscent of a video-game. Perhaps a bit over done.

Fire up the 2.0 litre DOHC VTEC four cylinder and the Si's tasteful sport exhaust reminds you that this Civic is more about excitement that economics. (I emphasize 'tasteful' so as not to give the impression that it comes from the factory with a "fart-can" exhaust) Mated to a six-speed manual gearbox that is about as slick as the industry produces, and you have one hell of a drive-train under the hood. Under acceleration, this engine effortlessly revs and the VTEC system doesn't even switch cam profiles till about 6000 rpm. But when it does, you certainly notice it. There's a distinct change in sound and you can feel the extra pull as if winds out even further to 8,200 rpm. The rev-limiter kicks in at 8,300. All of this is good for 197 hp. The catch however, is a lack of torque - a problem which has always plagued Honda engines. That's not to say it's severely bad though. The car is, after all a 2-litre, which even when not driven hard, gives it a distinct power gain over lesser Civics and certainly over those from the past. I found it took a little getting used, but not much. Mostly it just involves a bit more use of the gearbox.  

The clutch has near perfect weight to it and the brakes are also excellent. Steering is very responsive, though the electric power steering (a feature only on the Si) is a tad artificial feeling at parking-lot speeds. If I may use the video-game analogy again, it's like a force-feedback gaming wheel. 

The transmission - well, it should be studied by all car companies for its smoothness and precision.

The chassis and suspension are quite stiff and road surface imperfections are definitely noticeable,  The low-profile tires on 17 inch alloys no doubt add to this as well, though it's still a fine cruising car on the highway. This car does handle damn well. It's very responsive and confidence inspiring with barely any body roll. And after all, let's keep in mind this is a fairly good sized sedan compared to something such as a Mini Cooper.

One area which will have to wait to be tested is of course how it can handle winter driving. It's pretty much certain that a set of extra wheels and tires will have to be swapped on when the snow begins to fall. The low-profile Michelins just aren't going to make it in North-West Pennsylvania.

Fit and Finish:

Honda fit and finish was never bad. In fact it's always been very good and generally above-par for the auto industry as a whole. Ergonomics have always been good and overall lasting quality too. This new Civic is certainly no exception and actually, Honda ha

s really stepped it up a notch. Say what you will about the interior styling, but the quality and the materials are first rate. Now having said that, is it like a contemporary Volkswagen? No. There are some hard plastic bits here and there and the occasional big gap in some pieces, but one probably won't have to worry about the glove box door of the Honda falling off without a fair fight. 

Outside the panel gap is pretty much perfect and the 

paint is free of orange-peel. It may not seem like that should even be considered on a modern car, but take a good look at a new Chevy Cobalt or something like that. As for the styling, well it personally reminds me of something Citroen of Renault would make. It's an odd package, but it works very well. Despite what seems like a very small trunk lid, it's luggage capacity is quite cavernous and dare I say, even rivals my old Saab 900s. 

Build Quality:

It's a Honda. 

Though with this particular car, it's a bit early to comment on how well it's holding together, I must say that having grown up around Hondas I can attest to their superb quality at an affordable price. Forgive me if I sound like a Honda spokesman, but I really do think they build a damn good product. If this Honda is anything like the my dad's daily driver '88, '92, and '96 Civics were, then it should be just fine.

Summary:

Whether you like it or not, or feel like it's a car for frat-boys in their early 20s, the Civic Si really is a hell of a good package. It's great fun to drive (especially for a $22,000 sedan) yet still very practical (especially in 4-door form) and, if driven sensibly, very economical. I'm first and foremost a European car enthusiast, but this is a damn respectable offering of a Canadian built car from a Japanese company.