Honda Rules! A Honda Civic concept shown at the 2005 Chicago Auto is a thinly-disguised version of the 2006 production model. I'm a little old for tuner cars, but it looks righteous to me - pleasing, sleek lines. The production SI model is expected to have 200 horsepower, up from 160. Sounds like a winner. I bet we'll be seeing lots of these new Civics on the road next year.

As a brand, the Honda Civic is the spiritual successor to Famous Flathead Fords of yore. Like the '32 Deuce. Or '49 Ford. When I was in high school, I'd see lots of flathead Fords in school parking lots - they were cheap to buy, easy to fix, replacement parts were plentiful and lots of hot rod parts were available, too. Most of these old Fords were Works In Progress, with Bondo, primer, mufflers held on by coathangers, etc. But these aging steeds were a tribute to the commitment and ingenuity of their youthful, car-crazy owners.

Look in any high school parking lot these days and you'll see more and hotted-up Civics than any other make/model of car. More SEMA members (Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association) produce aftermarket parts for Honda than any other brand. (If the Civic has become the new Ford hot rod, then the Honda Accord is the new Mercury leadsled - a little more upscale but easy to keep running. I see numerous primered, slammed '80s Accords in school parking lots. Old Acuras are sometimes found there, too. Accords and Acuras are filling Mercury's old role for America's youth.)

The Civic is also the spiritual successor to the VW Beetle. The air-cooled Volkswagen was a nice, dependable car (for its time) but 1930s engineering only went so far, even if you assemble the car with great care and expertise. Like the old Beetle, Honda Civics are low in cost, cheap to run and incredibly reliable. My brother is on his 3rd Civic - since 1975! And his brother-in-law is now driving the second one - a 1983 model which, by now, probably has 300,000 miles on it. Honda makes money on every Civic they sell. Civics are so good that Honda doesn't sell them to rental car companies. They don't usually need to do 'deals' - the cars sell themselves - without a lot of hype.

In the 1970s, you could find lots of Beetles in school parking lots. They were cheap, reliable wheels. And Volkswagen parts - stock and modified - were plentiful. But Volkswagen's time has come and gone. Today's kids are savvy enough to know that aging VW Golfs (unlike the simple, air-cooled Beetle) can be wallet-busters.

Honda Civic - not just a brand anymore. It's a cult.

Nevertheless, the little Civic looked great and, in today's anonymous vehicular world, unique. It's a handsome car.

When someone writes a 1960s retrospective and a car graphic is needed, the piece is always illustrated by a Mustang. Not a Jag XKE - too elitist. Not a Volkswagen Beetle - it may have been wildly popular in the 1960s, but it can be identified with too many other eras - 1930s Nazi Germany, early postwar America (it was imported to the US in '49) or the 1950s when a large U.S. dealer network was established. (Well, sometimes a beat-up generic Bug with flower decals may be shown but never a shiny new one.) Not Studebaker Avanti either - cool car, but too obscure for the casual pop-culture reader. It's always a Mustang - most likely a red convertible from the '64-'66 era. (Personally, I like the looks of the facelifted 1967 Mustang a lot better but ... the mob has spoken.)

The Mustang was never a "great" car; aging Ford Falcon purists will continue to scream, "We wuz robbed!" And produce tracts with bulleted talking points proclaiming the superiority of the Sprint and other Falcon variations. But the flawed-but-stylish, low-priced Mustang captured people's hearts and became a best-seller and an icon for the freewheeling '60s. These days, graying males lovingly restore and/or maintain their 'Stangs, vainly trying to reconnect with their long-gone youth.

In 2047 or so, when someone writes a retrospective of the 21st Century's first decade, the article will carry an illustration of the 2006 Civic. It too will have become an icon. And like the Mustang, well-kept examples will draw admiring and envious glances. From those Who Remember When. (posted 4/21/06)

copyright 2005-2006 - Joseph M. Sherlock - All applicable rights reserved

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