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Honda Civic Tourer reminds us why we love wagons

It was the early 1990s when the last Honda Civic Wagon graced our shores, looking more like a squat five-door hatchback with an extra dose of charm. Well, Honda debuted the newest Civic Wagon Tourer at the Frankfurt Motor Show today, but, as we reported last month, it's a European model that will go on sale there early next year. There's still no word of it coming to the US.
The Civic Tourer was designed by Honda's European studio, and its overall look comes across as more muscular, sporty and stylish than both the sedan and two-door coupe, with bulging fenders and revised windows. Adrian Killham, large project leader for the Civic Tourer, has commented on the styling, saying, "Recently launched cars have tended to follow a similar style. The Civic Tourer has a different balance and appeal." We appreciate the sentiment, and the Tourer's shape is a big reason why we like it.
But we also like the 22 cubic feet of cargo space with the rear seats up, which grows to a gargantuan 59 cubic feet with the rear seats folded down. The big Civic will be powered by either a 1.8-liter four-cylinder petrol engine with i-VTEC or a 1.6-liter Earth Dreams i-DTEC diesel engine. Manual and automatic transmissions will be offered.

Acura NSX and David Lee Roth wail together in Super Bowl spot

Super Bowl 50 is just over a week away, but carmakers are already rolling out their big ads. Acura's newly released commercial uses the screams and moans from Van Halen's David Lee Roth and the song Runnin' with the Devil to build excitement about the upcoming supercar. As Van Halen plays, the NSX evolves from a slab of metal into the turbocharged, hybrid coupe. In a patriotic touch, the commercial uses red, white, and blue to subtly communicate the supercar's US development and production. It's a clever ad, sure, but we wish it showed more of the new NSX's high-performance capability. There's never a bad time to listen to some Van Halen, though. The video above is the 30-second Super Bowl commercial, which airs during the first quarter. However, the clip below is a one-minute version that lets the visuals breathe more. The longer cut is the better one, but Acura's choice is understandable given the expense of Super Bowl ad time. Acura Rolls Out American-made NSX Supercar with Super Bowl Commercial Set to Van Halen Classic, Runnin' with the Devil Jan 29, 2016 - TORRANCE, Calif. Iconic Van Halen song infuses high-voltage energy into NSX rollout Comprehensive activation includes social media sweepstakes, enabling consumers to experience the NSX Acura is one of the first brands to use Twitter Conversational Video to launch Super Bowl spot Acura is showcasing the next generation NSX, the only supercar made in America1, to the soundtrack of an iconic American rock song in a new commercial that will debut during Super Bowl 50. The high-energy vocal effects of the Van Halen classic Runnin' with the Devil provide the powerful beat for the Acura commercial that will appear during the first quarter of the big game. The spot is a showcase of the Precision Crafted Performance brand direction that is core to the Acura brand and vividly represented in the NSX supercar. The new Acura Super Bowl commercial is posted to Acura.com and Acura social media channels for previewing before the big game and is augmented with a series of unique social media activations and live experiences, including one of the first applications of Twitter Conversational Video to launch a Super Bowl spot. "In our Acura commercial, we wanted to convey the excitement of the NSX to a big Super Bowl audience," said Jon Ikeda, vice president and general manager of Acura.

Acura NSX roadster finally on its way this year?

Autobild put together a slideshow forecasting various convertibles due to arrive from 2018 to 2023. The long-prophesied Acura NSX roadster graced the first slide, reportedly prepped for market launch later this year at a price of 200,000 euros. That's about 13,000 euros more spendy than the hardtop, a relative bargain. Don't call your Goldman private banker yet, though — that Autobild slide is likely as close as any of us will get to said roadster this year. We've been doing the hokey pokey with the droptop NSX for at least six years now. In 2012 an eager enthusiast corps thought a European patent might have revealed the convertible supercar, only to realize it was Acura protecting Tony Stark's screen gem in The Avengers (pictured). In 2016, Autocar reported that Honda viewed the NSX as a platform for experiment and tests of developing technology that "help [ Honda] understand where the brand is going." Those brand explorations meant Honda was "contemplating convertible, lightweight, non-hybrid and all-electric versions." In 2017, Internet snoopers happened on patent images for a droptop coupe first dubbed the "Baby NSX," then potentially the ZSX after more snooping dug up a trademarked name. Even though production plans for a "Small NSX" actually did exist, dated to before 2008, the Small NSX/BabyNSX/ZSX turned out to be the Honda Sports Vision GranTurismo entry when Honda couldn't make a business case for the genuine article. Here we are staring down the same wishing well. Last year Acura sold 137 NSXs in the U.S. through the end of Q1, and so far this year only 67 coupes found buyers in that time. We know the NSX is a halo car, but halos work to best effect when they're visible. So all we know now is that the talented hybrid would do well with any variant that would get it more visibility, of the top-down kind, the Type R kind, perhaps a road-legal, non-hybrid GT3 kind, or any other. Related Video: