2008 Honda Civic Ex-l Wow! One Owner! Loaded! Gas Saver! 60+ Photos! Must See!! on 2040-cars

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Honda Tourer BTCC car lavished with photographic love

Back in December, Honda Yuasa Racing gave us one image of the Civic Tourer entrant it's fielding in the 2014 British Touring Car Championship. Thanks to media days at Brands Hatch and a few photos from Oulton Park, we've got a whole photo album of the elongated Civic that will attempt to continue Honda's BTCC winning ways and shots of drivers Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal.
This is the first wagon to race in the BTCC since 1994, when Jan Lammers and Rickard Rydel had just one year to throw the Volvo 850 Estate BTCC between the kerbing. The following year, the rules were changed so that rear wings couldn't extend above the roofline or beyond the rear bumper, which meant the end of Volvo's blue and white "pizza delivery wagon."
The season begins on March 30 at Brands Hatch, when Shedden and Neal will begin trying to wrest the driver's championship crown from Pirtek Racing. We don't know anything more about the manufacturer entry go-fast Civic Tourer, however, which means this is just an easy feast for the eyes. Because racing wagon.

Honda Vision XS-1 Concept looks like a sportier Vezel [w/video]

We've talked a lot about the Honda Vezel over the past few months, as the Autoblog staff is looking forward to the Fit-based CUV. It's a handsome little vehicle, that we think will do quite well when it finally arrives in the US market. That said, it's not a particularly exciting vehicle to look at.
Along with the appearance of the Mugen-tuned Vezel at the Tokyo Auto Salon, though, a new concept that's being shown by Honda today at India's Delhi Auto Expo has us hopeful for a Vezel that looks a bit more assertive. It's called the Vision XS-1 Concept, and it's a seven-passenger (yes, seven) crossover that features minivan-style sliding doors. It sports Honda's "Exciting H Design," which is the same design philosophy used by the stylists that penned the new Fit. Unfortunately, at the moment, Honda has provided exactly zero details about what powers its new concept.
As a concept for the Indian market, which is home to some of the tightest, most congested roads on the planet, the stylish XS-1 is meant to demonstrate that Honda knows a thing or six about building compact vehicles. In that regard, we think it's a spot-on piece of work. Let us know what you think of it in Comments, but first, have a look up top for a gallery of images and then scroll down for a brief video and the official press release from Honda.

In 2014, living with a hydrogen car is fun, challenging

Read his lips: more hydrogen stations, please. That's the crux of the commentary from a Southern California gentleman who's been tooling around in a Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle since 2005. Jon Spallino, the first "retail customer" to lease the Clarity, tells The Wall Street Journal that he enjoys "everything about the car," including the peppy acceleration from the car's electric powertrain. The added bonus, of course, is the fact that the car's emissions are nothing more than water vapor. He pays $600 a month to lease the car, including the hydrogen refueling costs, and says he can go about 230 miles on a full tank. The flipside is the paucity in hydrogen refueling stations, which is understandable considering that they cost an estimated couple million dollars a pop to open. It's no accident that Spallino is one of the early hydrogen drivers, though, since there are eight public refueling stations in Southern California (and one in Northern California), more than any other state, according to US Department of Energy records. The only other public station is in South Carolina, so road trips are tough. Spallino, a resident of Redondo Beach, joins higher-profile folks such as actress Jamie Lee Curtis and former pro hockey player Scott Niedermayer among those who've gotten the opportunity to lease the super-low-volume fuel-cell vehicle. How low? Honda leased out 10 of them last year and just five in 2012. You can read more of Spallino's hydrogen-powered thoughts here.