2006 Honda Civic Si Coupe 2-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Recharge Wrap-up: Tesla is for Mistresses; Yo, free Smart ED rides!

Smart used the Yo app to give free test rides to San Franciscans last week. Yo is a free app wherein users tap a username to send a notification that simply says "Yo" to the recipient. Signs at locations in the Mission and SoMa neighborhoods gave instructions to send a Yo to SmartUSA for a free ride anywhere in the city. Three of the eight Smart vehicles used for the promotion were the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive. The event allowed people to see how well suited the cars are to the city, particularly when it comes to San Francisco's parking problems. It also saved users the fare of an Uber or Lyft hire. Read more at TechCrunch. Zipcar has added the 2014 Honda Fit EV to its UC Davis fleet near Sacramento, California. The cars will go to the school's West Village, a planned zero net energy community, which plans to generate as much energy as it uses within a year. "Innovations like solar power to help generate the electricity needed to charge the EV," says Dan Sperling, founding director of the school's Institute of Transportation Studies, "and fully zero emission car sharing moves us aggressively toward a sustainable future." The addition of the Fit EVs will also give cash-strapped students access to affordable emissions-free driving. Read more in the press release, below. California is one step closer to adding 15,000 new green HOV stickers after a bill was approved by the state Senate. Now the bill must go up before the California State Assembly for approval before it can be signed by Governor Jerry Brown. The bill will raise the total number of the green HOV stickers for plug-in hybrids to 70,000. Raising the cap on the green decals, which allow owners use of the carpool lanes, could encourage more California drivers to buy a PHEV. Read more at Inside EVs. The Tesla Model S made a star appearance on the ABC television show Mistresses. In the episode "Choices," the character Joss receives the car as a gift from her fiance, but is not all too happy about it, seeing it as putting her in a position of dependency. "I could never in a million years afford that Tesla," Joss complains to her friend. "How am I ever supposed to get mad at him when he can hold a Tesla over my head?" The luxury EV makes an on-screen appearance in the episode complete with an interior shot of the car's touchscreen display. See a clip from the episode below or read more at Green Car Reports. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences.

2015 Honda Fit shapes up for America [w/video]

The Fit may be Honda's smallest (and, starting at $15k, most cost-effective) model, but it has never sold in quantities that even approach those of the brand's larger offerings - at least not in the United States. Where American Honda typically sells hundreds of thousands of Civic and Accord models - even CR-V crossovers and Odyssey minivans - annual sales for the Fit typically amount to tens of thousands. But the Japanese automaker hopes to expand its sales in the segment with the introduction of the new 2015 Honda Fit.
Having launched the all-new model several months ago in the Japanese Domestic Market, Honda is presenting the new Fit to the North American market here at the Detroit Auto Show. By and large, it's the same model that will be sold around the world, having been redesigned with more aggressive styling, a larger footprint on the road and more interior space. Only now it will be built for North American consumption at Honda's new plant in Celaya, Mexico, where the automaker plans to also build its new Vezel crossover (or whatever it'll be called here).
The North American Fit ditches the hybrid setup offered in the JDM model in favor of a new Earthdreams 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine with direction injection and i-VTEC valve timing to help it deliver 130 horsepower and 114 pound-feet of torque. That's 13 more horses and 8 more torques than the previous model, and the engine can be paired to either a six-speed manual or Honda's new continuously variable transmission. With the latter, Honda projects the Fit will get 33 miles per gallon in the city, 41 on the highway and 36 on the combined cycle. Lighter and more refined than the outgoing model's powertrain, the new engine sits in a lighter and more rigid frame as well, which Honda expects will earn it top ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

2014 Honda Odyssey sucks it up for our editor

When we heard that the 2014 Honda Odyssey would be getting the world's first in-car vacuum, we had to check this thing out for ourselves. Called HondaVAC, this tidy little sucker was co-developed with Shop-Vac, and it's actually pretty neat. It comes standard on Odyssey's top-trim Touring Elite model and can be fitted with a wide range of attachments all housed in the cargo area. Honda notes that the vacuum hose is long enough to reach surfaces in every part of the Odyssey's cabin, and that it will even run for a full eight minutes after the vehicle is turned off.
Good thing, then, that Honda chose to show off the new 2014 Odyssey here at the New York Auto Show, as Autoblog west coast editor Michael Harley clumsily managed to spill some snacks all over the cargo area (we tried to convince him to give himself a hickey, but he declined on grounds that his wife might not let him attend any more auto shows). Take a look at the video below to see just how well the new minivan cleans up.