Honda's Civic Coupe packs tons of tech without the luxury price tag

With the first Civic in 1972, Honda essentially invented the idea that a small, inexpensive car didn't have to be badly built or dull (go figure, right?). And over the years, the brand toyed with that notion a bit, making sporty versions, efficient hybrid versions and even one with a removable metal roof that could be stowed in the trunk.

In the last decade, as the global economy tanked, Honda all but eliminated the distinction and wackiness that originally attracted people to the brand in order to remain competitive and relevant. For example, the last-gen Civic was about as forgettable as they come. It always worked as a way to get from A to B (and sometimes C on the weekends), but it never inspired a second thought or glance.

With that in mind, imagine my surprise when a Civic Coupe slathered in "Energy Green Pearl" paint pulled up in front of  Mashable's Los Angles office for my week-long review. Added together with the chromed-out mustache grille, sharp sidelines and bright LED tail light bar that runs the entire width of the rear, I had trouble believing I was staring at a Civic. Turns out, though, the exterior wasn't the only surprise the Civic had in store for me.

IMAGE: NICK JAYNES/MASHABLE

Honda Sensing

Perhaps the standout surprise in the Civic Coupe is its Honda Sensing suite of safety systems. Well, Honda calls them safety; you and I might consider them semi-autonomous driving systems. That's because with Adaptive Cruise Control (AAC) with Low Speed Follow — a first on a Honda — the Civic can follow a car ahead on the freeway and autonomously brake and accelerate to keep with the flow of traffic from 90 mph down to 0 mph and back.

What's more, my Civic Coupe press demonstrator also featured Honda's Lane Keep Assist (LKAS). So not only could it brake and accelerate itself, it could also realistically keep itself in the lanes. Of course, unlike with Tesla Autopilot, Honda requires you keep your hands on the steering wheel even when it's doing the steering.

Along with AAC and LKAS, Honda Sensing includes Forward Collision Warning, Collision Mitigation Braking, Lane Departure Warning and Road Departure Mitigation. I can't tell you it's impossible to crash the Civic Coupe, however, with all those systems on and active, it's harder to do than ever before.

Certainly, adding these to such an accessible car is meaningful not just for Honda, but for the industry as a whole. Typically, to get such a suite of systems, buyers would have to look up into the luxury market and a $50,000 — or more — price tag. With the new Civic, you can get Honda Sensing on a car for as little as $26,125 on the Coupe ($20,440 on Civic Sedan).

IMAGE: NICK JAYNES/MASHABLE

That said, Honda Sensing is not as precise as similar systems from higher-end carmakers. The Adaptive Cruise Control with Low Speed Follow felt easily perturbed by a sudden change in traffic, reacting like an amateur teen driver with lots of hard stabs of the brakes. However, I am willing to look past these arguably niggling complaints because, let's face it, even with some foibles, having the system is better than not. I mean that not only from a safety standpoint but also from a driving enjoyment perspective.

Delightfully, Honda Sensing wasn't the only tech treat in the Civic Coupe. Honda's Display Audio infotainment system is displayed on a 7-inch touchscreen in the center dash. Although it's powered by Android, it can run either Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

IMAGE: NICK JAYNES/MASHABLE

What's more, Honda's navigation system from Garmin features real-time traffic updates and automatic rerouting. Since my iPhone kicked the bucket during my week with the Civic, I was forced to rely on the Honda nav to get around LA. I can tell you its constantly updated routes saved me from pulling my hair out in traffic a few times.

Sporty Civic?

Since Honda will be turning this new Civic into both sporty Si and Type R variants, it needed to start off with its strongest foot forward. The result is not only the best-handling Civic ever, it's also the new benchmark for handling in the compact car segment.

Now, crisp handling might not mean a lot to most drivers. I get that. However, it's important for a couple reasons.

First off, and most importantly, sharper handling equates to safer driving. That's because the car can react more quickly and capably to a driver's emergency maneuvers. Think swerving to avoid an accident on the freeway, for example.

Secondly, and certainly less significantly, since the Civic has long attracted aftermarket enthusiasts to the brand, those who like to make their Civics sportier and flashier ought to love the new Civic because it's already pretty damn athletic and glitzy to begin with. This should make the task of tuning it easier and more enjoyable.

Unfortunately for me, I am not one of those people. Accordingly, the week I spent behind the wheel of the Energy Green Pearl Civic Coupe was mildly torturous. I am sure you'll agree with me when I say that the color looks great in pictures. On the road, though, it's a different story.

IMAGE: NICK JAYNES/MASHABLE

Everywhere I looked, people were glaring and grimacing at the color. I reckon, as my friend so astutely pointed out, the color has a $60,000 minimum entry point. A car in this color either needs to say "SRT" (Dodge's performance moniker) or "Lamborghini" on the back in order not to look silly.

Ignoring the wholly optional paint color, I really did enjoy Honda's new turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine. Like the handling and the sharp body lines, the powerful and efficient engine — capable of 41 mph on the highway — should prove a delight for all buyers, even those not concerned with rear wings and ground-effect lights.

Finally fun

I grew up with a father who swore by sporty Hondas. So, Honda's apparent return to its wackier side is heartening to me. Seeing a Civic Coupe that dares to be not just stylish (or showy, depending on the angle) but also  a technological pioneer is a breath of fresh air.

IMAGE: NICK JAYNES/MASHABLE

More than that, though, the Civic pulls the compact car market out of its post-recession slump. The new Civic, especially the Civic Coupe, proves that just because you're shopping for a $20,000-something car you don't have to suffer in a gray-on-gray prison cell on wheels.

For that money, you can have a Lamborghini-green coupe with handling to rival a Miata and a tech suite package that could make a BMW blush.

2016 Honda Civic Coupe

The Good

Advanced safety tech that rivals higher-end brands • Daring exterior styling • Sporty handling and engine options

The Bad

Polarizing styling

The Bottom Line

Honda's new Civic Coupe finally brings the brand back to its wacky but reliable roots. Sure, you might not love the color or styling, but you can't deny that it's a techie or sporty car for the money.

2017 Chevy Volt named Northwest Green Vehicle of the Year

On July 19, members of the Northwest Automotive Press Association got together in Portland, Oregon, to drive 14 fuel-efficient and high-tech vehicles and compare them head to head. The overall winner was the 2017 Chevy Volt, which uses electricity plus a small gasoline generator engine and carries a price tag around $40,000. (No, Tesla did not send a vehicle to be tested.)

The second-generation Volt has 53 miles of all-electric range, with 420 miles of total driving range. A few journalists I talked to liked the Regen on Demand lever on the back side of the steering wheel, where you might otherwise expect a paddle shifter. It allows the driver to use regenerative braking when she wants to restore battery power. Regen braking takes some getting used to, and even then it can take some finesse to use well as both a way to stop the car and a way to get back some energy. The paddle makes that easy, and mileage freaks will become obsessed with it.

In the plug-in EV category, the 2016 VW e-Golf took the award for being fun to drive and less than $30,000. Some EVs were built to stand alone and stand out, like the Nissan Leaf (a favorite of mine in this category). VW chose to use its Golf hatchback as a platform for several variants, including the all-electric version, so if you like any other VW Golf, you’ll probably feel comfortable driving the e-Golf, which has an EPA-rated range of 83 miles. This car is likely to become very important for VW in the wake of the diesel settlement that was just approved.

The best hybrid award went to the 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid, which has an innovative drivetrain. It’s got an electric motor that drives the front wheels at low speeds for short distances. It has a second electric motor that is powered by the 2-liter gasoline engine to recharge the batteries that drive the first motor, which drives the car. And when you get onto the highway, a clutch engages to connect the gasoline engine and the first electric motor to drive the wheels at sustained high speed. This clever if complicated system returns 48 mpg for $37,000.

Saving the best (in some ways) for last, the 2017 Acura NSX took the prize for best green luxury vehicle, but let’s be honest. That hybrid system is not there to save the planet from a fiery climate-change-induced death. The two electric motors that power the front wheels are there for the power boost—and maybe to save a little fuel. Maybe. The twin-turbo V6 in the rear actually creates a ton of heat, despite all the venting, so you cannot bring your delicate chocolate sculptures home in the NSX’s tiny trunk. So calling the NSX a green car is pushing the definition of “green,” though the $200,000 price tag certainly points to luxury. But holy hell is this a fun, fast, and kind of insane car to drive.

Drive one of these 7 Hondas or Acuras? Stop now. Seriously, stop.

The Takata airbag recall just became deadly serious.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released new laboratory testing results Thursday morning that show the Takata airbags in seven Honda and Acura brand vehicles have a 50% chance of rupture. (This stands in contrast to faulty Takata airbags in other models, which have a 1% chance of rupture.)

When the airbag inflators do rupture in the Honda and Acura vehicles in question, they can cause serious injury and even fatality.

Accordingly, the NHTSA is calling on owners of these models to stop driving them immediately until the airbags can be replaced as a part of the ongoing recall.

The models that fall under this increased warning include: 2001-2002 Honda Civic, 2001-2002 Honda Accord, 2002-2003 Acura TL, 2002 Honda CR-V, 2002 Honda Odyssey, 2003 Acura CL and 2003 Honda Pilot.

The 2002 Honda Civic EX Sedan is one of seven models at risk for airbag rupture.

IMAGE: WIECK

“The air bag inflators in this particular group of vehicles pose a grave danger to drivers and passengers that must be fixed right away,” NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said. "Drivers should visit SaferCar.gov or contact their local dealer to check whether their vehicle is affected. If it is, they should have the vehicle repaired immediately for free at an authorized dealer. We commend Honda for taking additional actions to get these vehicles repaired.”

Inflator ruptures are more likely in high-humidity areas of the country, particularly Florida, Texas and other parts of the Gulf Coast. When the inflators rupture, they can propel metal shrapnel into the faces and bodies of drivers and passengers.

If your Honda or Acura is a part of this recall and hasn't yet been fixed, get it to your dealer right away. Don't drive it. Call a tow truck.

Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, and Honda lead the autonomous car race

Automakers have spent the majority of 2016 announcing their plans for self-driving and the future of automation, but while some just begin to prototype systems, others are soaring ahead of the pack.

Research and advisory firm Lux Research has charted the 12 major automakers on business execution and technical value, and noted if the company has a positive or negative view on the advent of self-driving.

Toyota, Honda, and Mercedes Benz are ahead right now, as you can see in the graph above. Tesla and BMW aren’t far behind, but the report claims that the two companies have a “wait and see” attitude to self-driving, rather than actively pushing for its arrival. The attitude is based on investments, partnerships, and demonstrated capability.

Daimler Trucks and Hyundai are the other two automakers in the top right on technical value and business execution. German automaker Audi has a decent technical value rating, but lacks the investment or business execution its German rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz have achieved.

The two major automakers in the U.S.—General Motors and Ford—have similarly poor outlooks. The two companies are lower than all European rivals on technical value and business execution, apart from Renault-Nissan, which is far behind the group.

Self-driving car R&D market is white hot

General Motors has started spending heavily in the self-driving market, investing $500 million in a partnership with ridesharing app Lyft and purchasing Cruise Automation for $1 billion in March. Ford, on the other hand, may be looking to partner with Google to fix some of its self-driving shortcomings.

The PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler are both not on graph, despite both working on self-driving or partnering with tech companies. PSA Group, which controls Peugeot and Citroen, is currently the only firm allowed to test self-driving cars in France. Fiat Chrysler recently partnered with Google, providing them with 100 vans, and may have plans to create similar partnerships with Uber and Amazon.

While it is worrying to see companies like Renault-Nissan and Audi not invest in self-driving as much as rivals, we are still three years away from any concrete legislation that allows driverless cars on the road. That is enough time for any automaker to change their attitude towards self-driving.

Why Automakers Still Haven’t Smartened Up Your Car’s Dashboard

ReadWriteDrive is an ongoing series covering the future of transportation.

For all the talk of self-driving and connected cars, the simple task of using smartphone apps while driving remains frustrating as hell.

The great promise of in-car electronics—one that allows you to safely talk on the phone, text, listen to tunes and get directions while motoring down the highway—is still a dream. All too often, I find myself toggling my attention between the roadway, the car’s dashboard, and my iPhone as I drive, pick new songs, and peek at my phone’s navigation app.

Unfortunately, there’s little to suggest this situation is going to improve much in 2015.

Look In The MirrorLink, My Pretty

Four years ago, things looked very different. That’s when nearly 100 companies—including major automakers, smartphone-makers and mobile communication firms—produced MirrorLink, an open technology standard for porting a smartphone’s functions to dashboard screens, buttons, and the car’s steering wheel.

It was a great concept. “Rather than going with a fragmented approach for every handset manufacturer and every car manufacturer, we set up a universal open industry standard,” said Antii Aumo, the Finland-based marketing director for the Car Connectivity Consortium that oversaw MirrorLink. “We made the technology as generic as Bluetooth and WiFi.”

The idea was to make it so consumers could expect smartphone-type features in their car regardless of its brand, the make of their phone or its operating system. This was especially important given that cars can last a decade or longer, meaning that a single vehicle might easily last through 3-5 technology cycles.

It was a great vision, if a bit Pollyanna-ish. The CCC, after all, also expected car and phone makers to play well together. A common open framework, according to Aumo, would allow smartphone services to appear on your dashboard in a simplified and safe manner—while freeing app developers (inside car companies as well as independent app-makers) to innovate via MirrorLink.

Through The MirrorLink

“I’m sure that somewhere there are two guys in a garage coming up with wild and crazy things, new innovations for the car and driving,” said Aumo. “You and I have no idea what the crazy new apps [for driving] will be.”

And who doesn’t love innovation? The short anwer: Car companies who want to control every aspect of the driving experience.

In October 2014, Honda announced the launch of Honda Connect, its new MirrorLink-enabled smartphone connectivity service. It uses MirrorLink protocols, but they are in the background. The technology, design and user experience is all Honda Connect, which will first be put into service in 2015 on select Honda Civic models in Europe.

Other car companies, including Volkswagen, Subaru, and Toyota, are also utilizing MirrorLink—but the relevance of the open standard has been subsumed by a set of powerful competing interests that might be described in two words: Apple and Google.

Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto aim to take all the familiarity of Apple and Android apps and port it to the car with bigger fonts and icons, and limits on distraction. Just plug in your phone, and apps that followed Apple or Google guidelines for mapping functions to buttons on the car, will take over the dashboard screen.

The MirrorLink Crack’d From Side To Side

“MirrorLink missed an opportunity,” said Doug Newcomb, founder of the Connected Car Council, an industry organization. “Although frankly it’s not for lack of trying. Part of the blame could be from car companies dragging their feet, and long product cycle times.”

So while Honda only announced its MirrorLink-based product three months ago, its high-level message now appears to be about Apple and Google. “On a very basic level, we can tell you that we are bringing CarPlay and Android Auto to market in 2015 but the cars are to-be-announced,” wrote Angie Nucci, a Honda spokeswoman.

Hyundai, the Korean automaker, is also focused on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. “MirrorLink had limited success,” said Miles Johnson, manager of connected car publicity at Hyundai. “But it’s not quite where it needs to be.”

At CES 2015, Hyundai showed off a new head unit—the dashboard hardware—that integrates both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. When Hyundai first announced CarPlay, it was planned only for the company’s most expensive head units. But the new more affordable Hyundai-developed head unit will be capable of running both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

“Ferrari launched CarPlay, but nobody else has pulled the trigger,” said Johnson at Hyundai. “Our guys are working very hard to be first, but I can’t predict the future.” (Ferrari debuted CarPlay in the California T and FF models at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show.)

Consumer electronics move at warp speed compared to auto technology. Those longer development times, and difficulty with integrating disparate systems, are the culprit for delays with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which were supposed to debut in 2014. But that’s only a slight delay for the two 800-pound gorillas.

“Once those two companies came in, and laid a path, that was definitely a game-changer,” said Johnson. He believes that CarPlay and Android Auto are going to help sell cars, bringing customers into dealerships for demos.

Familiarity Trumps Innovation

The learning curve for car-based infotainment is very steep—as anybody who has taken a first spin through dashboard menus and voice commands of a new car will testify. “Our research indicates that the average customer will give you about 15 minutes to learn a system, and then they start to tune out,” said Hyundai’s Johnson. “If you can accomplish that with CarPlay or Android Auto, then you’ve accomplished something very quickly.” 

While the familiarity is welcomed, it won’t stop Hyundai, Honda and nearly every other automaker from developing vehicle-specific apps. It’s a control and data access issue. Vehicle-specific apps are considered a core part of the car’s functions: things like emergency response, cabin pre-conditioning, parking apps, teen driving mode, and digital access to the owner’s manual. In fact, at CES BMW introduced the Connected Drive Store, allowing U.S. owners to purchase apps and other services directly from behind the wheel.

As the Detroit News reported earlier this month, German industrial and political leaders don’t want the country’s flagship industry to have its importance diluted, or have Google gain access to data on driving behavior and location. “The data that we collect is our data and not Google’s data,” Rupert Stadler, Audi’s chief executive, told the newspaper. “When it gets close to our operating system, it’s hands off.”

The takeaway: Innovation in car-based apps from third-party open-source developers are getting pinched by Google and Apple, who in turn, are getting squeezed (and delayed) by the automakers trying to develop their own smartphone ecosystem. It could take another few years for this to sort itself out.

Meanwhile, unfortunately, many drivers will continue to drive with one hand on the steering wheel and the other clenched to a smartphone.