siegen

The news was interviewing the kid from the VW Darth Vader ad this morning. What utter idiocy. Surely there are more important things to talk about than stupid commercials. The commercial itself was absolutely nothing special. As a Star Wars fan, it's great to see it at a big event like that, but I don't understand why so many people think that some kid in a Vader outfit pretending to use the force is amazing. Nothing clever about it, and the vehicle didn't fit with the theme at all. "Vader, your completely bland, silver, pedestrian, econocar has arrived!!"

fffuuuuu i just spent the last hour on that damn site and now have this strange urge to go onto mormon live chat and pester them about magnets.

Strange how that works.

Both Honda and Toyota created evolutionary upgrades to their successful Corolla and Civic. GM creates an entirely different compact with a brand new name every generation so that buyers don't associate it with previous models. Now, who's pulling the stunts? ;-] While Toyota's upgrade to the Corolla made it look even more pedestrian, Honda's upgrade to the Civic (from the looks of it) makes it look more stylish and less pedestrian. This upgrade will probably boost Honda's share of the compact market. It's perfect timing as gas prices are starting to spike again. I have a feeling I'm going to have a hard time wheeling and dealing to get me one of these this Spring/Summer. :-[

The styling is evolutionary, but I think if you compare it side-by-side to the previous gen the difference will be very substantial. This new Civic is far more curvy and stylish than the previous. It makes the old one look like a brick. I really like the deep contour line that runs down the side, and the design overall flows much better.

Nonono, the neck flab is all wrong. It's a different person. :-P

Man maximum, machine minimum (reduce exterior size and increase interior size). That is the philosophy that Honda is following, so don't expect to see any long hoods. Barring a poor interior or drivetrain, I am getting set to trade-in my A4 for either an EX-L or Si sedan this Spring/Summer. The current Si Sedan is too blah inside and out for me, but this new one looks a lot better, and the shifter location is more normal, which is good (no AT for me).

Autoweek Blurp Picture gallery No drivetrain or pricing information yet.

The Crosstour may not be attractive to you guys (or me), but it obviously "works" for enough people. Remember how horrendous the CR-V was when it came out? Any incentives that Honda might have on certain vehicles, you can bet the competition has more.

Rush is a complete idiot, but this Babiasz guy isn't too far off. He talks about the Volt through rose-colored glasses like it's the savior of the automotive world.

I don't play Civ IV much anymore (I more or less wanted to support the game as it's one of the best). I've been meaning to get Civ V but haven't had the energy too yet. I tried out the demo and it is pretty good. I hear they've fixed some of the AI issues from launch. Tonight I'm going to play me some x-com, booya. Surprisingly, I've never beat the game. Got to the last mission once, but must have had a hard drive failure or something. It was many years ago. Played it on PS1 a long time before that too.

Has anyone bought anything from it? I've never purchased a game on steam before as I prefer to have the physical game in hand; however, the deals were just too good. I decided to pick up a few older games that I didn't have in my arsenal already. I got the full X-Com pack (5 games) and Civilization IV pack (4 games). The grand total was $16.08 after tax. I've put hundreds of hours into these games over the years, but have never actually owned them. IMHO, the original X-Com is the best game of all time, on any platform. With the "extender", the game runs flawlessly on Windows 7 64-bit even though its 16 years old. Steam is offering full publisher packs for really good discounts as well. If I didn't already have the Orange Box and L4D games, it would have been a really cheap way to pick up all of them at once ($50 total for every Valve game). http://store.steampowered.com

What more do you need?

I haven't read up too much on the leaks, but I did watch the video showing our gunship shooting down a dozen Iraqis. I watched the full, unedited version, mostly in disbelief and constantly having to remind myself that this wasn't Call of Duty. To hear how eager and trigger-happy our soldiers were, and how readily they gunned the people down, left me sick to my stomach. I know that a lot of the stuff that was released is pretty pointless. Minor embarrassment at best. But occasionally there is something that I consider to be very important for people to know and act on. The leaked video really should send a signal to those in charge that the way our soldiers engage in combat needs to change. Our soldiers are how Iraqis view America as a whole, since they are the only bit of America they are exposed to. If they don't trust our soldiers to not accidentally shoot them, how are we supposed to win the hearts and minds of the people? It only damages our reputation if we don't act on it and change policy.

Enhance! Now rotate the viewing angle 40° to the right. Alright, now zoom in on the reflection in the mirror. Enhance again. You see that shadow? Zoom and enhance again. Sharpen. Depixelate. I think I see a face in the reflection. Zoom in on the face. Enhance again. Reconstruct the back side of the face. Rotate 36°. Ok, now run it in the database of every person on the planet and look for a match, then use a satellite to get real-time footage inside the suspect's apartment! What's that bulge in his coat? Enhance! Rotate the view angle and zoom in. O..M..G.. it's a GUN! Call for reinforcements!

It's easy. Buyers usually go into a Honda dealer and test drive one, then set up financing or a lease and drive it home.

Civic, Accord, CR-V, Odyssey, MDX, TSX, TL, etc. Those are the core products and they are all good vehicles and have strong sales. It's only vehicles like the ZDX, RL, Insight, CR-Z, etc that have questionable performance. Those are not the core models however, so they aren't going to have a huge impact on the overall sales. IMHO, the only downright poor vehicle in the Honda/Acura lineup is the RL. And there are a few vehicles that are less than stellar, like the ZDX and Insight. Here is the model breakdown gif:

Nice car! The transmission problems were from the first 5ATs and have been ironed out. You shouldn't have any of the problems that the early Accord 5ATs did. I just had to have my Audi towed the other day, for the second time. I'm about ready to go back to Acura. I should have bought the TSX in the first place, but I love having AWD now.

It is essentially the same setup as originally implemented on the 2000 Insight. It has undergone 3 major revisions since then, and the current IMA, battery included, is considerably smaller and lighter-weight than the original. It doesn't do anything new and won't win any awards on that merit, but I still think it's a better idea than a highly-complex setup like in the Volt. Honda will be coming out with an EV and plug-in hybrid in 2012, so it appears that they are finally fed up playing second fiddle. They haven't released enough information yet to see just how the system works (or I haven't found it yet), but it will be using an electric motor based on the FCX Clarity's. I don't know if it's separate or integrated. Anyway, that is all irrelevant to this award.

No surprises here. The Sonata was the only other vehicle with even close to the hype of the Volt. And I'd much rather see GM win than Hyundai, even though I think the Volt is indeed just a science experiment and not a viable path to the future. The CR-Z won Japanese car of the year. I think the IMA system is far more deserving of praise than the Volt's system, as it is something that can have a substantial impact on all vehicles in the very near future (if Honda starts making it a standard engine technology incorporated into all vehicles, which may start happening very soon with the next Acura RL).

I voted on about half of the things on my ballet. In general, I voted for the person that had the least negative advertising against their opponent, had the best education and professional credentials, and had the least amount of political rhetoric in their statements. I didn't have much time to research everything as thoroughly as I'd like.

I don't like the right side, how it fades to blue. The portrait is also too blurry. Surely with modern technology we can create a high definition portrait of Washington. Other than that, it is very nice and nothing like what would come out of an intro to graphics design class. It may have been 8 years ago and my memory is foggy, but I don't remember the fake currencies people made in intro to graphics looking nearly as nice. Mine certainly didn't. But then again mine had cars on it instead of people. Those vertical designs are fairly nice from a design standpoint. Too much drop shadow though, and they just feel over-designed. The colors are excellent, since they are vibrant without looking cheap. I like the people they chose.

Please explain.

Slow news day at autoflog.

Congratulations. It's a fine looking vehicle in the flesh. The 6MT SH-AWD version is on my short list to replace my Audi at some point in the future.