cars: 1984 Civic 1500S with the Teddy Bear wheels

I saw this in my neighborhood
The 1984 Honda Civic 1500S in the beautiful gray two-tone. Almost as cherry as the one I owned.

Check out the wheels! I remember seeing these "teddy bear" wheels in car magazines, I thought they were by Koei, but these are by Ronal.Note the wheel lock in the belly button.

I've been meaning to update my Civic page with more information about that incomparable design. Car Styling magazine was kind enough to photocopy the pages about the entire third-generation "Civic Renaissance" design program from issue 44 for me. It was a global tour de force, a single program delivered this fantastic hatchback, the Civic sedan, the CRX pocket-sized sport coupe, the innovative Civic "Space" Shuttle all-wheel drive (much better than a fat tall SUV), and the Ballade variants for the Japanese domestic market. Wow.

Douglas Halbert of Honda R&D Americas contacted me and commented

Tony Ikeda, Ed Watts, Truman Pollard and myself were the designers working on the project. All my designs were of the long-roof concept and we were in competition with Hiroshi Zaima and the HGW staff in Japan.

Hmm, the design came out in 1984. High point of Western civilization indeed!

cars: posts, Prius, progress

There seems to be only one skierpage after endless registering to comment, so were you motivated to be my Boswell you could search for all the pearls I toss before swine all over the IntarWubwubwub-Dot-Tubes. Here's one I wrote more pearly than others, fighting the unwarranted hostility towards the Toyota Prius:

Meanwhile, the Prius is a mind-bending class of its own. The most fuel-efficient car in the USA (48 city/45 highway) isn't a two-person runabout, isn't a subcompact car, isn't a compact car, isn't priced out-of-reach. It's a midsize practical hatchback for $21,000. The mega-lame bunk is the other car companies and Toyota itself haven't tried to compete. The Prius has been number 1 for years (ever since Honda discontinued the Insight). In that time every month brought another car company relentlessly pushing 4-door sports sedans from 350 HP to 400 and now 500+ HP, but the Prius coasts unchallenged. Where's the equivalent parade of Prius-killers busting past 50mpg? Where's the Prius competitor that gets 40+ but is fun to drive? Why do Toyota's smaller cars get worse mileage? All we have is the promise of GM's Volt around 2010 2011, and nothing from other companies.

There are literally over a dozen Prius parked within a block of here, and I'm surprised there aren't even more. Once you want a more economical less-polluting car (here's the EPA's full list for 2008 (pdf) ), there-can-be-only-one. Why buy a Smart or a Mini that's smaller only to get worse mileage? Why buy any other hybrid? Do you really need a stupid tall SUV? Almost every decision process leads inexorably to the Prius. And none of my friends who've bought one is smug, they like the car but are smart enough to know it doesn't solve everything/anything.

Meanwhile my search for an all-wheel drive snow car may have a light at the end of the tunnel: there will supposedly be an Audi A3 2.0TFSI DSG quattro, and an AWD Mini Clubman in 2009. But the mileage of both will probably be nothing special. Where's the Prius of AWD cars? (the Ford Escape sure ain't it).

art: Decotora! Decotora! Decotora!

== "Decorated trucks" Makes me homesick for Japan, a place I've only been for 14 days. The obsessive impulse of the "Proud and lonely".

I'd love to see those hurtling over California's I-80 at night through the snow.

Read PingMag's interview with the author of the “Decotora” photo book, Masaru Tatsuki.

Look at that 'S car go'

A friend couldn't help making that triple pun. Nissan made their own triple entendre with the 1989 S-Cargo, a limited edition micro-van for the Japanese market that looks like a snail (French escargot). I finally saw one in person.

Get it? The owner jumps in on the pun with this dashboard tchotchke

I've owned a Rabbit 'S' and the extremely handsome Honda Civic 'S', but the Audi and Porsche 'S' models have no appeal. The S-Cargo is tempting and surprisingly practical for such a pure expression of a snail shape, but no rich celebrity has loaned me a corner of her temperature-controlled garage.

cars: post-SUV era

We've been looking to replace our car for over two years, and nothing has changed. All-wheel drive snow car means an SUV, or a VW/Audi with monster engine, or the cheap Subaru Outback Sport. People who ski have money but as more suffer the lack of snow at resorts, more will care about the environment; sell us a suitable car!

If this rumor is true, BMW is looking beyond the SUV.

Both would be five-door, five-passenger vehicles with rear or all-wheel drive offered. They're designed to be sporty and yet capacious, with ride and handling to BMW sedan standards. They'll eschew larger wheels and tires that add unsprung weight as well as high centers of gravity that diminish ride and handling quality.

And if they're less tall they'll have better aerodynamics. Still no hybrid option.