And not only that, not terribly different from the previous Civic, just a little downmarket on the inside. Not that you'd know it by looking at the window sticker.

And the key difference here being that the 8th generation Civic's lines are a LOT cleaner. They'll get my 8th gen back when it crumbles into dust. 20 years from now, or when there's no more gasoline.

No, the Camry is not our enemy. If you are like most people, with limited funds for buying new cars every few years, and limited time and patience for keeping an unreliable one running, or patching a rusting one together in order to pass just one more inspection, you'd appreciate the appliance car a lot more.

So the Honda Civic is the latter-day equivalent of the Ford Focus. A generation out of date. Nice.

Actually, it looks like the old Civic. I have seen exactly one new Civic (think New Coke) in the wild as of today. I have, however, seen quite a few facelifted Toyota Corollas (introduced with far less hype) in that time. I must say the new new Corolla was very nicely done. The new old Civic, not so much.

But if you commute in it any appreciable distance (due to lack of public transport, or whatever), boring is a virtue. It means you won't have to worry about it for a long time. Now, if we all took the train or the bus to work, as is the case in most civilised countries, our choice of automobile might run to…

The key is that both the new bar and the old bar have to be moist. The old bar will then be pliable and you can then press it into the new one.

Actually, a fin on the roof is cheaper than imbedding the antenna in the windshield, which used to be REALLY upscale.

Actually, Applebee's is the nation's leading museum of fake antiquity. They'd take that signage and reproduce it until it defines the whole chain like the Golden Arches does McDonald's.

You know, #5 intrigues me. It's kind of like born-again Christians disavowing responsibility for all the fucked-up shit they used to do before finding Jesus.

Well, you take a Volt, and you add six or eight grand worth of additional dealer markup (oh, that government subsidy? We're basically stealing that), and see how many people buy them. From what I hear, dealers are playing so many games with the Volt, it's no wonder buyers are balking. Dealers - it's not 1980…

The worst thing was, they strayed too far from the formula. While I didn't expect or want it to be just like the UK version, a Stig-less Top Gear is kind of like Star Trek without Klingons. And if the only "stars" they can get in their reasonably-priced car are the ones already under contract with their network (or…

I kind of agree. For one thing, there's no Stig. WTF? How can it be Top Gear without a Stig? Second of all, the guys aren't anywhere near as funny as the UK presenters. Clarkson might be a jerk, from what I hear from the tabloids (mostly), and a hippie-hater, but at least he's FUNNY. You have the one guy trying…

It's worth noting that fifty bucks, while not even getting you in the door at Yankee Stadium, will get you a front row seat behind the home dugout in Detroit.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! +10 for you!

1989 Dodge (Mitsubishi) Colt. I took mine out into what French Canadians call "the bush" once. Drove it through potholes the size of my basement. Got it stuck up to the rocker panels in mud and had to walk back to civilization until I found a nice guy in a Toyota Hilux (yes, one of those indestructible beasts) who…

Really, who cares? One day we might find out that this Aaron Scott character actually is the Stig, or was at one time.

We had a '99. I can bet you it was probably consumer backlash that caused automakers to rethink the idiotic idea of putting an air filter between you and your A/C, but locating it in such an awkward spot that it costs upwards of $125 to have someone replace it. Yep, my friendly-neighborhood oil change specialist had…

The cabin air filter is usually located behind the glove box. Removing the glove box to get at it can be either a royal PITA that requires taking apart half the dashboard (1998-02 Honda Accord, for example), or if it's a newer car, a simple matter of bending the soft plastic box a bit to take it off the hinges,…

That is, unless you live somewhere like Upstate New York where it sometimes rains for weeks at a time.