Honda Civic Blog

If you have been shopping for a late model used Honda Civic, you have probably been wondering why the prices seem a bit higher than you might expect. Several factors, dating back to 2008, have compiled to keep the resale value of several Honda offerings, especially the Civic, at record levels. Some are still able to command close to their original MSRP.

The first factor was the economic downturn that began in 2008. Potential buyers found themselves needing to hold on to their cars longer due to job loss or being afraid of a layoff. That slowly led to an absence of quality used cars on dealer’s lots. The trend of holding onto cars continued through late 2010.

In March of 2011 the twin disasters of an earthquake and tsunami devastated the automotive industry in Japan. With several of the major players, including Honda, unable to produce sufficient numbers of new fuel efficient cars, buyers either turned to other automakers or bought used cars. This further strained the dwindling supply of used cars, driving a sharp uptick in the resale value of fuel efficient cars like the Honda Civic.

By the second quarter of 2011, many people were tired of waiting to buy a new car and sales increased. Unfortunately, many of these people were trading in cars that were over five years old or not fuel efficient. This left plenty of undesirable cars on the used market, but fuel efficient cars were still in shorter supply than many people would like, driving resale values even higher.

As a result of all of these factors, the resale value of a used Honda Civic can be nearly as high as its original selling price. Resale values are currently 30% higher than they were in 2008. This situation will reverse itself as the supply of fuel efficient new cars returns to normal. Honda predicts that it will be back at pre-disaster supply levels by March, 2012. When that happens, the average price of a three to five year old used Honda Civic should drop quickly.

Honda shows much wisdom in its approach to the problem of air-pollution, global warming and the diminishing resources of the fossil fuels. It continues to lead studies and experiment with hydrogen technologies, electricity-powered engines and its biofuel cars.

The especial breakthrough in this field was the introduction, in September 2006 of Flex Fuel Vehicle (FFV), using the platform of Civic. The Civic FFV is unique in the sense that it is capable of operating on both E-85, the already available bio-fuel in the US, Sweden, Finland and to a very limited degree in Canada and on 100% ethanol, used far and wide in Brazil. The concept is not new in any way; however it is the Honda’s advanced research and production capabilities that make this vehicle so adaptive to varying fuel mixtures, and ambient temperature changes. FFV’s made in the US are currently setup to run on straight E85, straight gasoline, or any ratio of both fuel types. Honda is introducing an FFV into the Brazilian automobile market suited to run on a much higher blend of ethanol – E20 to E100.

The challenge here is to eventually achieve comparable performance and economy from E100, as from petroleum based gasoline. A factor to consider is the temperature, as low temperatures can contribute to poor starting and performance. And yet Honda manages to fix this problem, by introducing a secondary, gasoline fuel tank. The new Honda ethanol fuel feeder adapts to varying ethanol to gasoline ratios measuring the concentration of ethanol in the tank via time exhaust measurements.

Well, here is the deal. Ethanol, also known by the name of biofuel, is made from feed stocks such as sugar cane and corn. Thus using biofuel does not much increase the atmospheric CO2 and makes the ethanol an effective alternative to fossil fuel. And yet it is the government that has to make use of biofuel more attractive, by dropping the prices, so that cars, such as Honda Civic FFV would be bought not only by the smart people concerned about reducing the carbon footprint, but also by the majority of the population thinking of saving a dollar here and a dollar there. So let’s hope for that!