2010 Honda Civic Side ViewIt isn’t hard to believe that the 2010 Civic continues to rank #1 in the Affordable Small Cars Category. Honda continues to present a winning combination, which truly makes Civic a leader in its class, both for style and reliability. Its fuel efficiency pleases the frugal minded folk, but equally makes sense to all the people watching the gas prices closely.

The new 2010 model comes virtually unchanged, as the 2009 Civic was selected “Best Buy” by the Consumer Guide. So if the 2010 model is essentially the very same thing, one may consider buying a 2009 model and saving some dough. You can actually get a pretty good deal, as the dealers are eager to get the 2009 models of their lots.

2010 Honda Civic InteriorHonda Civic Rear Quarter View

Despite the outstanding reliability, and fuel economy the 2009 and 2010 Civics have received some harsh comments. The main dispute was its exterior, particularly the snub-nose and a rather odd minivan-like windshield. Some commented that the design was just uninteresting, “you could drive and not notice a half of dozen of Civics on your way to work.” Others criticized the dual-tiered instrument as overburdened and mesmerizing.

2010 Honda Civic 4 door

But can all of this really be a major drawback when we are talking about the unparalleled quality and solid reputation for quality? The engineering of Civic is as strong for the 2010 model as ever and they have always held their resale value well. The car has a truly dynamic performance combined with the fuel-sipping manners –setting a standard in the highly competitive compact cars class. In addition, Civic boasts excellent safety scores in both federal government and insurance industry, and comes equipped with anti-lock brakes and six airbags!

However, making your mind to buy a Civic is the easy part. What’s difficult is choosing the one that is right for you. The basic Civic is either a sedan or coupe and it comes in different trims such as DX, LX, LX-S, EX with the price range from roughly $15,500 to all the way up to $22,000. The Honda Civic SI boasts increased performance-oriented trim, with 57 extra horsepower, pushing the price up to extra $6,500. The other interesting options are Civic Hybrid with the prices of about $10,000 higher than for a base Civic, and the Civic GX which runs on compressed natural gas.

 
Yup it seems to be for real! Oh no it doesn’t – Thank you Bill! (see his comment) as he rightly points out ‘if it is too good to be true, it is!’. I did a bunch of other searches for ‘Surge Engineering’ and come up with report after report after report of ‘scam’, ‘doesn’t work’ etc. some of them are as follows:

  • toyotanation
  • Pennocks Fiero Forum
  • AllFordMustangs
  • SmokinVette
  • MercedesBenzWorld
  • Whew…how could I have missed all that! (sorry folks, will dig deeper next time)

    Anyway, what this ‘thing’ does (according to a few of the posts above is:

    “these are typically just resistors that trick the ecu into thinking the temps from the iat sensor are cooler than they actually are, causing the ecu to dump more fuel. it’s basically like running the car in warm up mode or with a choke on.”

    (I leave the original post below and hang my head in shame)

    Have a look at the Surge Performance Chip (available from yourhotcar.com among other places). It claims to add up to 35 Horse Power (from 7-10% gain in power from stock) and 20+ Ft Lbs of torque.

    Like all good performance chips it is fully adjustable for either Horsepower or gas mileage by using a knob (yes a knob)

    From the yourhotcar website:

    Fully ADJUSTABLE performance chip designed for your vehicle. The Surge Module will not only compete with other higher priced Jet V-Chip, but will OUTPERFORM it. The
    Surge module is designed with the finest, most precise components
    available out there today. Giving you the option to fine tune it to
    your favorite setting. Our modules are designed to be used in any
    weather condition. Doesn’t matter if you live in the east or west
    coast, the module will still perform as advertised.
    Step by step
    instructions will be included along with all necessary hardware to
    complete the installation. You don’t need to have any mechanic skills
    to complete the job. Takes no longer than 15 minutes.

    The Surge performance chip simply wires into the factory harness of the IAT sensor and just provides a new signal for your cars internal Electronic Control Unit (ECU – all modern cars have an ECU to electronically manage and monitor your vehicle’s performance, by default they are tuned to government regulations…which means that they are inefficient!) You could replace the ECU (at a cost in the $1,000′s). This performance chip negates the need to replace the ECU by giving the existing ECU an external controller.

    According to surge, it takes only 15-30 minutes to install and can easily be removed or re-installed at any time.

    I don’t know about you but this sounds like a mod for anybody!

    Pass people, pass!

    © 2012 Honda Civic Blog Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha