We start with the Honda Civic, the current holy grail of absolute durability and unrivaled longevity: a Civic will laugh as the odometer ticks past 300 000km and occasionally asks for an oil change. However, the older of you out there will remember a time when a Civic was... well the opposite really. Sure, the engine would have probably run forever, but no one had a chance to find out because thanks to frozen H2O and fairly useless drivers, our roads are smothered in salt.
Salt and the first generation Civics, mixed much like a dyslexic child and the letters 'b' and 'd'; not well. The Civic would turn into a very small pile of oxidized iron in your driveway, instantly!
The word's 'appalling cachole' weren't far from suitable. Fast forward 30 odd years and the Civic is the default car selection for anyone, especially it seems, 17 and 77 year olds. Ironic, eh?
Speaking of Honda, they have recently folded their cards so to speak: thrown in the towel, pretended they were french. The S2000 is officially going to be killed. Which is a shame because it truly was one of the automotive legends of the past decade. The S2000, a legend? Well, yes; a legend is something that defines an era, that transcends time... the S2000 will be in that department.
Was a Mustang great in it's day? Not really. Were any of the 'legendary' cars of the 60s, 70s or 80s the BEST of their time? No... they were cars of the people, cars that your friends had, cars that you actually drove in. Common cars that shaped the automotive landscape and will be remembered and sought after long past their production run ending.
Toyota and Honda, the ambassadors of the RWD Japanese sports car are nowhere to be seen in the category. They passed the torch to Nissan, Mazda and Hyundai.
Eh?! Hyundai?!
Yes, that's right, Hyundai has been sticking it's nose in with the Japanese, it has grown an innate love for seafood and has stuck on some "wabaki"s and is trying to fit in with their new Genesis Coupe. Basically, it's a 2 liter, turbo charged engine or if a 3.8 liter 370z fighter suits your fancy, that's available too, both matted to a 6 speed 'box. And there's another box that says "track pack", which if you buy the car you can select. It includes Brembo brakes and a limited slip diff, serious stuff. It's all contained in a tight, nimble RWD package. Oh yes, and did I mentioned it's going to be around $25k for a fully spec'd (track pack) 2.0T model?
Forget everything you've ever thought about Hynudais: forget the terrible interiors, forget the terrible looks, forget the break downs, forget the asthmatic engines: forget it all. This one is different. This one has the potential to turn the company around: Honda proved it's possible, Hyundai now wants to do it while putting a smile on everyone's face.
