Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 8, 2021, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B6 B 6 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2021 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMBUSINESS I AUTOS THERE was a time when the Honda Civic was a small car. When it first came to these shores, the Civic was smaller than a modern MINI. Today’s version, the 2022 Civic, is larger than some incarnations of its larger sibling, the Accord. Indeed, the new Civic is only 217 millimetres shorter than the current Accord and only 56 millimetres nar- rower. Which, ironically, makes a very good case for saving the $8,000 price difference between the two. This is the 11th generation of the car first launched in 1972. Along the way, it’s had some designs that just didn’t seem to work, frankly. Start- ing in about 2005, the proportions just seemed a bit off, with a short front deck and a greenhouse that seemed to be falling forward. In the last two generations, however, stretching the wheelbase slightly has helped, and the current design hits all the right marks. It seems that for the 2022 version, Honda has tossed aside most of what it knew about Civic and started with a clean slate. The aggressive, arguably over-the-top styling of the last genera- tion is gone, replaced by sleeker tail- lights and a conservative front facade. Inside is where the biggest dif- ferences are obvious: a somewhat plasticky and uninspired interior has been replaced with a spiffy new design that incorporates an elegant treatment for the dash air vents. In most cars, air vents are necessary evils, and, despite creative designs, always look like holes in the dash. In the 2022 Civic, the only indication there are any vents at all is a little lever, to adjust direction, poking out from behind a metal grate with a hexagonal pattern. What Honda hasn’t forgotten, how- ever, is Civic’s blend of reliability and fuel economy, which, despite the car growing between the 10th and 11th generations, has got even better at an average of 6.9 litres per 100 kilome- tres, which is almost hybrid-like in its parsimony. The made-in-Canada Civic comes with two engine options: a 2.0-litre four-cylinder delivering 158 horsepow- er and 138 pound-feet of torque, and in Touring trim a 1.5-litre turbo deliver- ing 180 horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque. The only black mark on the Civic is the transmission: only a continuously variable automatic is available and even on the Touring model tends to dull the response to throttle input. Handling is superb, as we’ve come to expect on Civic, with an indepen- dent strut suspension up front and a multi-link independent suspension at the rear. How Civic stacks up Civic’s main rivals, the Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla, are a bit bigger and a bit smaller, respectively, and both are about $4,000 less to start. The base Mazda3 has similar horsepower but beats the base Civic engine in torque with 150 foot-pounds. The base Corolla engine has both less horsepower and less torque. Both the Mazda3 and Co- rolla offer six-speed manual transmis- sions. For automatic transmissions, Mazda offers an actual automatic, while the Corolla’s automatic option is offered only as a CVT. kelly.taylor@freepress.mb.ca Civic duty Honda’s compact not so compact anymore, but still strikes — mostly — the right notes KELLY TAYLOR MARK PHELAN / DETROIT FREE PRESS For 2022, Honda has toned down some of the aggressive exterior styling of the Civic and very much improved the interior design. Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder; 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder Power: 158 hp @ 6,500 r.p.m. (2.0); 180 hp @ 6,000 r.p.m. (1.5T) Torque: 138 lb-ft. @ 4,300 r.p.m. (2.0); 177 @ 1,700-4,500 r.p.m. Transmission: continuously variable automatic Steering: electric power rack-and-pinion Brakes: four-wheel discs Suspension: independent strut with stabilizer bar (front); multi-link independ- ent with stabilizer bar (rear) Fuel economy (l/100 km, city/highway/ combined): 7.7/6.0/6.9 (2.0); 7.6/6.1/6.9 (1.5T) Price: $24,465 to $30,265, base MSRP THE SPECS S CENES of vehicles immobi-lized by flash floods have been commonplace this soggy sum- mer in southeast Michigan. As electric vehicles become com- mon — including the SUVs people buy expecting greater capability than a low-slung car — questions about how they deal with water become in- evitable. Do they keep running? Are the occupants in danger of electrocu- tion? Do the batteries short out and charge the water around them? I had two recent experiences with electrified vehicles and water that shed some light on the topic. First some basic safety principles: — Never drive into water if you don’t know its depth. This includes highways and limited access roads that are below the surrounding ground level or have retaining walls. — Never drive or walk into fast-mov- ing floodwater. It may still be rising, and even a shallow flow can sweep you off your feet or carry your vehicle downstream. — If your vehicle stalls, abandon it immediately and seek higher ground. —Water can hide rocks, curbs, debris and other obstacles that will damage or disable your vehicle. Hyundai Kona EV stays high and dry One drive was born of necessity. The other was planned, done under controlled conditions. Driving home after a tasty crispy chicken don rice bowl dinner at Ima in midtown Detroit in an electric Hyun- dai Kona compact SUV, I ran into an unforeseen storm that dumped three inches of water on some neighbour- hoods in less than an hour. The electric Kona only comes with front-wheel drive. It’s no off-roader, but its 6.7 inches of ground clearance is more than most sedans offer, though not nearly as high as the water that overflowed medians and sidewalks in northern Detroit and Ferndale, Mich. The Kona’s wipers struggled with the downpour. I could see water more than grille-high on nearby vehicles, some of which had apparently stalled. I slowed to avoid creating a wake, crossed my fingers and kept mov- ing, sticking to the crown of the road, hunting high ground and watching for upwelling water that might warn of a blown manhole cover or storm grate. I later measured some landmarks I noted during the storm. The water was nearly two feet deep in places. I avoided the worst, but when I got home, I saw what appeared to be a high water mark on the SUV’s doors. The 201-hp Kona’s high-voltage 64kWh lithium-ion batteries are mount- ed in its floor pan. They undoubt- edly got heavily splashed, possibly submerged, but the EV showed no ill effects and ran like a top the next day. Hyundai makes no promises about the Kona EV’s performance in condi- tions like that, and wouldn’t make any- one available to talk about its engineer- ing. But the little SUV came through the impromptu soaking fine. Wrangler 4xe PHEV tested to the limit Jeep, on the other hand, can’t talk enough about what engineers did to help the new Wrangler 4xe plug-in hy- brid stay operational in up to 30 inches of water. “We’re taught water and electric- ity don’t mix,” Wrangler 4xe chief engineer Mike Wiacek told me with a laugh. “Mother nature isn’t going to change just because we’re using a new technology in cars, but water fording equal to a (gasoline-powered) Wrangler was a necessity when we developed the 4xe.” The 4xe, which recently went on sale, can indeed go through up to 30 inches of water, as I learned when I tested one in a snake-infested Texas slough earlier this year. “There’s lots of high-voltage compo- nents within the frame” well below the 30-inch benchmark, Wiacek said. “We had to make sure they could survive water, rocks, snow and being caked with mud.” Simply withstanding a dunking in standing water wasn’t enough. “What if the owner needs to use high-pressure water to wash mud off high-voltage connectors and battery modules? We waterproofed it all for high-pressure water,” Wiacek said. If the system still somehow ingests water and short circuits, software cuts voltage to the affected area. “We need to protect occupants and first responders,” Wiacek said. “If we sense an area is compromised, we seal it off from high voltage. We shut the system down in a choreographed way.” The shutdown takes milliseconds from the moment a short is detected. In addition, there’s no direct link be- tween the high-voltage battery and the Wrangler’s chassis, giving the electric- ity no route to occupants. — Detroit Free Press Electric vehicles engineered to deal with a deluge MARK PHELAN SUPPLIED When equipped with the same size tires, the electric Jeep Wrangler 4xe has identical water- fording ability as internal combustion engine versions. Below: While it was purely by happen- stance and not design, the Kona EV survived writer Mark Phelan’s misadventures with water. 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