2007 Honda Civic GX

2007 Honda Civic GX 2007 Honda Civic GX
First Drive Review

Never mind that we in Michigan are just emerging from our igloos after a long cold winter. The world is heating up, the ice caps are melting, and when that melt is complete, we'll all be living high in the mountains in houses on stilts to stay dry. Forty days and 40 nights the waters will rage, and when the ice caps refreeze, we'll all be fighting over who called first dibs on those last two pigs for our celebratory barbecues, since the unicorns were already eaten by sharks.

There are people who would argue that that sinister little creation, the automobile, is responsible for it all. We blame Al Gore, China, sweatshops, and greenie celebrities who flit about in private jets. Those who want to make a difference drive hybrids, while those who researched their decision drive diesels. Those who are truly enlightened and want to make a difference, however, seek something higher, lighter, more ethereal. They find natural gas.

For the most part, the hunt is conducted outside of new-car showrooms, although the game is no longer found in the back-yard sheds of neighborhood madmen or the workshops of "some guy my uncle's caterer's yoga instructor knows," but in experienced shops that sometimes charge twice the list price of the customer's 1989 Toyota Corolla to convert it to natural-gas propulsion.

The Only Natural-Gas-Powered Vehicle Available to New-Car Buyers in the U.S.

Natural-gas seekers in California and New York, however, can simply stroll into a Honda dealership, plunk down $25,185 for a new Civic GX sedan—a premium of $8780 over a $16,405 base Civic DX automatic—and whoosh out of the showroom on a massive tide of self-empowerment and an itty-bitty ripple of torque: 103 pound-feet, to be exact.

Originally conceived as a parking-enforcement cruiser in L.A. back in 1998, the GX was strictly a fleet vehicle meant to do its small part to reduce pollution. Emissions from natural-gas-burning engines are a fraction of those of similarly sized gasoline units, the GX being recognized by the EPA as the cleanest-burning engine it had ever tested when introduced. Today, when the EPA's Tier 2 Bin 5 standards are causing a panic among auto execs, the Civic GX easily skips past Bin 5 and is the only vehicle to meet the lofty Tier 2 Bin 2 standards. If this talk of tiers and bins makes no sense, just be impressed by the fact that the GX is so clean it is the only vehicle in its emissions class. In 2005, Honda saw fit to finally offer the Civic GX directly to the public in California. New York citizens have only been able to buy the car since October 2006.