This project idea began when I was driving around in a gas guzzling SUV. It was my only transportation at the time and I still have that purpose built machine. As much as I loved my SUV, it instilled in me two feelings that I was not comfortable with.

1. Guilt – Using a 7 passenger vehicle to move one person, and occasionally her 16 pound dog is simply wrong.  It’s like killing a fly with a shotgun.
2. Pain and suffering at the gas pumps – the money I was spending on gas seemed, well, completely absurd!!  $80 to full up the SUV 300 miles on that tank. $24 to full up the VX ??? Miles on that tank.  You do the math, hence the crying and gnashing of teeth over that waste.

Besides what fun is life without something to tinker with and improve upon 😉

I researched some affordable options.  My conclusion was the the ideal donor car for the project would be a 5th generation Honda Civic Hatchback series.  This is by far one of the more compelling and economy car designs of all time.  The body form and all of the UI detailing and features represent truly enduring design. Of all of the eco

The sun shined on me one day and I came into a 1992 Honda Civic VX Hatchback.  Upon further looking into the car, I realized that this was a 5th generation Honda Civic, known for it’s enduring design, loved by boy racers worldwide and the VX model was the most gas efficient of the series.  This car was the perfect basis for my experiment as it came off the showroom floor as one of the best performing eco pods of all time.

This particular specimen belonged to my next door neighbor.  He purchased it as a car new from Santa Monica Honda. All of the service work done at that same dealer for the life of the car.  When I received it, it was rather dirty, and a bit ding up, but the car was fundamentally rust free and sound.  It had some issues and was in need of some attention.