The Civic is an appliance car, and to be perfectly honest, the last 2 versions have been no better the the previous version. The 96 was simply a minor freshening of the 92-95 with no real increase in power or economy. The 01 was a minor freshening of the 96-00 with no real increase in power or economy. It's a car that people like myself buy much in the same way you purchase your washing machine or refrigerator - you just expect it to work as advertized for a long time.

I doubt that Maytag sees the sales of their washing machines fall off 18% in one year just because a different version is coming out in 9 months. I think the bottom line is that cars like the new Hyundai's and Scions, not to mention GM finally making some sort of effort at a decent small car with their new Cobolt are exposing the Civic for what it is - a 13 year old design with some updates to the styling and interior. The '06 Civic had better offer a serious improvement if they don't want the Civic to just ride off into the sunset.