Honda Gets Tuned In
Inside Line reports that Honda will soon debut tuner versions of the 2006 Civic Si and the 2006 Ridgeline pickup to serve as centerpieces of the company’s high-profile appearance at November’s Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas.
This is good news for a lot of car enthusiasts out there, especially the ones in the tuner crowd who have been grumbling about Honda taking them for granted. Car tuning has long been a favorite pastime for auto enthusiasts and amateur mechanics, the process of which they take a stock or factory-default automobile and modifies it with aftermarket auto parts like spoilers, bumpers and more powerful engines to enhance speed, power, or style. It has a long history, almost as long as the development of the car in general, originating with the development of early racing cars, and later, with the post-war hot-rod movement.
But today, customizing vehicles are no longer strictly the monopoly of the enthusiasts or the amateur mechanics. For consumers today, it’s all about personalizing their rides, making even a low-priced sedan such as a Toyota Echo for instance, as flashy as possible with custom rims, MP3 players, grilles, bumpers, and more. For manufacturers, it’s all about courting coveted young drivers. Trusted online auto parts stores like Auto Parts Discount has become a favorite among both car enthusiasts and non-conformist car owners, where they have access to hundreds of quality auto parts stores for any car make of their choice.
With popular youth-oriented artists like Snoop Dogg continuously appearing alongside blinged-up rides in public and in their videos, you can bet on it that the “tuner” customization trend will continue to rise in 2006. The hip and trendy Scion has already kick-started this trend. Many also predict that the likes of the Chevy Cobalt and Ford Focus will jump on the tuner bandwagon in a big way this year.
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