Sulu

I don't think it will be a major re-tooling of the assembly line (but I am not an automobile production engineer); 1 year is too little time to make real structural changes to the car (and to the assembly line) so what will be changed are the easy bits. The easy bits to change, and the bits you typically see changed in a mid-cycle change are:

1. The front fasia (the bumpers and grill), being plastic, is easily changed.

2. The front fenders, being bolted on to the front structure, are also easily changed.

3. The front lights are also easily changed.

4. The front hood is also easy to change and would have to be if the fenders and front fascia are changed.

5. The rear bumper, rear combination lamps, and the rear trunklid, being bolted-on items, are easily changed. But the rear fenders cannot be easily changed mid-cycle so changes to the bumper, lights and trunklid must match the lines of the fenders.

6. The instrument panel is not usually changed mid-cycle but if the "top hat" covering the internal bits can be changed and merely bolted on to the existing structure, that could be changed. So replacing the dashboard plastics with a single piece moulded, softer-touch material (to get rid of many of the seams where pieces join up) should be relatively easy. (Let's hope they get rid of the 2-tier instrument panel also, but that may leave a HUGE expanse of unadorned plastic to the base of the windshield.

7. I don't know how easy it would be to change the outside door skins but if it involved changing it to a heavier-weight steel, I doubt it could be done for a mid-cycle change.

The car, from the A-pillars back should still be easily recognizable as a Gen9 Civic.

bagwell

for one thing, it would look better with projector headlights instead of cheapazz reflectors!!!