Hi,
Yes this is the first time Honda is introducing a Diesel engine. It supposed to highly efficient. But lets see how that plays out, as again it is the first time.
The price of the new Civic is MORE than the current one.
And for the DVD-Nagivation system, the Japanese version has it, but as an addon. Even the current Civic Ferio has a DVD navigation system, you just need to ask for it (in Japan). And the Japanese version -does- have audio and cruise control buttons on the steering wheels. Those are standard driver safety features over there.
But what Honda Atlas over here does is, strip quite a few features out. Like cruise control, audio control, ABS on standard models (like there's no ABS on EXi over here). They also redesign the steering wheel to be cheaper. Otherwise if you've driven the Thai Civic (which is basically what we have), the steering wheel has proper Honda Emblem on it compared to the cut pattern on our steering wheels. Plus it also has audio & cruise control buttons. Oh and the engine that we receive is about 100CC smaller than the American/Japanese counterparts. However I believe this time they'll be in sync with the rest of the world.
For removing the DVD navigation system, I don't really blame Atlas motors because we don't really have that service here. However the Japanese Civic has a reverse gear camera which is tied to the LCD screen, so thats a disadvantage for Pakistanis to be deprived of that feature.
Trakker who was offering GPS navigation, doesn't anymore and have no plans to relaunch it until the end of 2006. Even then I doubt they'll very acurately map our major cities. Our roads and our statistics need to progress a whole lot before GPS navigation takes off here.