Autos
*Base price of the Honda Civic Mugen Si sedan is $29,500, not including the $635 destination charge. The Mugen Si includes a stiffer suspension, 18-inch alloy wheels, aero body kit, adjustable rear spoiler and a tuned exhaust system. Mugen is a longtime supplier of performance parts for Honda. Sales of the Mugen Si, which began in late October, will be limited to 1,000 units for 2008.
*Kia will call its 2009 mid-size sport-utility Borrego. It will debut in January at the Detroit Auto Show and go on sale in late spring or early summer.
Auto show
*General Motors Corp. will celebrate its 100th birthday in 2008 by adding about 30,000 square feet of exhibit space at the Chicago Auto Show in McCormick Place. All of GM’s eight brands and auxiliary exhibits will be in the North Hall, and its space will top 190,000 square feet. Paul Brian, of the Chicago Automobile Trade Association, sponsor of the show running Feb. 8-17, said that should make GM’s display the largest. Chrysler LLC had held that distinction with its test track. Most of GM’s brands had been in the South Hall.
Air
*Northwestern University Library has launched a Web site featuring 380 digitally reproduced airline menus from the 1950s that can be viewed in high resolution and minute detail. The menus, from domestic and international flights, hearken back to days when an in-flight glass of Johnnie Walker Black Label cost 50 cents. Visit www.library.northwestern.edu/transportat ion/digital-collections/menus/
FYI
*Workers at Honda’s Marysville, Ohio, plant, the first Japanese assembly plant in the U.S., marked its 25th year of production Nov. 1. The plant initially built Accord sedans and now also builds Accord coupes and Acura TL sedans and RDX sport-utility vehicles. It employs 5,300 and has annual production capacity of 440,000 vehicles. Honda said the plant would produce its 9 millionth vehicle this month.
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Quick Trips are compiled from the notebook of Rick Popely and from Tribune news services.
