Pimped-Out Honda Civic

Opportunity: Product

The world is under a pandemic of over-hyped car “tuning” enthusiasm. Every drive to work includes at least one lowered 10 year old economy car equipped with very dark tinted windows and a HUGE muffler trying to zig-zag through traffic in the right lanes. I’m glad to report they’re a minority on the road (at least in the Boston area). In fact, for every one of these wishful-thinking drivers there is, at my recent counts, at least ten people driving the same 10 year old car without modifications, driving in the right lane under 65 to conserve gas/cost.

Most cars from 1996 forward come with a standard engine diagnostics port called ODB-II. This is a standard little connector usually by your feet while you’re driving. The government standardized on this interface to make sure any mechanic could service your car to keep the auto-repair market and open market.

This data port relays information like engine speed (RPM), ground speed (KPH/MPH), mass-air-flow sensors (G/S), etc. Right now on the market you can buy a device which allows you to connect the port to a computer and watch/record the data in real-time. There is another device out there that records all the output for you to download later to your PC.

Engine diagnostics with computers is becoming a truly huge market. Without making physical changes to your engine you can improve your power / efficiency in less time than it would take you to change your oil.

I propose a small microprocessor device to connect to this port and help you with your driving with a small display to be mounted on your dash. You can install it yourself because the port is readily available from inside the cabin and it can stick on your air-vent holes or some other equally uncreative place.

With gas prices climbing every day, imagine the value of a device that tells you: “Your fuel efficiency has been reduced due to your high speed, return to 67MPH for optimal efficiency.” The device could pay for itself in a couple months and could be a valuable tool for helping to teach the next generation how to drive.

Yes, gas mileage indicators are on nice, big, fancy cars like Cadillacs and the such – but those of us with normal front-wheel-drive cars are the ones who’d really value that display and we don’t have it.

Of course, the device could be smart enough to understand the best time to shift due to power bands and then all the people with the race-car type economy cars would want them too.