'This Is An '81 Honda! How Dare You!' All About The Car From Employee Of The Month

The 2006 film, "Employee of the Month," starring Dax Shepard, Dane Cook, and Jessica Simpson, isn't necessarily destined to become a classic, as it only holds a rating of 5.6 out of 10 stars on IMDb. However, the stars of the movie enjoy a following that will remember them for a long time to come. Even though Simpson, Cook, and Shepard are household names (in some houses anyway), there's a certain "1981 Honda" from the movie that might be more popular.

The quote in the title of this article, "This is an '81 Honda! How dare you!" comes from a scene involving Simpson's character hitting a golf ball from an elevated putting green. She botches the shot and accidentally hits Shepard's companion as they hide below in a second-generation Honda Civic spying on Simpson and Cook. To which Shepard calls out the line in defense of his classic whip.

Given that Dax Shepard is a co-host of Top Gear America, an automotive reality series released in 2020, we wonder if he questioned the fact that the car in the film is actually an '82 Honda? He probably just went with the script.

Currently in its eleventh generation, the Honda Civic is undoubtedly one of the most successful models in Honda history. Honda introduced the Civic in 1972 as a 1973 model to kick off the first generation. The second-generation Civic debuted for the 1980 model year and continued until 1983. The distinction between 1981 and 1982 Honda Civics centers around the headlights.

Some versions of the Civic are considered among the best-looking Honda models ever designed, even if 1982 wasn't its best year. Early second-gen Civics featured round headlights (evidenced by the 1981 Honda Civic shown above), a design carried over from the original Civic. Honda gave the Civic a mid-generation facelift for 1982, dressing up the front grille with a new squarish headlight design and making carpet a standard feature.

Second-gen Civics came with either a 1.3-liter or 1.5-liter engine under the hood. Transmission options ranged from manual-shift varieties with four or five speeds and a two-speed automatic that was upgraded to a three-speed in 1981. For 1982, the Honda Civic came in four trim levels, Base, DX, GL, and FE. 

The FE trim, short for Fuel Economy, was a new option for the 1982 Honda Civic. The new trim used the same 1.5-liter engine available across the lineup mated to a five-speed manual transmission to rate an estimated 41 mpg in the city and 55 mpg on the highway.

[Featured image by Skwirril via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]