Things change during hard times, and now it appears that the delay of the next generation Civic will change the Honda?s typical five year product cycle, at least on that model.

Market conditions along with tougher fuel economy and emission regulations have affected the development to the upcoming Civic, according to a recent interview with John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co. in Automotive News.

The next Civic will be ready sometime in 2011, according to Mendel, but no month was indicated.? According to Honda Motor Co. COO Tsuneo Tanai, at the Tokyo auto show last October, the new design was altered midstream, to keep the size of the next generation similar to the current model, instead of the planned larger size.

The Civic-based CR-V crossover should arrive on schedule next year, according to Mendel.