New cars just keep adding more and more plastic covers on the undersides. They are usually for aerodynamics or protection of less-robust parts. It can make it harder to perform some services because of having to remove these shields, but they can also cause their own problems.
If a driver hits something in the road it can catch on it and pull the shield down. This can easily happen in the winter if the car hits a pile of snow. This particular panel got pulled down on an older Civic and then got packed full of snow and ice. The front edge had gotten worn down by the road, preventing me from just putting it back up using regular clips, so I had to drill a hole in it and zip tie it back onto the car.
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-Dan
Mechanical Malarkey 