New Honda NSX?

2010 is the expected year of the introduction of this car. Just a rendering folks. The next gen Acura NSX is supposed to be a Porche and GT-R killer. Easier said than done, I must say that the GT-R is going to be one helluva car.

So Far, Buyer's are Not Trading their Import's for Malibu's as GM Planned

Interesting more than anything; according to autoblog, people buying the new Malibu are trading in their GM's in for the car.

"The news isn't all rosy, however, as most of these customers are trading in other GM products to get themselves into the North American Car of the Year. Only 1.4% of buyers traded in a Toyota Camry, 1.3% swapped a Nissan Altima, and less than 1% turned in a Honda Accord."

Here's the article;
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/30/buyers-dropping-more-coin-on-the-2008-malibu/

Update on Honda's New Hybrid

Well, looks like the new 'Global Hybrid' (one name around the world) that Honda is developing is going to have a sharp resemblance to the FCX Clarity Hydrogen car above. The car is said to cost less than the current Civic Hybrid and will use an engine based on the Civic's, but smaller and lighter. Honda is going to opt for the Nickel Metal Hydride Battery over the Lithium-Ion due to the proven track record of the Nickel and the high cost of the lithium-ion; however, According to Fukui, the new model is being engineered to allow for a running change to lithium when the batteries do meet the company's specifications.

The A Team Movie is a Go...Now, don't change the van!

Well, here's to another well known vehicle hopefully staying true to its roots. Looks like The A Team is going to be made into a movie, release date scheduled to be July 12, 2009! I for one hope the hollywood gods don't just mess with the awesome looking van and give it to the highest bidding manufacturer (like the Knight Rider TV series).

Could you imagine The A Team piling out of a Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, or the mother of all Soccer mom mobiles the Dodge Caravan?!? That'd be hilarious. Or how's this one;Here's a link to the article;

http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=e6f19653-e791-48b4-a4c2-efae133659f1&entry=index

Who Owns Who in the Automotive Industry

Well, stumbled across a pretty cool 'Auto Family Tree' on http://jalopnik.com/. It's pretty cool to see who owns who.

Top 10 'Friendliest' Cars

Apparently the study rates the 'friendliest' people who drive certain cars. Anyway, the Honda Civic placed 2nd.

The top 10 ‘friendliest’ cars according to Carcraft’s research* are:

1) Mini Cooper

2) Honda Civic

3) Ford Fiesta

4) Ford Ka

5) VW Golf

6) Renault Clio

7) VW Polo

8) Vauxhall Corsa

9) Toyota Yaris

10) Audi A3

*Research based on the top 30 makes and models of car and figures calculated in March 2008.

Source;

http://4wheelsblog.com/released/the-top-10-‘friendliest’-cars

Ford sells Jaguar and Land Rover to India's TATA

Not much in the way of Honda news front, so I thought I'd fill the void with some other news.

Ford Motor Co., the world's third- largest automaker, agreed to sell Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors Ltd., for less than half what it paid for the two brands as luxury-vehicle demand drops.

Tata, India's biggest truckmaker, will spend $2.3 billion (I've also heard as high as $2.65 billion), while Ford will contribute about $600 million at closing to the Jaguar Land Rover pension funds, the companies said today.

Ford is ending its investment in U.K.-based brands as the U.S. housing slump and job losses curb sales of models such as the $80,000 Jaguar XK. Ford is working to return to profit next year after $15.3 billion in losses in 2006 and 2007.

"Ford's financial situation is so severe it simply can't afford to sustain the two companies any longer,'' said Peter Schmidt , managing director of U.K. consulting firm Automotive Industry Data. ``Jaguar has been nothing but a financial millstone.''

Ford acquired Jaguar in 1989 for $2.5 billion and Land Rover in 2000 for $2.73 billion as part of a European-luxury strategy it began by buying Aston Martin in 1987. It sold Aston last year. (Ouch, talk about cutting your losses.)

Here's a link to the rest of the article;

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a6BCGuWnMT8Q&refer=home

2009 Honda FIT Press Release

03/19/2008 - NEW YORK -

The all-new 2009 Honda Fit, set to go on sale in the U.S. this fall, is making its U.S. debut at the New York International Auto Show, American Honda Motor Co., Inc., announced today. The Fit promises to further its leadership in the subcompact segment with top-of-class feature content, including an available Honda Satellite-Linked Navigation System™; improved interior functionality, including one-motion dive-down rear seats; enhanced sporty demeanor through improved suspension, steering and body rigidity; and high levels of standard safety equipment, including Honda's Advanced Compatibility Engineering™ (ACE™) body structure.

"Critics and customers alike have voted the Fit among the best small vehicles on the road," said Dick Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda. "This new Fit raises the bar even further, taking what was already great about the Fit, making it even better and throwing in a healthy dose of refinement."

Enhanced Comfort and Convenience
Dimensionally compact on the outside, the interior provides surprisingly large passenger and class-leading cargo space to maximize comfort and utility. At the foundation is an improved rear Magic Seat®, now featuring one-motion dive-down functionality, which allows the rear seat to fold flat with the front seats in the rearmost slide position and without removing the rear head restraints. The seats offer multiple seating and cargo-carrying configurations (tall object mode, long object mode and utility mode) in addition to the standard five-passenger mode. Additionally, a new hidden storage bin under the driver's side rear seat provides a place to store small items.
Adding further refinement, Fit Sport offers an available factory-installed Honda Satellite-Linked Navigation System™ with Voice Recognition, featuring a 6.5-inch screen. All Fit Sport models feature a USB audio interface1 compatible with current generation iPods® and many USB storage devices.

"The goal is to provide entry-level vehicle customers with functionality and refinement that's a class above," said Colliver. "Buying a Fit is a choice, not a compromise."

Fun to Drive
The Fit features a new 1.5-literi-VTEC™ 4-cylinder engine connected to either a 5-speed manual transmission or an available 5-speed automatic transmission, which includes steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters on the Fit Sport. The new engine is designed to offer the best balance of fuel economy and power. Larger 15-inch and 16-inch (Fit Sport) wheels hint at enhancements to the Fit's suspension, steering and body rigidity, which are intended to produce sportier handling without sacrificing comfort.

Top-of-Class Standard Safety Equipment
The 2009 Fit adds Honda's Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure technology, available Vehicle Stability Assist ™ (VSA®) and active head restraints, to a top-of-class list of standard safety features. With Fit's adoption of ACE, more than 94 percent of Honda vehicles sold in the U.S. will include the innovative body structure. When introduced to the 2009 Fit, VSA will be available in the lineup of every model Honda sells in the United States. Dual-stage, dual-threshold front airbags, dual front-side airbags with passenger-side Occupant Position Detection System (OPDS) and side-curtain airbags are standard equipment on all Fit models. All seating positions have three-point seat belts. Additionally, front and rear visibility is improved.

Standard active safety equipment includes an anti-lock braking system (ABS), with ventilated discs in the front and drums in the back, and electronic brake distribution (EBD).

More detailed information about the 2009 Honda Fit will be released closer to the vehicle launch in the fall.

Source; http://www.hondanews.com/categories/1074/releases/4444

2010 Acura RL rumours

Looks like Honda is going to be listening to the critic's and will be adding a RWD V8 RL for 2010! Another rumour is that Honda is working on a 420-horsepower 4.8-liter V8 which will incorporate the Variable Cylinder Management System currently employed in the Honda Accord V6's, (VCM = Cylinder deactivation), to manage fuel better.

The car will supposedly feature an FR layout with SH-AWD, which is the setup that Honda says will underpin the next generation NSX.

Green Cars that Automakers WON'T Sell You

Here's one that I didn't know about;

The new 2008 Honda Accord boasts an environmental first: a six-cylinder gasoline engine that's cleaner than many hybrid systems.

There's only one catch: You can't actually buy this ultra-green Accord, or the four-cylinder version that also produces near-zero pollution. That is, unless you live in California, New York or six other northeast states that follow California's tougher pollution rules. Only there can you buy this Accord, or the roughly two dozen other models that meet so-called Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle standards, PZEV for short.

Not only can't you buy one, but the government says it's currently illegal for automakers to sell these green cars outside of the special states. Under terms of the Clean Air Act—in the kind of delicious irony only our government can pull off—anyone (dealer, consumer, automaker) involved in an out-of-bounds PZEV sale could be subject to civil fines of up to $27,500.

So, just how green is a PZEV machine? Well, if you just cut your lawn with a gas mower, congratulations, you just put out more pollution in one hour than these cars do in 2,000 miles of driving. Grill a single juicy burger, and you've cooked up the same hydrocarbon emissions as a three-hour drive in a Ford Focus PZEV. As the California Air Resources Board has noted, the tailpipe emissions of these cars can be cleaner than the outside air in smoggy cities.

That's amazing stuff. But what's more amazing is how few people have a clue that the gas-powered, internal combustion engine could ever be this clean.

Naturally, no company wants to bring too much attention to a car that most people can't buy, unless it's Ferrari. And there's the catch. PZEV models are already available from Honda, Toyota, Subaru, VW, Volvo, Ford, and yes, GM. They're scrubbed-up versions of familiar models.

It's not all the fault of the car companies. The crazy quilt of environmental regulations is forcing carmakers to design and build two versions of the same cars. And it costs real money to make a car this green. So in states where there are no regulations to force their hand,automakers don't want to have to boost their prices for the green versions—or to simply eat the extra cost and make less profit.

Honda appears to be doing just that. It currently charges Californians and other green-staters about $150 extra for these solid-citizen models. But experts suggest that it costs carmakers closer to $400 a pop to install the gear.

Another issue: The PZEV cars don't get any better mileage than conventional versions. Would most self-interested Americans even pay a lousy 100 bucks for cleaner air that doesn't put fuel savings back in their pocket? "With hybrids, the selling point is fuel economy, so there's a dollar amount on that," said William Walton, Honda's product planning chief for U.S. cars. "We want to give people the cleanest vehicles we can produce, but how much are people willing to pay for clean air?"

As often as automakers express envy and resentment over Toyota's image, you might think Honda would be filming TV ads, erecting billboards, shouting from rooftops that the Accord is the world's cleanest six-cylinder car. In the green game that Toyota has played like a chess master, it seems like this is a lost opportunity for Honda, Nissan and the rest to siphon off some of Toyota's goodwill.

So give Honda's talented engineers credit for this clean-burning Accord. But give its marketing department a big, smoggy raspberry for keeping it a virtual secret—and keeping it off-limits to buyers in 42 states.

Source: http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=434502
By Lawrence Ulrich

3 Funny Honda Ads

This ad may be in bad taste but I couldn't resist.

400,000 Hybrids by 2012

Last year Honda sold just 55,000 Hybirds, the next four years Honda is looking to sell 400,000 Hybrids per year. A lofty but achievable goal, with the right product (ahem, Accord Hybrid [performance Hybrid or should they have come out with a Gas Miser Hybrid]). Toyota sold approx. 430,000 Hybrids last year. Honda plans on releasing three new Hybrids in the next few years, including a sports model and a family car.

Source: http://www.leftlanenews.com/honda-targets-hybrid-sales-of-400000-per-year.html#more-6669

Car & Driver's 10 Closet Hogs, No Honda's

Car and Driver Magazine has a pretty cool article about 10 vehicles that have been 'hiding serious drinking problems'. No Honda's on this list, but I thought that some of you would appreciate the article none the less.

BY JARED HOLSTEIN, PHOTOGRAPHY BY AARON KILEY AND THE MANUFACTURERS February 2008

It’s not just big trucks that get lousy fuel economy, either. The culprits of poor fuel economy are many, but common underlying causes include portly curb weights, older drivetrains, and the conscious exclusion of fuel-saving technologies to keep production and purchase prices down. Before you spend your money on a new car, make sure you pay attention to the equipment list, because with the wrong engine or transmission choice, heinous fuel economy is sometimes just a checkbox away.

2008 Saab 9-7X Aero
6.0-liter V-8, 4-speed auto, 4-wheel drive
Link; http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/features_classic_cars/closet_gas_hogs_feature+page-2.html

2008 Jeep Wrangler
3.8-liter V-6, 4-speed auto, 4-wheel drive
Link; http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/features_classic_cars/closet_gas_hogs_feature+page-3.html

2008 Jeep Liberty
3.7-liter V-6, 4-speed auto, 4-wheel drive
Link; http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/features_classic_cars/closet_gas_hogs_feature+page-4.html

2008 Saturn VUE XE
3.5-liter V-6, 6-speed auto, 4-wheel drive
Link; http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/features_classic_cars/closet_gas_hogs_feature+page-5.html

2008 Pontiac G6 GT Convertible
3.9-liter V-6, 4-speed auto, front-wheel drive
Link; http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/features_classic_cars/closet_gas_hogs_feature+page-6.html

2008 Mazda RX-8
1.3-liter 2-rotor, 6-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Link; http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/features_classic_cars/closet_gas_hogs_feature+page-7.html

2008 Mazda CX-7
2.3-liter inline-4, 6-speed auto, 4-wheel drive
Link; http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/features_classic_cars/closet_gas_hogs_feature+page-8.html

2008 Volvo S80
3.2-liter inline-6, 6-speed auto, front-wheel drive
Link; http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/features_classic_cars/closet_gas_hogs_feature+page-9.html

2008 Pontiac Solstice/2008 Saturn Sky
2.4-liter inline-4, 5-speed auto, rear-wheel drive
Link; http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/features_classic_cars/closet_gas_hogs_feature+page-10.html

Anything on E85
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/features_classic_cars/closet_gas_hogs_feature+page-11.html