With the celebration of Honda’s 50 years in America, the 2009 Speciality Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas, was a good opportunity to present many historic and equipped vehicle full with accessories. Apart from the Honda Accord Sedan that was on show with many Mugen accessories, Mr. Bruce Smith, vice president of Parts Operations for American Honda said that “Customized Honda cars factor strongly into SEMA history and are a big part of Honda’s 50 years in America. With a growing accessory lineup, now including Mugen kits for the Accord sedan and Fit, Honda is committed to supporting personalization of our vehicles into the future”. However, one thing that caught our attention is that they are rumours by many Honda executives, that something big will be announced or even presented in the world of motorsports next year in Japan. We can only expect something like the revival of a new NSX. So far the rumors are building up and if something like that actually do happens, then we could really say “Big in Japan!”.
Honda at SEMA: Something big will happen in Japan next year in the world of motorsports
Honda Insight awarded as Car of the Year 2009-2010 by the Committee of Japan Automotive Hall of Fame
Honda Insight gets a very significant award by the Committee of Japan Automotive Hall of Fame as the Car of the Year 2009-2010.
The three basic factors which led to this award are, the strategy of affordable pricing Honda used in marketing the hybrid Insight; the Insight’s balance of driving performance and environmental performance and last but not least, the balance of performance and fuel economy at cruising and higher speeds offered by Integrated Motor Assist (IMA), Honda’s original hybrid system. Honda Insight is now the first hybrid vehicle that achieves the status of the best-selling automobile among new vehicle registrations in Japan.
American Honda new port facility in Richmond will help reduce CO2 emissions in California
American Honda has made a really great and very clever decision to reduce the CO2 emissions produced, by eliminating 1,720 truck trips from San Diego all the way to northern California. To achieve this major task, Honda American announced the opening of a third West Coast port facility in Richmond, California. This means that a substantial portion of company’s current vehicle import operations will be shifted from the port of San Diego to the new Richmond facility. This will help American Honda to increase efficiently the service on Honda and Acura dealers in Northern California and will support greater rail capacity for transporting vehicles to points east.
Honda Marine new online course offers comprehensive sales education modules
Honda Marine USA, announced an innovative online sales training program for Honda Marine dealers. The all new program will offer comprehensive sales education modules. This new course by Honda Marine University has been implemented to promote sales educational excellence among Honda dealerships in the US. Since the foundation of Honda Marine University, the ability of train service professionals has been increased on an individual level while maintaining a consistent, customer-focused message across its dealer network.
Honda sets all-time record for Worldwide Auto Production in Asia and China
Please find below details on Honda’s latest information release.
Honda Motor Co., Ltd., announced a summary of automobile production, Japan domestic sales, and export results for the month of September 2009 and the first half of the current fiscal year (April-September 2009).
Production
First Half of Current Fiscal Year (April - September 2009)
Production in Japan for the first half of the current fiscal year experienced a year-on-year decrease for the third consecutive year (since the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008).
Production in regions outside of Japan for the first half of the current fiscal year experienced a year-on-year decrease for the first time in 13 years (since the fiscal year ended March 31, 1997), although production in Asia and China respectively set all-time record for the first half of a fiscal year.
Worldwide production experienced a year-on-year decrease for the first time in six years (since the fiscal year ended March 31, 2004).
Honda’s financial results
Honda has available on their site the consolidated financial results for the fiscal second quarter and the fiscal half ended September 30, 2009. You may find them in pdf format into the following two links together with their presentation:
Honda CR-Z could be tuned by Mugen
Mugen doesn’t waste too much time and looks into the future of the new CR-Z, according to Autocar. Hiroki Toyoda, vice president of Mugen Euro said that “the hybrid powertrain would create a new set of tuning opportunities, with the electric motor acting as a kind of turbo at low speeds, to compensate for a lack of torque inherent in naturally-aspirated petrol engines”. Mr. Toyoda also comment that Mugen may develop few handling and exterior upgrades for the CR-Z. We are looking forward to see the final approach of such tuning on hybrid models from now on.
The end of the NSX or the beginning of the new NSX?
This will shake things around to all Honda fans and particular those who can’t wait to see if a new NSX successor may finally rise or not. Honda has formally announced that they will no longer use the NSX-GT in the GT500 class of the Super GT. The main reason is that the new rules of 2010 Super GT require all GT500 cars to be equipped with a front engine and a rear wheel drive. This means that the NSX-GT will not be racing next year unless Honda presents a new NSX. Now, this will be a challenge for Honda, since the NSX-GT has been on poll 49 times and has won 36 times. We all remember several reports and test drives around the track of the NSX successor. The engine was ready, the body was finished, the prototype car in general was complete besides few final settings that were tested on track. We certainly hope that Honda will think over again if they want to continue their heritage in the world of racing, unless of course they want to ruin everything as they did in Formula One!
Honda Europe gives the green light for 20 Mugen Civic Type-R
Good news for Honda and Mugen fans, since the Mugen Civic Type-R limited production of only 20 cars will go ahead. Those cars will be hand build in the UK by Mugen’s European division. Prices are expected to be set at £38,599 ($64,000 or €42,900 at the current exchange rates). It is still not confirmed if all cars will be right or left handed driven. Hiroki Toyoda, Vice President of Mugen Euro said that “Each Type-R MUGEN will be an exclusive, hand-built race car for the road. When we launched the Civic Type RR saloon in Japan, we sold out of all 300 units in just six minutes. Given the interest we have already had from car enthusiasts in the UK and abroad, we hope to repeat that achievement”.
