I mean here is a company that builds ALL the engines for the Indy car series and competes in Formula 1 among other racing venues.

And here is a company that used to make the NSX, S2000 (prolly the last 09 rolled off the line long ago), ITR, RSX, Del Sol, CRX etc.

So I am watching the INDY race in Texas and the pace car is a friggin Accord Coupe- the PACE car!!!!

 

wat

 

and your point is?

 

fixed

 

The Accord Coupe is Honda's current best attempt at a halo sports car.

 

Cars like he S2000 and NSX ain't gonna help Honda much right now in this depression but the Accord sure is

 

Buy another car.

 

To the OP: I finally said "F" them after the past year. I've had 12 different Honda vehicles. You think the automotive side is bad, the motorcycle division doesn't make what Honda fans want either. Many of them have moved on to different brands because Honda does things their way and really doesn't listen to their customers very well. I left their auto division for Subaru and I'm leaving their motorcycle division for Yamaha. Honda can go "F" themselves for all I care. Their build quality has suffered due to the NA built autos, and their bulletproof motorcycle reliability has gone south as well.
No longer are they the best motorcycle engine mfr.

I think if Soichiro was still around, he'd be quite pissed. Even HRC isn't the HRC of old. They are just going to keep building cookie cutter cars because ALL they are concerned with is profit. They used to have a spirit about their work that is gone IMO.

 

No matter how horrible the economy is everyone isn't going to want a boring economy car. Honda seems to have written off the enthusiast market instead of revising it. An enthusiast car doesn't have to be expensive and powerful, it has to be fun and passionate.

 

I don't disagree with your overall point but I did disagree with this statement. I don't think building in NA is the issue. Honda has built in the US for a long time and the NA Accords from 15 years ago were great cars.

In reality I think what has happened is the cost of true competition. When the Japanese came to the US market the domestics were crap and even worse expensive to produce for a number of reasons, the Europeans were either crap or very expensive or both. The Japanese Yen was relatively cheap thus the Japanese had such a big cost advantage that they could deliver top notch quality without pricing themselves out of the market.

Now things are different. The cost of an Accord hasn't gone up much in 15 years. My family's first Accord cost $17,500 in '97. The next one was $18,000 in '99. Today you can get the equivalent Accord for $18,000. So in 12 year the equivalent Accord has gone up in price $500 while now including ABS, more airbags, more government mandated butt wipers etc. Thanks to competition Honda has really kept the price of their cars under control. They are damn good but they aren't miracle workers.