I love the fact that Honda does not need to get in any power battle with any other car manufacturer to sale sport cars.


Fixed.

 

That's better. Now I can agree with you.

Honda's flagship cars are always exceptional. They never have the most power or the most grip, but they always deliver a unique and exceptional driving experience.

Nastinupe pretty well hit the nail on the head. Honda doesn't worry so much about being king of the hill (the way Nissan does), but their engines always make respectable power and deliver reasonable performance. They don't try to be king of the hill, but I'm sure they keep an eye on what the other companies are doing, and they don't let their line of cars fall too far behind (in terms of power).

I like Nastinupe's characterization of Toyota too. It took me a very long time to warm up to the Lexus, because in so many ways, it is the polar opposite of what I like in a car. I have yet to find anything that will increase one's appreciation for an S2000 or Miata any more than driving one after driving an RX300 for a while.

 

Try a Chevy Malibu

 

It may well be as soft edged, but the Malibu doesn't have the size and mass of the RX300. In the RX300 it feels like my butt is riding higher than my head does in the Miata. For the first few miles I feel like I'm driving on stilts.

 

Your statement "increase one's appreciation for an S2000 or a Miata" can be used for any POS car. I had to rent a Malibu recently, the steering is SO light and out of touch I thought there was something wrong with the car.

As far as height and mass, yes SUV's are higher and heavier than an S or a Miata

 

I dunno why some ppl just talk as if Honda has no idea and stupid enough to not know how their automobile business should be operated.

 

I think that Honda knows what they are doing and they aren't giving the S2000 more power for one reason.

M-O-N-E-Y

They are some cheap bastards.

They know that giving the S2000 a power increase will not help sales and therefore it will not increase the amount of money that they make off of the product. They only sell a little over 7000 S2000's a year now.

Their staff is a fixed number, and just like any business, people are staffed to projects. How could upper management ever approve of resourcing people and time to a project that would not make any additional money for the company. So in essence, Honda would actually loose money in man power hours and retooling the factory and retraining the workers to make an S2000 with additional power. The CR was an easy fix because it was simply parts swapped out. Thicker this, fatter that. No AC, no radio, no top. They are probably making more of a profit off the CR than normal S2000's. I'm sure that AC, radio and speakers, and a power top costs more than sway bars and a hardtop.

 

[QUOTE=nastinupe1,Sep 13 2007, 12:37 PM] I think that Honda knows what they are doing and they aren't giving the S2000 more power for one reason.