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Filed under: Car Buying, Honda
Taking a detailed look at the
Honda lineup in the US, it isn't hard to see the strength of some models and the weaknesses of others. A recent report on
Autoline Daily points out that its five core models - the
Accord,
Civic,
CR-V,
Odyssey and
Pilot - make up a full 93 percent of Honda's sales in the US. Through April, Honda has sold 419,798 vehicles, and 389,474 of them were from these core models; not to mention the fact that the
Accord was the top-selling car in the US last month.
This means that Honda could technically cut six of its 11 models and only lose about 5,000 sales per month. Of course, this is just some data crunching and there is no reason to believe that Honda is planning to kill off any of its models in the near future. In fact, it seems to be
committed to the Ridgeline, while Japanese-made models that
may actually lose money for Honda still fill unique voids.
Scroll down for the video report - fast-forward to the 1:43 mark for the Honda info.
Continue reading Honda could halve its US lineup without crimping its sales much [w/video]
Honda could halve its US lineup without crimping its sales much [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 18 May 2013 15:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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May 18th, 2013
Filed under: Frankfurt Motor Show, Hybrid, Hatchback, Honda
The
Honda Insight is a hatchback with its spirit in the right place, but everything else about it has practically no spirit at all.
Honda has finally seen to its lackluster hybrid by tweaking nearly everything about it. Its face has been given blue eyes courtesy of tinted headlight covers, and the grille and front spoiler benefit from a welcome sharpening. In back, a revised profile for the spoiler means improved visibility.
The Insight's sparse plastic interior is where TLC was most needed, and the loving comes via nicer seat fabric, "wood look paneling," and stitching that breaks up the synthetic expanses. There is also more room inside, and less noise.
Under the hood is the familiar 1.3-liter i-VTEC mated to an electric motor, but tweaks mean that it gets better gas mileage and now puts out just 96 grams of CO2 per kilometer when fitted with 15-inch wheels. You can find out all about the better, frugal-er Insight in the materials
after the jump and the gallery of high-res photos.
Continue reading 2012 Honda Insight gets nicer
2012 Honda Insight gets nicer originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 13 Sep 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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September 13th, 2011
Filed under: Hybrid, Government/Legal
The vehicles are no longer novel, their yellow stickers have faded from years of exposure to the sun and, after six years of enjoying the privilege, it's now time for California's hybrid owners to suffer with the rest of us in the state's traffic-clogged non-High Occupancy Vehicle lanes.
Starting today, July 1, some 85,000 yellow stickers issued to owners of certain hybrid vehicles in California expire. Now these hybrids have to fall in line with gas-guzzlers, truckers and the millions of other vehicles that sit at a dead stop in the "regular" lanes of California's highways and watch in envy as carpoolers whiz by at 55-plus miles per hour in dedicated HOV lanes.
Only three hybrid vehicles -
Toyota Prius,
Honda Insight and
Honda Civic Hybrid - qualified (rated 45-plus miles per gallon) for the yellow stickers. Now, owners who choose to cruise solo in HOV lanes in those gas-sipping hybrids will face steep fines.
Hybrids rejoin California gridlock as HOV stickers expire today originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 01 Jul 2011 09:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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July 1st, 2011
An experimental Honda Insight rally car
has been banned by Formula 1000 organizers for being too fast on the tarmac. The last-gen Honda Insight fielded by the UK's OakTec Racing was kicked out of competition after it amassed a 19-point lead after just three events.
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June 29th, 2011
Filed under: Car Buying, Hybrid, Hatchback, Honda
Honda Insight with K20A2 Swap - Click above for high-res image gallery
We miss the first-generation
Honda Insight. The aluminum-bodied hybrid represented a no-holds barred quest for fuel efficiency with innovative weight saving techniques, an aerodynamic design and a tiny 1.0-liter gasoline engine. As a result, the two-door garnered an EPA-rated 70 mpg highway and 61 mpg city - a far cry from the 43 mpg highway of the much larger current car. Of course, the Insight of yore also begged to be modified, even if it wasn't done that often. Still, some tuners simply couldn't resist the thought of plopping a high-horsepower engine into a featherweight chassis, which is exactly what CincyStreetScene forum member Cheezoto did with his first-gen Insight.
A 210-horsepower K20A2 lifted from an
Acura RSX Type S is now bolted in place of the old IMA lump and motor, and the seller promises the swap was done as cleanly as possible. There are no check engine lights, and the gauges, anti-lock brakes and cruise control all work as they should. The seller did the swap himself back in 2007, and the engine now has around 45,000 miles on it. The chassis, meanwhile, sits at a shave under 300,000 miles.
Surprisingly enough, the asking price is a reasonable $9,900. Considering that a non-modified 2000 Insight will set you back close to $9,000, we'd say this sounds like a deal. Head over to
CincyStreetScene for a closer look.
Online Find of the Day: K20-powered Honda Insight recalls '88 CRX Si originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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June 8th, 2011
Filed under: Car Buying, Honda, Earnings/Financials
2011 Honda CR-Z - Click above for high-res image gallery
Honda has hit rough water with sales of its new
CR-Z,
Accord Crosstour and
Insight models According to
Automotive News, the three models are underperforming in a big way.
Take the Insight hybrid, which is falling 40,000 units short of even the most conservative estimates inside the company. Outsold 8-to-1 by its
Toyota Prius rival, Honda has only managed to shift 19,325 units through November - the company originally targeted sales of 60,000 to 80,000.
Likewise, thus far this year, Honda has sold nearly 20,000 fewer Crosstour models than its biggest competitor - the
Toyota Venza, selling just 25,927 units compared to the Toyota's 43,325. Need we remind you, Honda's original sales goal for the Crosstour was 40,000 units per year, a number we were deeply skeptical of after first
driving the vehicle at its launch last November.
Although it hasn't been on the market that long, early sales for Honda's new CR-Z hybrid coupe aren't any more encouraging.
Automotive News reports that Honda had conservatively intended to sell around 15,000 of the two-seat hybrids per year, but so far, only 4,373 have made their way off of dealer lots and another 3,000 are currently sitting in inventory. Thankfully, there is one bright spot in the Honda stable - the
2011 Odyssey. The minivan bowed in September, and it's performing well against a minivan segment that has heated up with a range of new competitors.
Automotive News suggests that the problem boils down to a change in Honda's image from a company with compelling products to one that plays it safe. Throw in styling that isn't for everyone and aging (but still selling) models like the
CR-V and
Accord, and you've got a recipe for decreased market share.
Honda, meanwhile, says that it doesn't focus on market share because that leads to bad habits (read: incentives), instead opting to focus on percentage-increases in vehicles sold. That's a fair strategy, but slow sales of key new models suggest that Honda needs to do some soul-searching. Might we suggest getting back to its roots as an engineering-driven car company?
Photos copyright (C)2010 Steven Ewing / AOL.
[Source:
Automotive News - sub. req.]
CR-Z, Crosstour, Insight sales hurting - Odyssey lone bright spot among new Honda models originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 19:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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December 6th, 2010
