All Entries Tagged With: "Honda"
Seeing Double? Honda Accord Coupe & Mercedes C-Class Coupe
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Honda / Daimler ::: Honda Accord Coupe & Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe
PROOF that cars are looking more alike these days (“these days” said through mouthfuls of chaw) abounds and it’s remarkably present in marketing. Consider these two company shots – on the left we have the Honda Accord Coupe and to the right is the Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe. Or is it the other way round? Hard to tell, due to strikingly similar profiles, dimensions, even the swoop of the roofline and soft upward arc of the chrome trime along the window sill are remarkably similar.
So, who copied who? Dunno, but rest assured that this trend ensures that in the future there will be only one flavor.
Thanks, John!
Lean & Mean: Honda CEO Resigns
By Gunnar Heinrich
HONDA CEO Takeo Fukui has stepped down, the BBC reported today. Takanobu Ito is now Honda’s chief executive. Fukui-San was the latest in a string of high profile Japanese resignations – Japan’s drunken finance minister and Toyota’s Katsuaki Watanabe. Honda Dec. profits slipped by 90% and while the downturn has affected its rivals just as harshly, Japan’s corporate culture of leaness-meaness meant that he had to step down so that someone could do better. Food for thought.
The Other American Automakers
By Christopher Paul Davis
FOR better or for worse, General Motors and Chrysler have received a series of government loans. For now, Ford seems to be in better shape.
But considering how each of these embattled carmakers have casted themselves as all-American in their bid for bailout bucks, it’s worth noting that the Detroit 3 are not the only players in the US of A these days.
Here’s a list of some of the other companies that have set up shop Stateside:
Mercedes-Benz. The ML, GL, and the R Class are all produced in Mercedes’ Tuscaloosa, Alabama plant. Originally opened in 1997, the plant has contributed over $8.6 Billion (€6.2 Billion) to Alabama’s economy and employs 4,000 workers.
Toyota. The Toyota Motor Company has five plants in the United States. They’re located in Huntsville, Alabama; Georgetown, Kentucky; Princeton, Indiana; San Antonio, Texas; and Buffalo, West Virginia. The construction of two more facilities is underway.
Honda. The Honda Motor Company has three American assemblies. They’re located in East Liberty, Ohio; Lincoln, Alabama; and Marysville, Ohio. Together, these three plants produce almost every Honda and Acura model sold in the North American marketplace.
Nissan. Nissan Motors also has three plants Stateside. They’re in Smyrna and Decherd Tennessee; and Canton, Mississippi.
BMW. The Bavarians have had a plant in Greer, South Carolina since 1994. In this plant, BMW produces the X3, X5, and X6 for global distribution.
VW. Volkwagen has announced plans to set up shop in Chattanooga, Tennessee opening in 2011. VW plans to invest $1 Billion in the facility and has said that Audis and Porsches may also be produced there.
Hyundai. Hyundai builds the Sonata and the Santa Fe at it’s new $1.4 Billion facility in Montgomery, Alabama.
Subaru. Subaru-Isuzu Automotive, Inc. manufactures some of its cars for sale in the States from its plant in Lafayette, Indiana.
It seems to me that considering each of these foreign operators industrial presence and economic investment in the American job market, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW, VW, Hyundai, and Subaru are just as “American” as GM, Chrysler, or Ford.
[Readers: If I've forgotten any manufacturers or plants in the U.S., leave a comment and I'll update the Google Map and the article]
NSX Is Cancelled. Mixed Emotions On The Subject.
NSX is cancelled.
By Gunnar Heinrich
READING The Motor Report today Dan Fewster had me laughing out loud.
“I knew something was amiss this morning, I’d felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out and were suddenly silenced, and now it all makes sense,” TMR’s scribe typed.
Strong with Mr. Fewster, the Force for using Star Wars metaphors is.
The pain that he and the crying “millions” feel is in reaction to the Honda Motor Company’s decision to cancel the 2010 NSX – heir apparent to the mid-engined Ferrari F355 fighting legacy Honda manufactured more than a decade ago.
But that agony isn’t shared by everyone.
“Well, I say good riddance to a stupid idea. I’m in that camp of people that thinks the original NSX is the very rare car that came out perfectly,” TTAC’s Justin Berkowitz offered. Adding his own fiscal cents to the discussion, Mr. Berkowitz wrote that he couldn’t “understand the business case for a front-engined V10 Acura NSX. Trickle down tech?”
Hmm…
As much as I’m loathe to agree with so morbid a point of view, I’m inclined to agree with so morbid a point of view. This once.
The new NSX had too little to do with its well liked predecessor. The only genetic carry over from the original’s 1990s flat-ironed Nipponese take on Ferrari was the subtle homage to the first car’s unified taillight cluster. Hardly daring, mind you, the designers had the same idea for Dodge’s retro themed Challenger.
It goes to show that everything that once was old could be made new again, so long as it ties in with the original somehow.
So for the cancelled NSX, another time, perhaps. To the pained millions, take heart. We still have Nissan’s fly GT-R. And let’s take this moment to hope that if there is to be another NSX, the Force will be strong enough to cast the successor truer to form.
Efficiency + “The Plot” Lost: Infiniti Design
The M35x is an example of how Infiniti has lost the plot.
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG by Infiniti
GUIDING the M35x’s stubby, leather covered gear lever into D, a realization hit me: Infiniti is the most un-Japanese of Nippon brands.
How so?
Inside Infiniti’s GS/5er/XF/ E-klasse fighter, the black plastic dash that disrupts two elegant sheets of supposedly real African Rosewood features an array of buttonry surrounding a clumsy multi-function wheel.
The controls feature explanatory pictograms and English titles.
For example, if you’re not sure what an inch wide rectangular button with the image of a telephone receiver does, Infiniti’s designers thoughtfully etched the word “Phone” adjacent.
Infiniti boasts that the dash’s “meticulous” design was the artistic culmination from inspiration that can only be found in a piano’s ivories. Functional considerations were also central to the dash’s architecture, since “the instrument panel lays flat so fingers fall naturally over the keys.”
The result in what Infiniti’s marketers are calling “elegant” is design that embodies as much grace as the automotive brail Buick once used in the senior-friendly LeSabre. Just as bad, the instrumentation wastes almost as much space.
Esoteric considerations of gauche interior ergonomics aside, the build quality, fit ‘n finish, and total design execution in Nissan’s luxury line, from FX to QX, rank a distant third behind Toyota’s front runner Lexus and even – gasp! – Honda’s floundering Acura.
Nissan’s luxury division lacks its initial elegant purpose as Japan’s reliable answer to Jaguar – remember the (G50) Q45 of the early 90s?
What made earlier Infiniti examples work was the singularly Japanese process by which they were built: eliminate all waste.
Be trimming a fat shoulder line from a fender or manufacturing time from assembly lines, the guiding lesson in Japan’s (and Toyota’s and Honda’s) post WWII rise centers on the nation’s obsessive, seemingly collective goal of maximizing efficiency. The novel idea is that from efficient design a superior product is delivered to the discerning customer – for less.
Considering the M35x’s confused design and its weighty fourty-eight large starting price, you can’t help but wonder that somewhere in the luxury car race Infiniti lost its advantage by losing the plot.
