TIME TO FREED! HONDA MALAYSIA DEBUTS THE NEW FREED IN MALAYSIA.

Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd today introduced the New Freed in Malaysia. This Best Urban MPV adopts Honda’s innovative technology that offers spaciousness, stylish design, advanced features and quality. The New Freed enhances both driver’s and passengers’ comfort with its practicality, improved features, interior and exterior design. These transformations make the improved version of Freed an even ideal car for young professional urban families, who aspire for a quality lifestyle.

Honda Malaysia Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Yoichiro Ueno said, “We are pleased to introduce the New Freed, which is a product that maximizes the joy of driving for Malaysian motorists. The latest Freed is a Completely Build-Up (CBU) unit from Indonesia. To-date, Honda Malaysia has sold over 2,500 units of Freed since its launch.”

The transformed Freed features a number of enhancements that cater to young professional urban families or professionals who appreciate spending time with family and friends, and also enjoy outdoor living. It comes with 5-speed auto transmission powered by 1.5L i-VTEC engine that promises fuel efficiency with lower gravity and stable run.

Providing premium comfort to both driver and passengers, the Grade E Freed is equipped with plush leather seats while the introduction of armrest on both sides are available in both Grade E and Grade S. The driver’s seat height adjuster further emphasizes comfort based on individual preference. The extraordinary feature of the Freed is its unique flat floor design for passengers to move easily in the car. Cargo loading and unloading is also made more convenient with the low tailgate opening.

Other features of the New Freed are as follow:

Exterior	Interior	Utility
·      Chrome Front Grille ·      Chrome Rear License Plate Garnish ·      Stylish Front Bumper ·      Sporty 15” Alloy Wheels	·      Dual Layer Dashboard with Chrome Plating ·      New Coloured Multi Layer Meter Cluster	·      Automatic Sliding Doors with Remote Control* ·      Walkthrough Cabin ·      Third Row Foldable Seats

Safety features that are available in this stylish Honda Freed MPV: dual front SRS airbags, 6-Star Japanese New Car Assessment Program (JNCAP), G-Force Control Technology (G-Con), Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD), Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) and Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS).

The New Honda Freed family car comes in two variants: Grade S and Grade E. The Grade S is available in Brilliant White Pearl, Polished Metal Metallic and Crystal Black Pearl, whereas Grade E comes in Brilliant White Pearl.

Honda Malaysia offers 5 years or sixty (60) months warranty with unlimited mileage, from the date of registration. This unlimited mileage warranty is applicable only when regular preventive maintenance is performed as per required intervals. Customers are also entitled to a Free Service Coupon (FSC) to enjoy up to six times of free labour charge during service. The FSC coupon is applicable for the 1,000km; 10,000km; 30,000km; 50,000km; 70,000km and 90,000km mileage service.

The Best Urban MPV Honda Freed offers a complete package of premium comfort, spacious cabin and best utility for the best quality travel experiences to owners. The on-the-road price of Freed S is RM 99,800 and Freed E is priced at RM 113,500.

It is time to Freed! Customers can test drive and place their booking for this latest Best Urban MPV at any authorized Honda dealers nationwide. For more information, please call Honda Toll Free number at 1-800-88-2020, or log on to www.honda.com.my.

TOV talks to Erik Berkman on the new NSX

For readers who are not members or a regular at our forums, TOV principal Jeff Palmer met up briefly with Erik Berkman, one of the lead designers of the new 2G NSX during the recent NAIAS. As the conversation was informal, Jeff did not put it in a formal article but shared it in our forums. Extracted and quoted below are Jeff's quick summary of his conversation with Berkman.

Basically he re-affirmed some of the stuff that been out there, particularly the 'reference list' of 3 or 4 performance targets (458, GT-R, McLaren MP4-12C, R8 GT). Said they have very rigid targets on power to weight ratio (which implies performance bogeys) and are very serious about meeting or surpassing those targets, but said top fuel efficiency is #1 target. Acknowledged that the competition is pretty stiff and they love the challenge. Hoping to beat the targets but noted something to the effect of 'even if we fall short, it won't be by much and it will still be one HELL of a performer' (that's paraphrased). I indicated that to me a 10th of a second here or there wouldn't matter as long a the overall driving experience was one of the best, as the past NSX offered a very rewarding driving feel/connection that other 'faster' cars couldn't touch. I said it needed stay true to Honda/NSX's roots, and to have a visceral element (high revs, high hp/l, etc...). Low mass very important to me (I DEFINITELY don't want a fat TECHNO-tank like the GT-R). He didn't comment much but seemed to be in general agreement with my sentiments. Indicated that there's a LOT of work to be done. Oh, I suggested that since they boxed themselves in with the V6 hybrid decree that a turbo would almost be a necessity to meet their performance targets and I didn't really get much of a denial, nor any sort of confirmation on that. Now I'm wishing I remembered his exact words there but several times during our conversation he indicated I should probably see if I could get any more info from some of the team members. We have a pretty good relationship with Erik, and I told him I'd like to speak to him more formally at a later point and he said he'd love to talk to us some more, but we'd obviously have to go through the proper channels to get it set up. (PR gatekeepers).

      

Civic loses best seller status in the U.S.

One victory but also one defeat. 

In the U.S., the Honda Civic has dissappointly lost its best seller status to the Toyota Prius for last year (2012), totalling 57,124 units sold compared to 60,688 units sold for the Prius. This despite an early MMC to address the concerns from media and long time Honda fans. While many and even Honda themselves have been harping on the original 9G (i.e. pre MMC) Civic being best seller in response to criticisms of the interior and other items, the early MMC was very well received so personally the loss of the best seller status for 2012 was a big surprise and dissappointment to me. 

In third place comes the Toyota Camry, with 50,250 total units sold in 2012 which is again a dissappointment to me as I had expected/was hoping that the new Accord would have helped Honda take this spot. 

Nevertheless, all is not lost as Honda seems to have acquired a greater urgency and a better appreciation and response to the opinions of Honda supporters of late so hopefully things improves this year.

Honda regains No2 spot for total sales in the Japanese domestic market

After a 10 years wait, Honda finally regained its No.2 spot in the sales chart for the JDM (japanese domestic market), an achievement last made in 2002. While once again playing 2nd fiddle to mighty Toyota, Honda's total sales for 2012 is close to 50% that of Toyota, coming in at almost 750k versus Toyota's 1.65 million. Coming in close at Honda's heels is the unexpected pair of Daihatsu and Suzuki, both also achieving almost 650k total sales, and pushing the traditional strongmen of Nissan and Mazda down to No.5 and No.6 respectively.

Honda's best selling model remains the ever amazing Fit (Jazz), with the newest variant the Fit Hybrid and Fit Wagon contributing significantly to last year's sales. The Fit ended 2012 as the 3rd best selling car in the JDM selling almost 210k units. The top selling car in Japan remains the mighty Toyota Prius, ending the year with almost 320k units. Other than that, the Freed also did extremely well, ending the year in No.4 spot as top selling car in 2012.

The chart above, as well as the data in this post are provided by our Japan TOV contributor Daniel Garcia.

Top Selling Cars for 2012, Japanese Domestic Market (JDM)

1) Toyota Prius : 317,675 (+25.8%)
2) Toyota Aqua : 266,567 (new)
3) Honda Fit : 209,276 (+0.7%)
4) Honda Freed : 106,316 (+57.0%)
5) Toyota Vitz : 105,611 (-18%)

New Honda model - 'Urban SUV'

On display at the concluding NAIAS is Honda's latest new model, an SUV based on the popular Honda Fit/Jazz. Done as a global model, meaning to be sold in all countries in the world, Honda is finally and wisely capitalizing on the hugely popular Fit/Jazz platform. 

A SUV smaller than the CR-V but available worldwide is sorely needed by Honda and this new model meets that need. The car on display at the NAIAS is a concept but is indicative of the new model which Honda says will go on sale in Japan at the end of this year (2013), and then followed by 'sequential introductions' in other countries around the world.

In ASEAN, this new 'Urban SUV' will compete against the like of Nissan's Livina X-Gear, Toyota's Rush, and Suzuki's SX4 to name a few.

As expected, this new Fit/Jazz SUV will use Honda's latest generation of powertrain - engine and transmission, which Honda calls 'Earth Dreams'. The engine will likely be a variant of the L-Series while the transmission will likely be the new i-DCD, Honda's version of the DCT/DSG designed for small vehicles (and small capacity engines). All three major types of powerplants - gasoline (petrol), hybrid (most likely single-motor IMA), and diesel will be offered.

Honda plans to sell more than 1.5 million units annually of the three "Global Compact Series" models, namely the Fit, the City and this all-new compact SUV, which utilize the Honda-original center-tank layout, by the end of 2016. Starting with the Global Compact Series, Honda will pursue a transformation of its global operations to promptly respond to the needs of customers around the world and evolve models with the best specifications for each region at affordable prices.

Honda Gear Concept

While all attention and lots of excitement have been focussed on the updated 2G NSX Concept in the NAIAS, Honda quietly slipped in a new concept car, the Honda Gear in the Montreal Motor Show which was running concurrently with the NAIAS.

To many long-time Honda fans, this Honda Gear is no less as exciting as the updated NSX Concept and in some ways even better as it promises something all real-world Honda fans can actually look forward to owning - IF Honda is smart enough to listen to feedback and put it into production (without messing it up of course).

To many of us, the Honda Gear reminds us of the great classic Honda cars of the 70's, 80's and even early 90's, before Honda cars become changed into mass-market cars meant everyday Joe's, just to keep up with the industry instead of changing it. Many long time Honda fans talk about cars like the original CVCC Civic, or even the legendary EF/EG Si/SiR Civics of old. Some even talked about the original Honda City Turbo.

According to posts on our TOV forums, the Honda Gear concept was designed by the American Honda's (AHM's) own R&D (Honda R&D Americas or HRA) with Dave Marek as the head of design dept. They did quite a few notable "open study concept" Honda models in the past, like the P-Nut and the FC-Sport. Both of those models got their styling cues put into Honda production cars, especially the front fascia (the 9th gen Euro Civic is one example).
 

According to Honda, the GEAR Concept is supposed to be a back-to-basics design, inspired by the popular Civic hatchbacks of the 1970s.

But Dave Marek also called the GEAR Concept a study, looking at what the next subcompact vehicle could look like, and what appeals to buyers. Marek explained that even though the Urban SUV Concept debuted in Detroit just a few days ago, the GEAR aims to show the local market what Honda can design with small cars.

The GEAR Concept was also specifically debuted at a Canadian auto show instead of Detroit, likely due to the Canadian buyers being more welcome of small cars.

“This Concept could sit in the studio for five years, or we can look at it and say ‘Oh people really liked these proportions or these design cues’ and put them in our next vehicles,” he said, making sure to point out that the GEAR Concept isn’t based on any other Honda platform, and isn’t hinting specifically at any new models. With its two doors, the GEAR looks to be smaller than the Fit, and could be a preview of a micro-subcompact vehicle to take on the Fiat 500 and Scion iQ.

Designed at Honda’s California studio, the GEAR Concept looks retro, although the interior is supposed to be high tech and customizable. “The colors of the interior change based on drive mode.” He said, giving an example of the lighting turning red in Sport mode. There is also a customizable center screen that drivers can choose how information is displayed. “You could have a retro looking speedometer if you wanted,” Marek said.

New NSX Concept at the 2013 NAIAS

Currently, all our attention are focussed on the NAIAS, the North American International Motor Show where three significant cars are on display from Honda and Acura. These are first and foremost the much anticipated updated new NSX concept car, this time with a full concept interior as told to us by our resident insider. Honda/Acura also put up the prototype of the new Acura MDX for the show. And on the Honda side, the new Urban SUV Concept, based on the Fit/Jazz platform, makes it world debut at this show. We have multiple, in depth coverage of these vehicles on our main site the Temple of VTEC. For the convenience of readers, the articles related to the new NSX concept car are below:

Honda PR for the new NSX concept

TOV proprietry photos of the new NSX concept

TOV exclusive video - interview with John Ikeda on the new NSX concept

The photo above is from our own collection. Our complete selection can be viewed at our relevant article in the 2nd link above.

Spy photo of new Honda Stream

 

It is in chinese but one can probably make it fairly readable by using something like Google translation. The chinese website 'sohu' has put up a photo of what seems to be a Honda Stream in the standard disguise colour scheme. The photo in question is above. The sohu page in question is http://auto.sohu.com/20130111/n363067470.shtml.

Update new NSX Concept for Detroit Motor Show ?

There are lots of talk about Honda (via Acura) putting out an updated version of the new NSX concept on this coming Detroit (2013) Motor Show. Claims are that the updates includes the interior as well. The photo above was put up by a TOV forumer in our TOV forums but is probably taken from another website. 

Our resident ex-Honda 'insider' told us that Honda/Acura wanted early feedback from 'respected car people' and dealers as they take this new NSX very seriously. According to him, the first Concept was just the Designers idea on the general layout Exterior of the project. This 2nd concept includes the designers general layout of the interior, which is where they are looking for early feedback on. So if feedback indicates the interior is wrong, its still early enough to change it. The shell or exterior will not change much on this Concept Mule but the dimensions will be more correct on this one.

Personally, I am very curious about what constitutes 'respected car people'...

Our TOV forum thread is question is http://www.vtec.net/forums/one-message?message_id=1125433&page_number=1#1125433.

Zengő Motorsport Selects Honda’s Civic for WTCC

The Hungarian-based private team Zengő Motorsport confirmed today that they will enter the next two seasons of the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) with the Honda Civic WTCC. The car will be driven by Hungarian driver Norbert Michelisz.

William De Braekeleer, Motorsport Manager Honda Motor Europe Ltd., said of the announcement:

“We have always been committed to making the Civic WTCC available to private teams, so we couldn’t be more delighted with today’s announcement.”

“Zengő Motorsport is an extremely professional outfit and Norbert Michelisz a very respected and talented driver. We are really honoured by their choice and the trust they are putting in the Civic WTCC. We are pleased to be able to count on such a player to help us in the manufacturer title’s fight and it is our aim to provide them with the best package to achieve their own goal. Of course this also means an extra challenge for our own works team, but this is what racing is all about!”

He added: “Zengő Motorsport was the first of many teams, both within and outside the WTCC, to express an interest in racing the Civic WTCC. But whilst we would love to make further cars available in the future, we are currently limiting it to one private team.”

Zoltán Zengő, the team principal said:

“With Honda on board we have the perfect partner to fulfill our new goals; namely to fight for the World Championship.”

“I have to thank Honda Hungary for their support and to every member of my team, to whom I’m very proud of. My role is to help Norbert Michelisz’s talent with the best equipment possible because when an outstanding driver meets an outstanding car, miracles can happen. That’s why we chose Honda and it’s the perfect time to board their “Shinkansen”. We feel honoured that somewhere in Japan and Italy there’s an absolute top level racing car under construction and it is made for us, for Norbert to race.”

Based in Budapest, Zengő Motorsport was founded in the 1990s by team principal Zoltán Zengő and has grown to become one of the leading motorsport operations in Hungary.

Norbert Michelisz’s is Zengő Motorsport’s lead driver and has been supported by the team since 2006. In 2008 he became the first Hungarian driver in the modern era to compete in the WTCC, and in his first full season in 2010 showed his class by winning the Rookie Challenge. Last year brought further success for Michelisz, with a win at the Hungaroring and claiming the overall victory in the Yokohama Driver’s Trophy.

J.A.S Motorsport will build the car for the team to the same specifications as Honda’s own Civic WTCC. It will be powered by the HR-412 E, Honda R&D’s bespoke 1.6 litre 4 cylinder direct injection turbo-charged petrol engine, with Mugen providing trackside support.

Honda Racing Team JAS, Honda’s factory team, will enter two cars in the 2013 FIA World Touring Car Championship, driven by Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro.

Honda Racing Team JAS entered the Civic WTCC into the last three races of the 2012 championship, which saw Monteiro claim the car’s first podium finish at Macau in November.

Honda Malaysia (Sales and Marketing) moved office

Honda Malaysia's sales and marketing division has shifted from their old office to CP Tower along the Sprint Highway.