Case Study : How accurate are scoops ?

Scoops of information and especially photos of new to be launched cars are the 'in' thing amongst automotive media fighting to be recognized as 'The' media to go to for information nowadays. In Japan, there are even magazines dedicated to scoops only. Amongst these, Mag-X (of Japan) has from my experience been one of the most accurate in terms of rendering of new models. Their rendering of the original 2001 Honda City was so uncanny that my 'friend' told me he personally was shocked at the almost spot-on accuracy of the rendering except for the exaggerated height (which I found out during the actual launch to be true).  Later, Mag-X was also spot on for the previous 8Gen Civic. 

On March 5th this year (2010), japanese 'scoop' site Autoten.com published a post showing the then latest scoop rendering of the new 4Gen CR-V by Mag-X. The link to that article is http://autoten.com/2010/03/05/2011-new-honda-cr-v-codename-2ws-rendering-and-specification/.

Today of course this new 4Gen CR-V has just been launched at the Los Angeles Motor Show in the U.S. for the U.S. The CR-V is one of Honda's 'global' model, so what we see in the U.S. is virtually identical except for minor details, to elsewhere in the world. 

And so a thought occurred to me. This would be a good opportunity to compare the accuracy of scoop renderings by scoops specialist publications like Autoten and Mag-X. We have the rendering of the new 4Gen CR-V from March. We now have photos of the actual 4Gen CR-V. So how near or how far apart are they ? 

Below on the right is the photo of the Mag-X magazine taken from the Autoten website. On the left is an official photo of the 4Gen CR-V from the AHM photo-pack. I chose the photo with a viewing angle as close to the Mag-X rendering as possible. 

Comparing the two, it can be seen that the grill of the rendering is off compared to the grill on the actual car. But the shape and profile of the headlights and the side windows are nearly spot on. In fact, the overall rendering is quite accurate when compared to the actual car. So considering that the rendering was probably made from verbal descriptions from 'insiders' to Mag-X, we can actually see that it is quite a good representation of the car.

Photos of production CR-V

Famous scoopers Brenda Priddy & Co. has now caught photos of actual production version of the new 4Gen CR-V which the Autoblog website has purchased and published. The photos were taken during the pre-launch media drive event, which was also attended by TOV. However, details from that event are under embargo which is why TOV hasn't published anything about it. This new 4Gen CR-V will be launched in the U.S. next week at the L.A. Auto Show. As confirmed at the TOV forums earlier, it will go on sale on December this year. The photo above was taken from the autoblog website. For more photos and the autoblog story, the link to go to is : http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2012-honda-cr-v-spy-shots-2/med/#photo-4600879/

Small Sports EV Concept car the new Honda Beat ?

Of the many concept vehicles Honda has announced will be at this year's Tokyo Motor Show, the 'Small Sports EV' concept car most caught my eye. In recent times there has been persistent rumours, especially from japanese car magazines, about Honda possibly reviving their iconic 'BEAT' convertible sporty coupe of the 90s. The Honda Beat was a small 2-seater is MR configuration and powered by a 60ps engine. The tiny 660cc engine screams to 8,500rpm ! 

The 'Small Sports EV' concept looks very much like an updated Beat. With quite a number of concept cars making its way to production in past Honda history (the S2000 and the CR-Z for e.g. both started life as a concept car), I wonder how good are the chances that this Small Sports EV concept will become a reality in the not too distant future.
 

As I won't be making my way to the Tokyo Motor Show, I hope that Jeff will be going and if so, that he might be able to dig out a little bit more info on this concept. If he do get it, I will be sure to post them here. In the meantime, Honda supplied three photos of the Small Sports EV concept in their media release for the TMS; three different angles of the car, which are below. Enjoy.

The beginning : New small model details revealed by Honda

A few months ago, there were reports that Honda has announced the introduction of 3 new models in the 'Kei' (mini/super-mini) segment. At their JDM cum corporate website, the first of these new models are now showing up as a teaser. 

This new model is a mini-van, and indeed the teaser has indicated that Honda will be reviving their long extinct 'N' name for this new model. Details that Daniel could extract from the Honda website are as follows:

• They are indeed reviving the "N-series", and the important part is the "series" part. The N-Box debuts a whole new K-car (660cc) platform, and will be followed by a family of "N-cars".
• New platform builds on Fit ideas, with an underfloor fuel tank, taking the good old Honda "Man Maximum Machine Minimum" to a extent never seen before.
• A new engine will come along with the new platform, even more compact than before, and introducing a CVT for the first time on a Honda 660cc. It will also be the first non-hybrid Honda to use auto-idle stop

Honda has also opened a new 'UStream' website and has uploaded a video of the launch of the Freed Hybrid, Insight Exclusive and this new model. The url for to watch the video is below:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18132664


Frame captures by Daniel shows us some details of the new N minivan. It seems it will be a 5-door mini-van with the engine placed right in front and at the bottom of the driver's foot well. All of Daniel's frame grabs are below but do bear in mind that they are screen grabs which is why their resolution and quality are quite low.  

As usual, there is no indications if this will make its way out of Japan. For Malaysia at least, since it will be in direct conflict with the Perodua range of K-cars, the chances seems to be small.