Honda to update manufacturing process

According to Japan's Nikkei daily, Honda is set to update their plant manufacturing processes to make lighter vehicles. This is via the use of welding and other techniques, thus saving the weight of mounting bolts and so forth. The first model to benefit from this update is the new N-Box mini-van. Others are expected to follow soon. Apparently the primary target of this updated process will be Honda's overseas assembly plants. The Nikkei report has been summarized and translated into english by the autonews site and the article can be read via the url http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111224/OEM01/312249999/1186.

Hot Import Nights (HIN) debuts in Malaysia

Hot Import Nights (HIN) is a popular car-show featuring compact and tuner import cars in the U.S.A. This show is owned and run by Hot Import Nights (the company) who are located in Orange County, California. In the U.S. HINs are mostly single-night events held in many different cities across the US, ranging from hardcore car enthusiasts cities like Los Angeles, New York (city) to exotic ones such as Honolulu in Hawaii.

HIN (the company) also runs HINs (the car-shows) across the world, in Europe, Asia, South America and even Africa, through its network of associate. In Asia for e.g. HINs have been a feature of the Indonesian enthusiasts scene for 10 years now. For 2011, HIN is making its debut in Malaysia.

HIN 2011 (Malaysia) is currently running at our Malawati Stadium at Shah Alam, the location famous for its annual GRA (a local version of Gymkhaha or Auto-X) events. HIN however is held inside the Malawati stadium itself. Word of HIN has been spread very well by its organiser and most car enthusiasts in the Klang Valley are aware of it. Having gotten media credentials with the organiser, I paid a visit to HIN early on the first day in order to check it out before the crowds arrived. It also gives better photo opportunities.

Main Venue

The main venue of HIN is inside the Malawati stadium itself. Taking centerstage is the Honda booth, with a white CR-Z together with three selected modified Hondas being displayed. These Hondas were selected from a competition where owners submitted their cars to Honda Malaysia. Two FD2 Civics and one current gen City were selected (thanks to Fish-Chan for the correction). Photos of the 3 cars and the CR-Z are below.

Surronding the center Honda display are the displays of the main participants. Tom's Stickers have a large booth there, showing off their comprehensive ranges of stickers plus a host of other similar companies. One that caught my curiosity was 'Jaz Airbrush' who put an EF CR-X on the floor with a 'live demo' of air-brushing the car. There are lots of other wonderfully motif'ed cars on display as well. Also on display are the mandatory super-cars like a 'Bumblebee' lookalike yellow Chevrolet, plus a Lamborghini, an R35, Porsches and so forth.

Dyno Challenge

Besides just static display, HIN also feature supplementary car competitions, the 'dyno challenge' being one of the more talked about one. The location of this 'dyno challenge' is via a small exit located in the corner of the main venue. Unfortunately this exit is not well signboarded and I myself almost missed it. Once pass the exit doorway, I had to make my way up a twisty flight of stairs and I get into the dyno-challenge area. HIN has brought in a 'DynoLog' dyno machine from Australia for the dyno-challenge. This dyno is a twin-roller retarder based dyno and is a 4WD unit. Unfortunately the main dyno challenge event is to start at 6:30pm so I didn't stay for it. 

Spread around the dyno are some of the cars participating in the challenge. It was gratifying to see that Hondas still features prominently in a dyno challenge, eventhough there are no more truly hardcore sports Honda model available today. Consequently, almost all the Hondas on display are older models, like the DC5 (Integra Type-R), AP1 (S2000), and even an EG6 Civic which has a K20A swapped in (very neat job I might add).

Below is a selection of my photos taken from my visit/coverage of the show, with a bias towards Honda of course.

 

Cleanest Internal Combustion engined car in the world

TOV member Andrew, who is also a Honda salesperson specialising in 'green cars' made this video to demonstrate how clean the Honda Civic GX is. The whole TOV community agrees that he is a little bit crazy to do the things he did in the video but it certainly demonstrates how much trust and commitment he has to his beliefs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEvfvPf0uJg&feature=player_embedded

300 bookings for Honda CR-Z in Malaysia

As expected, the superb pricing and a unique package has made the Honda CR-Z a hit in Malaysia. Honda Malaysia has announced that they have received 300 bookings for the car, despite widespread knowledge that a more powerful version is in the works. 

It has also been announced by some that the automatic (CVT) version will be launched in March next year. Meanwhile Honda Malaysia has added three colours for the CR-Z.

The CR-Z should be showing up on the road soon.

For the full press release, click on the link below.

All-NEW CR-Z WELL RECEIVED BY MALAYSIAN
MOTORISTS

Honda Malaysia introduces three more exciting colours to the CR-Z lineup
Petaling Jaya, 8 December 2011 – Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd today announced that the recently launched award-winning All-New CR-Z has received overwhelming response by Malaysian motorists recording robust sales of over 300 bookings within a month of its launch. At its launch in early November, the Hot-Hatch hybrid model was targeted to sell 100 units by end of this year.
 

Expressing his delight over the positive acceptance of the CR-Z by Malaysians, Mr. Yoichiro Ueno, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Honda Malaysia commented, “Honda Malaysia is very pleased and encouraged by the overwhelming response for the All-New CR-Z. We believe that the world’s first 6-speed manual transmission hybrid vehicle has
broken new grounds in the automotive choices for Malaysians. In our commitment to exceed customers’ expectations, we are pleased to announce that Honda Malaysia will be bringing in three more exciting new colours to add to the CR-Z lineup and to give Honda customers more options.”

Mr. Ueno added that the new colours for the CR-Z, which are STORM SILVER METALIC, MILANO RED, and CRYSTAL BLACK PEARL are scheduled to arrive by early 2012. “With the introduction of the new colours, we are confident that the environmental friendly and fun-to-drive CR-Z will continue to appeal to customers in Malaysia. 

He continued, “In Malaysia, there is a growing acceptance towards green technologies and hybrid vehicles, especially with the support from the government in offering full exemption of import duty and excise duty for Hybrid vehicles until December 2013. As the pioneer in introducing hybrid technology in Malaysia, the CR-Z is the third hybrid model that Honda has successfully brought to Malaysians. The All-New CR-Z has been able to fulfil the demand for a stylish hybrid vehicle that is not only eco-friendly but also a performance vehicle that is fun to drive. Malaysians can expect to see the CR-Z on the roads from this month onwards.”

The All-New CR-Z is the first model to feature Honda’s versatile 3-Mode Drive System, which enable the driver to choose and switch modes seamlessly depending on their driving style and road situation. The three modes – SPORT, NORMAL and ECON in the CR-Z alters the responses of the throttle, steering, idle stop timing, climate control and the level of assistance provided by the IMA Hybrid System.

Customers can place bookings for the three new colours starting tomorrow. The All-New CR-Z which now comes in Premium White Pearl, Storm Silver Metallic, Milano Red, and Crystal Black Pearl is priced at RM115,000 with a 5 years battery warranty or 140,000 km whichever comes first.

View and test-drive the All-New CR-Z at any authorized Honda dealers and showrooms today! For more information, please call Honda Toll Free number at 1800-88-2020, or log on to www.honda.com.my.

The future of Acura

While I wasn't at the Tokyo Motor Show, vtec.net 'chief' Jeff Palmer was there and was part of the contingent who participated in the roundtable discussion with Honda CEO Ito-san, as well as the special preview of future Honda car directions, including test-driving the 'future Accord'. Coverage of these events are now 'the' hot news around automotive publications around the world. Yet when I was chatting with Jeff on the weekend of the TMS, I was surprised to learn that he had already flew back to the U.S. It was for a special event in Las Vegas he told me and today, Jeff published a special article about that event. 

Basically we (TOV) had been part of the very select, exclusive group of media journalists who were invited by Acura (U.S.A.) to a special 'Strategic Briefing' session by Acura where we learned a lot about the future plans of Acura for the U.S. market. While the session was specifically for Acura and the U.S., some of the models revealed in that session are highly likely to make it to the rest of the world as well, either as (newly launched) Acura models or Honda models. 

So if you want to peep into what Honda has for you in the future, read our special article at the link http://www.vtec.net/news/news-item?news_item_id=1020643

Latest Update on Thai flood situation from Honda

The press release after the link is Honda's latest update on the flood situation in Thailand. The gist is that Honda have successfully cleared their facilities of flood water and is now in the painful and slow process of recovering the facility to operational status. It will probably take weeks before any of the facility can start again and months for them to recover to fully operational status.

The more important, good news is that Honda's Suzuka and Saitama plant in Japan will be restored to full capacity at the beginning of next week (Dec 5th) while the U.S. and Canada plants (6 in all affected) will restore fully capacity the day after tomorrow (Dec 1st). 

November 28, 2011 - Following is the most current information regarding the impact of the flooding in Thailand on Honda's operations. 

Flood water draining efforts were completed at Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (HATC), the Honda automobile production subsidiary in Thailand (headquarter in the Rojana Industrial Park, Ayutthaya), and HATC today began its recovery efforts such as the cleaning of the facilities. Concerning the outlook for the resumption of production, HATC will continue its effort to confirm the overall impact to the facilities and carefully examine the situation. 

Suzuka Factory and Saitama Factory, Honda's automobile production plants in Japan, which had been making production adjustments since November 7, 2011 due to restricted parts supply from Thailand, will normalize production on December 5, 2011 as parts supply issues have been resolved to a certain level. 

Six automobile production plants in the U.S. and Canada, which had been making production adjustments since November 2, 2011, also due to restricted parts supply from Thailand, will normalize production on December 1, 2011 as parts supply issues have been resolved to a certain level. 

Concerning production plans from January 2012 onward, Honda will make decisions while carefully monitoring the parts supply situation.

Honda deeply regrets any inconvenience this may cause to our customers, and requests their understanding during these challenging times. Together with our suppliers, Honda is devoting all of our efforts to minimize the impact on our customers.

4Gen CR-V to debut in Japan Dec 2nd

Following the U.S launch, the new 4Gen CR-V will debut in the JDM end of this week, on December 2nd 2011. The JDM model features a 2.0l version in addition to the 2.4l version of the U.S. model. This new 2.0l  version comes in FWD and is mated to a CVT/MMT gearbox which is also equipped with a torque converter. For the JDM, the 2.4l version offers 10kW or 20ps higher power and comes with a 5AT.

For Asia, the JDM 2.0l version will form the basis for our model. However, its launch schedule is expected to be delayed and much depends on the progress Honda makes in recovering their research facility at Ayutthaya Thailand.

For more details of the JDM CR-V, read the article at Honda's worldwide website:

http://world.honda.com/news/2011/4111128All-New-CR-V/index.html