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.

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.

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