Insider Info on the Avengers Movie Acura ?

A TOV forumer wrote this little titbit in our forums about the Acura that Robert Downey Jr drove to the shooting set of the Avenger's movie.

According to my info it will be front engined again. Or, better explained, it will be (a) modified version of (the) original HSV, with (a) hybrid powertrain. (There's also a) rumored MR car based on (a) reversed FF platform (that will) hopefully (be) coming, (something) like a smaller (i.e.) Boxster sized "affordable" Honda, a while later. 

While I won't reveal his nick, what I can say is that he do have some contacts with 'certain' members inside Honda, So here's to hoping his info comes true !

Three new Honda mini-car models by 2012

According to reuters who quoted Japan's Nikkei, Honda is planning to launch three new mini-car models within the short future. One model will debut at the end of this year in December with another two due in 2012. Minicars or 'Kei-cars' in Japan are those with engines up to 660cc and they get special exemptions making them very popular in Japan. They are also very popular in many other countries in Asia. The new model for December is claimed to sport a 660cc engine and delivers up to 25km/l fuel economy. It is claimed that Honda plans for Kei-car sales to increase to 43% of their total annual sales, up from the current 24%.

For more details and the whole report, the link to go to is http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/05/honda-idUSL3E7K501Q20110905

TOVA's view: there have been many extremely intriguing Kei-cars from Honda in the past but almost all limited for JDM sales only. Models like the Honda Z Turbo which sports a 60ps 660cc turbo-charged engine on a 4WD platform and the current Honda Life Turbo are just the right models to bring back a much needed spark of life to Honda. In the Honda Malaysia marketing office car-park in PJ, there used to be a Honda Life parked there long term. I personally saw and touched the car though my friends then was unable to let me test drive it because it wasn't registered. The car was brought in as part of a study to launch the Life for sale in Malaysia. Eventually it seems government regulations was one of the main reason why the plan was cancelled. It is no coincidence that none of the big japanese makers have a kei-car to challenge the Perodua MyVi and Proton Savvy at the moment. Hopefully things will change soon and perhaps the Honda Brio might be the first Honda Kei-car to be launched here in Malaysia. It needs to show up in Thailand first of all though.

Acura (Honda) puts a concept car in the Avengers movie

New Acura supercar to debut soon ?
Find out by reading the rest of this post, after the jump...

Japanese Car Scoop magazine and website claims new HRV is coming

Website autoten just published a report saying that Honda plans to revive the HR-V as a sub-compact sized UV (Utility Vehicle) slotting in below the CR-V. The photo above is taken from the autoten website and it seems is scanned from the latest issue of the japanese car-scoop magazine Mag-X. More details at the autoten website at this link : http://autoten.com/2011/05/31/honda-to-revive-hr-v-in-2014to-be-upsize-and-slot-below-cr-v/

TOVA's view. From past experience, Mag-X can be quite accurate with their scoop news. I remember back in the early 2000s just before the Honda City was launched in ASEAN. At that time, no-one outside Honda knew what will be launched, just that it is a new model specially designed for ASEAN. A friend from Honda (now in another company) hinted to me to buy the latest issue of Mag-X because he just saw their artist's rendition and it was very accurate. And it was indeed true. Mag-X was also accurate with the 8Gen Civic before it was launched worldwide. Therefore to me this report is a worthwhile read to Honda fans.

'Product Updates' for certain years of Civic, City and Jazz

Honda Malaysia has announced a product update (what used to be called 'recall') for certain years of Civic, City and Jazz. The Civic update involves the power steering, a common complaint amongst Civic owners. The City/Jazz update concerns the power window switch which can short-circuit when exposed to rain. This trivial power window switch issue was played up to a huge hooh-hah by some media in Europe last year. Read the Honda press release after the jump. Other countries in Asia should get similar update notices soon.

Interesting Q&A with AHM

In our TOV/TOVA forums board, member CB77 posted a Q&A with the AHM's VP of sales John Mendel. While the Q&A is done with an executive of the U.S. Honda office, many of the questions, and thus the answers as well, relates to concerns and interests worldwide. So, with permission from CB77, I publish the Q&A here for the benefit of TOV/TOVA readers outside of the U.S. Just bear in mind this is specific to the U.S. market but has some applicability to the rest of the world as well. Read the Q&A after the jump.

New model information ?

In response to a recent post I made here with regards to new model information, a TOVA reader with the nickname of 'lee' posted a comment listing information about new model launch dates for Malaysia. I decided to delete the comment and post his info into a proper post for the benefit of all readers.

Lee's original comment and information are as follows:

hi buddy,
these are confirm information (inside source)
CRZ 1.5(M) ~ November 2011
CRZ 1.5 (CVT) ~ To be advised
City MMC ~ December 2011
Civic (9th Gen) ~ Feb 2012
CRV 2.0 (4th Gen) ~ Q2 2012

I left out his contact detail to protect him (just in case).

A huge thanks to "lee" for this info, which I believe to be quite accurate based on what I know.