Automotive Reviews
Posts tagged Honda
2006 Honda Ridgeline
Dec 7th
Driving the all-new Honda Ridgeline around Detroit, Michigan was an interesting experience. The Ridgeline got more dirty looks than a Hummer at a Greenpeace convention. It’s no surprise that the union boys hate this truck; the area is the home of the Ford F-150. It’s not an easy thing, being a full-size truck with a Japanese badge on the tailgate. Even established compact truck builders like Toyota and Nissan are seen as interlopers who can’t possibly understand the needs of a full-size truck buyer. And Honda? Purveyor of the frugal Civic and Insight? Forget about it.
With that in mind, we hazed our Ridgeline hard. You know how it is. The full-size truck market is tough turf, and any newcomers gotta be jumped in. Even though the Ridgeline is technically a mid-sized pickup like the Dodge Dakota, it’s messin’ around in Ford F-150, Dodge Ram and Chevy Silverado territory, and it’s gotta prove itself. So…does this “new kind of pickup” have the steel to stand up to the local big boys, or will it get beaten down like the rest of the pretenders? More >
2005 Honda Accord Hybrid
Nov 23rd
Honda’s Accord has a well-deserved reputation as the Dell or Hewlett-Packard PC of the automotive world, offering years of largely maintenance-free, high-tech service without any pesky need to know exactly how it works. The Accord doesn’t talk to you, and doesn’t want to; it wants to go about its business and leave you free to go about yours.
Had it not been our job to do so, we might not have even noticed that the last Accord to grace the test fleet was a hybrid-electric car. Following in the footsteps of the Honda Insight and Civic Hybrid, the new-for-2005 Accord Hybrid brings improved fuel efficiency to the middle class. Offering improved fuel economy and emissions and giving up almost nothing in return, the Accord Hybrid is about as close to a win-win prospect as you can get these days. More >
2011 Honda CR-Z
Oct 31st
At first glance, you might think it’s obvious what Honda’s trying to do here. The shape of this stubby car, the fact that it arrived just as the S2000 roadster bowed out, and even the new CR-Z’s name all suggest that it’s the legendary CR-X sports hatch returned from the grave and updated for the new millennium.
It’s not, though. Don’t forget that Honda is “not about chasing market share,” as they put it. This company has a strong corporate vision of sustainable performance, in marketing-speak. In plain English that means that Honda has a good idea of the sort of cars it wants to build, and it’s not driven solely by focus groups or public opinion. More >