The Japanese auto industry may not be immune from the forces reshaping the auto industry after all. Three of Japan’s largest automakers are expected to approach the Japanese government asking for financial assistance as soon as today.
Bloomberg reports, “Toyota, forecasting its first loss in 59 years, may ask Japan’s government for 200 billion yen ($2 billion) in loans for its credit unit as private financing has Read more…
Takanobu Ito, newly named as the next president and CEO of Honda Motor Co., will redouble the company’s focus on research as it grapples with a global market meltdown.
Honda presidents traditionally cut their teeth at the automaker’s cherished development subsidiary, Honda R&D Co. Ltd. Current President Takeo Fukui, 64, headed the operation in 1998, and Ito, 55, was in charge from 2003-05.
Honda’s new Insight hybrid may be more expensive than initial reports have suggested. Though multiple sources have placed the insight’s price below $19,000, the vehicle has already gone on sale at a price thousands of dollars above that figure — in its home market.
Jalopnik reports that the 2010 Honda Insight is now on sale “at a cost of 1,890,000 (approximately $21,000)… in Japan.”
Honda engineers appear to be working rapidly to develop a new Crossover Utility Vehicle based on the popular Accord, as a rival to the new Camry-based Toyota Venza. Automotive press outlets now report that the Accord CUV may be in U.S. dealerships by the fall of 2009 — an unusually fast debut for a model that hasn’t even appeared on the auto show circuit yet.
Jalopnik reports, “No name for the CUV’s yet been set, Read more…
Fun appears to be on the chopping block at Honda. Plans for the successor to the S2000 sports car, a lineup of rear-drive Acuras, a proposed V8 engine and a drop-top built off the CR-Z hybrid are all dead, according to a report in a British magazine.
The reason: Honda is rethinking its product plans as it grapples with the global downturn in sales and economic conditions, Autocar is reporting.
The Formula One world has been turned upside down by Honda’s decision to pull out of the sport effective immediately.
Efforts are being made to find an outside buyer for the team as a going concern. In effect, Honda is willing to give it away–as Ford did with the Jaguar team in 2004–as long as the new owner has blue-chip backing and can guarantee that it can cover future operating costs.
The Honda decision happened very quickly Read more…
Ahead of its scheduled rollout at next month’s Detroit auto show, Honda on Tuesday released a photo of the production version of the new Insight hybrid.
Compared with the Insight concept unveiled in the fall, the production Insight is little changed except for some non-exotic headlamps, pull-style door handles and smaller wheels.
The five-passenger Insight will go on sale next spring. Honda forecasts annual sales of 100,000 units Read more…
Autoblog reports, “The results are in from J.D. Power and Associates’ latest annual Sales Satisfaction Index Study, and Jaguar has leapt back up to the top position that it occupied for three of the four past years before dropping last year to third.” The survey asked 36,000 new car buyers to describe their dealership experience, “taking into account the dealership’s facility, the individual salesperson, the paperwork and finance Read more…
