August hasn’t been a happy month for Honda. Earlier this month, in addition to the recall of 2.5 million vehicles, respected news agency Reuters issued a compendium of the damning US assessments of the 2012 Honda Civic. The new 2012 Civic is a vital car for Honda, representing about 20 per cent of the company’s three-million-plus annual production volume. Apparently, it’s not a real winner, at least in the USA.
The balance of credible expert opinion is that the car’s interior is overdone with cheap, hard plastics. But wait, like those hateful late-night TV infomercials say, that’s not all.
Respected and hugely influential US consumer advocacy agency Consumer Reports (think: like Australia’s Choice magazine) also canned the 2012 Honda Civic, rating it only the 11th best small car (out of 12) in the US market.
Not only did Consumer Reports hate the 2012 Civic’s interior, it was also significantly cold on the car’s steering, braking, handling and noise levels.
And then there’s the Legend, Honda’s (let’s be kind) flawed attempt to enter the luxury car market. The only problem is … nobody, statistically, wants one. Five per month, on average, are sold in Australia – so good luck spotting one in traffic. (This is the approximate sales volume of an Audi R8 or Aston Martin – which is good news for low volume supercars but not so hot for $80k mass-produced jobbies.) If you sit on an average street corner in Australia, your clothes will probably be out of fashion before a Honda Legend drives past.
The Legend is mitigated by being a fundamentally good car. Its only problem is that people aren’t generally receptive to spending $80k on a Japanese car when they could instead have a nice BMW or Audi in the driveway. ($50k is about the ceiling for a car with a Japanese badge.) Toyota, however, has managed to pull off this particular high-priced Japanese car trick – but only by building a completely separate brand (Lexus) and investing a quarter of a century and untold megabucks into making that marque an ‘overnight’ success. And even today, Lexus, though credible, fails to carry the same outright cachet as BMW, Audi or Mercedes-Benz.
Above: Kia Optima. A big winner by any objective yardstick when compared with Accord (below)
In the cheap seats, the South Koreans are exerting massive pressure on the Japanese. (This is something the Chinese will be doing to the South Koreans in five to 10 years.) This pressure from just across the Tsushima Strait is also occurring in middle-of-the-range cars. Line up a Kia Optima (best mid-size South Korean car to date) against a Honda Accord VTi, and see which one you like best. By any objective measure the Optima is better looking, better finished, better equipped and cheaper. The purchase decision is a no-brainer.
The balance of credible expert opinion is that the car’s interior is overdone with cheap, hard plastics. But wait, like those hateful late-night TV infomercials say, that’s not all.
Respected and hugely influential US consumer advocacy agency Consumer Reports (think: like Australia’s Choice magazine) also canned the 2012 Honda Civic, rating it only the 11th best small car (out of 12) in the US market.
Not only did Consumer Reports hate the 2012 Civic’s interior, it was also significantly cold on the car’s steering, braking, handling and noise levels.
And then there’s the Legend, Honda’s (let’s be kind) flawed attempt to enter the luxury car market. The only problem is … nobody, statistically, wants one. Five per month, on average, are sold in Australia – so good luck spotting one in traffic. (This is the approximate sales volume of an Audi R8 or Aston Martin – which is good news for low volume supercars but not so hot for $80k mass-produced jobbies.) If you sit on an average street corner in Australia, your clothes will probably be out of fashion before a Honda Legend drives past.
The Legend is mitigated by being a fundamentally good car. Its only problem is that people aren’t generally receptive to spending $80k on a Japanese car when they could instead have a nice BMW or Audi in the driveway. ($50k is about the ceiling for a car with a Japanese badge.) Toyota, however, has managed to pull off this particular high-priced Japanese car trick – but only by building a completely separate brand (Lexus) and investing a quarter of a century and untold megabucks into making that marque an ‘overnight’ success. And even today, Lexus, though credible, fails to carry the same outright cachet as BMW, Audi or Mercedes-Benz.
Above: Kia Optima. A big winner by any objective yardstick when compared with Accord (below)
In the cheap seats, the South Koreans are exerting massive pressure on the Japanese. (This is something the Chinese will be doing to the South Koreans in five to 10 years.) This pressure from just across the Tsushima Strait is also occurring in middle-of-the-range cars. Line up a Kia Optima (best mid-size South Korean car to date) against a Honda Accord VTi, and see which one you like best. By any objective measure the Optima is better looking, better finished, better equipped and cheaper. The purchase decision is a no-brainer.
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