2010 Honda Cr-v Ex-l Sport Utility 4-door 2.4l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Honda S660 set for Yokkaichi production next year

Roadsters, you might argue, are best when they're small and nimble. If you're thinking of the Mazda MX-5 Miata, you're on the right track, but there have been even smaller ones: pint-sized, three-cylinder roadsters like the Daihatsu Copen, Suzuki Cappuccino and Smart Roadster. But the most iconic and enduring of them was surely the Honda Beat.
Designed by Pininfarina, the Beat was - not unlike the F40 was for Enzo Ferrari - the last car approved for production by company founder Soichiro Honda. It complied with Japan's strict Kei car regulations and packed a tiny, naturally aspirated 656 cc that produced just 63 horsepower. The cult classic ended production in 1996, but six months ago Honda hinted at a revival with the presentation of the S660 concept at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show. Now it seems Honda - or Yachiyo, we should say - is gearing up to put it into production at the same factory that produced the Beat two decades ago.
That plant is the Yokkaichi factory, a facility owned by Yachiyo Industry Co., Ltd. that builds small cars on contract for Honda. It was slated for a major expansion a few years ago until Honda shifted some of its small car production to its own plant in Suzuka, but continues to build the N series of boxy, upright hatchbacks, as well as small commercial vehicles like the Life and Vamos lines. The reintroduction of a small roadster line to the factory's output sometime in 2015 will undoubtedly be a cause for celebration in Yokkaichi. For our part we can only hope that American Honda CEO Tetsuo Iwamura gets his way and manages to bring the S660 to the US in the near future.

2012 Honda NC700X

Honda Builds The Crossover Of Bikes
Here in the land of Harleys and highways that stretch to infinity, Americans don't care much for sensible motorcycles. Unlike the majority of global bike buyers, North Americans tend to choose escape over utility, performance over practicality - that's simply how it's been done in the land of the free, at least until a funny thing happened on the way to the global recession.
As bank balances thinned and fuel prices crept skyward, sales of puffed up sportbikes and cartoonishly endowed cruisers plummeted. Americans rediscovered that motorcycles could be used for tasks like workaday commutes and trips to the grocery store, not just for riding into a Marlboro Man-approved sunset, fringe in tow. As consumers matured, manufacturers slowly responded with bikes better suited for purposeful priorities.

Honda customizing Vezel to headline Tokyo Auto Salon lineup

With the Tokyo Motor Show now behind it, the Japanese automotive industry is gearing up for the next big event. That'd be the Tokyo Auto Salon, Japan's equivalent to SEMA or Essen, set to take place at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba. Subaru has already announced what it has in store for the tuner expo, and now Honda has followed suit.
Most interesting of all the tuner concepts Honda has lined up are a pair of modified Vezel crossovers. The one pictured above is kitted out with parts from the Modulo catalog, while a second one is being prepared by Mugen (similar to the one recently leaked). Both look pretty sharp and hint at the possibilities in store for the Fit-based crossover that'll come to these shores with turbo power.
Honda is also displaying Modulo and Mugen versions of a number of other vehicles, including its N family of Kei cars, the new JDM Odyssey and the Fit. There's an N-WGN kitted out like a cookie delivery truck, an N-Box+ modified to look like an Element, a series of Ninja Turtles-inspired Grom motorbikes and an array of racing machinery. Check 'em all out in the gallery above and the press release below.