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Former Honda CEOs chide current boss about quality

Taking charge of a major corporation will never be without its challenges, and one of those - as Honda CEO Takanobu Ito is finding out - is filling the big shoes of those that came before. Ito's predecessors are apparently not pleased with what he's doing to the company, and are wasting no time in telling him so.
According to Reuters, two former Honda chiefs have recently visited Ito (pictured above with his predecessor Takeo Fukui) to talk to him about the Japanese automaker's quality issues, which they apparently regard as eroding the company's image. Nobuhiko Kawamoto, who served as CEO from 1990-98, reportedly came to Honda headquarters in Tokyo to deliver "stern words" to Ito last month. Kawamoto's immediate successor, Hiroyuki Yoshino, reportedly met with Ito under similar circumstances earlier this year.
Kawamoto and Yoshino are part of a larger group of former Honda executives who are concerned with the declining quality of the company's products under Ito's leadership. Where Honda once focused more on quality, collaborating more closely with parts suppliers,more recently the company has, in the eyes of those former executives at least, shifted its focus to quantity and to new technologies. That's what, the report alleges, has led to Honda recalling so many of its vehicles in recent years.

Honda Civic Coupe to join 2016 Red Bull Global Rallycross season

Red Bull Global Rallycross is about to get another competitor. Honda has announced that it will campaign the 2016 GRC season with its new Civic Coupe, and rather than just put out a press release, it's gone ahead and given us a look at the two-door's racing livery. Ford, Chevrolet, Volkswagen, and Subaru – be prepared. Based loosely on the production Civic Coupe, Olsbergs MSE and Honda Performance Division put in the wrench time to turn the ho-hum standard road car into a 600-horsepower, all-wheel-drive monster that can hit 60 in a hypercar-humiliating 1.9 seconds. And like all GRC cars, it will have no trouble managing some serious jumps. Piloting this hilariously potent coupe will be Sebastian Eriksson and 2014 series champion Joni Wiman. Wiman is Finnish, so his GRX championship should come as no shock. We have to say, compared to the GRX cars found in Europe, this Civic looks remarkably tame. We'd have no issue visualizing the body tweaks on this racer on a production Civic Type R. Then again, we're comparing it with the last big-time GRX entry we heard about – Ken Block's Ford Focus RS, which is running in FIA rallycross. According to Honda, OMSE and HPD will have the Civic Coupe GRX car ready for the season opener on May 21 and 22 at Phoenix's Wild Horse Pace Motorsports Park. View 4 Photos Related Video: Honda Debuts 2016 Civic Coupe Racing Livery to Compete in 2016 Red Bull Global Rallycross Series Will campaign the all-new Civic Coupe in partnership with Red Bull and Olsbergs MSE Mar 22, 2016 - NEW YORK Today Honda unveiled the new racing livery for its Civic Red Bull Global Rallycross racecar, announcing plans to campaign the all-new turbocharged 2016 Civic Coupe in the 2016 series in partnership with Red Bull and championship-winning race team Olsbergs MSE. The Honda Civic Red Bull GRC team will begin racing on May 21 in Phoenix at the first event of the season. Developed from a production-model 2016 Civic Coupe chassis by renowned builders and racers Olsbergs MSE (OMSE) with technical assistance from Honda Performance Development (HPD), the all-new Civic Red Bull GRC car is built to withstand the rigorous demands of racing in a series that emphasizes repeated aggressive acceleration and varied terrain. The car will boast more than 600 horsepower, turn in a 0-60 mph time of 1.9 seconds and is designed to handle the 70 foot table-top jumps featured on each racetrack.

Does the 2017 Honda Ridgeline have street cred?

From a sales standpoint, the gen-one Ridgeline was an utter failure. It had a very narrow appeal, that being the suburban Harry Homeowner crowd. Traditional truckers hated it; no, make that HATED it! They hated it as much for what it was as for what it represented. It was assumed to be soft, a mommy truck; and to their eyes, it was ugly as sin. "Real" truckers would not accept the independent rear suspension, yet seemed ignorant about the fact that our military has been using IRS on severe-duty trucks for years. If IRS is good enough for the combat conditions, using it on a light-duty civilian pickup truck should be a piece of cake, no? I think there's also another issue at play here: classism. I suspect that many truckers didn't like those who were buying these trucks. Ridgeline buyers tend to be college-educated, suburban, and earn enough to have a decent if not better-than-average lifestyle. Many were schoolteachers, accountants, doctors, and lawyers – professionals. In short they weren't blue-collar, hard working, struggling-to-make-a-living truck guys. That didn't sit well with many. It was like their "space" was being invaded, maybe even their lifestyle was being threatened. I can't tell you how many derogatory comments I've read from traditional truckers over the last decade directed against Ridgeline owners. Many centered around a lack of masculinity of Ridgeline owners, or that that they were bought by people who didn't "need" a truck, that a minivan would have been a better choice. Many were owners of big diesel pickups who felt compelled to compare their heavy-duty trucks to this smaller mid-size truck. You get the picture. So here we are with the gen-two Ridgeline. Has Honda rectified its image as a truck maker? Yes and no. Yes in that the truck has shed its polarizing looks. In fact I think it's quite handsome, and will have a vastly broader appeal as such. Yes in the fact that it's been brought up to date mechanically, and the technology is vastly superior to the old model. Yes in fact that it should prove to be more economical than the old truck. Yes in the fact that it's more powerful, and that the AWD is vastly superior to what was offered before. Yes in the fact that it should function better, both as a truck and as a family vehicle. No in the fact that it will still be viewed as a "girlie truck" by many. No in the fact that there is no "macho" trim level available.