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Honda is spending $124 million on a new wind tunnel facility in Ohio

Ford isn't the only company building a multi-million dollar wind tunnel this year. Honda is also getting in on the action. Its new facility will cost less than Ford's at $124 million, and construction begins this summer. It will be built at the Transportation Research Center in Ohio, which is where Honda's NSX proving grounds are located. Honda will install a five-belt rolling road in the tunnel for testing of more pedestrian vehicles, and a wide, high-speed, single belt version for testing of sports cars and race cars. However, it seems the Honda facility will only be capable of testing wind speeds of up to 192 mph, whereas Ford claims a top speed of 200 mph. Cameras and microphones will also be set up inside the testing area at the Honda tunnel to help find wind noise trouble spots. Honda won't necessarily be the only company using the new wind tunnel either. The facility will be available for other groups and companies to use. There are even secure bays those groups can use for their work. Related Video:

Honda thumbs nose at fleet sales, claims it leads in key vehicle segments

Fleet sales are a way of life in the automotive industry. There are many non-retail customers that need vehicles, but going too far can reduce brand image and vehicle resale value. While some of its competitors have fleet sale that account for up to 20 or 30 of overall sales, Honda is bragging that it has the lowest fleet sales of all mainstream automakers for the first five months of 2013.
After calculating new-car registration data from R.L. Polk, Honda says that just two percent of its sales through went to fleet customers compared to an industry average of 19 percent. Even though this means Honda leaves plenty of sales on the table each month, it also claims to have the highest resale value and lowest cost of ownership among its competitors. In terms of retail sales, Honda says that the Civic, Accord, CR-V and Odyssey all lead their respective segments, and it breaks down/brags about its retail sales success in the press release, which is posted below.

Honda aiming for new mpg-record on European hypermile drive

Here's a warning that there will be a Honda Civic clogging up the right lane of a bunch of highways throughout Europe next month. Honda wants to set the Guinness World Record for best fuel economy for a car going through the European Union's 24 contiguous countries. To do so, we can't expect any high speeds on the autobahn. Two of Honda's finest from its UK factory will hit the road June 1 for a 25-day journey in a Honda Civic Tourer that will take the pair through two-dozen countries in 25 days. That means about 370 miles of very measured driving per day. The Civic Tourer will be equipped with a tracking device and other telematic services, and the goal is to see what kind of fuel economy the pair can get from the car's 1.6-liter i-DTEC engine. Honda isn't saying what kind of fuel-sipping figure it's looking to achieve over those three-plus weeks, which will take the car through countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, France and Spain, but the Japanese automaker is shooting for a fuel economy record irrespective of any type of powertrain, hybrids included. Take a look at Honda's press release below, and if you want to avoid or find the car en route, you can watch it on this tracker site. Honda targets new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for fuel efficiency with 8,500mile drive across Europe Honda will put the real-world fuel economy of its super-efficient 1.6 i-DTEC engine to the ultimate test in an 8,500mile drive across all 24 contiguous EU countries, with the aim of setting a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for fuel efficiency. On Monday 1st June 2015, two members of Honda's European Research & Development (R&D) team will climb into a Honda Civic Tourer and set out on an epic journey from Aalst, Belgium. Heading towards the Netherlands and Germany, their trip will see them navigate the Continent in a clockwise direction, with the aim of returning to their starting point some 25 days later, on June 25th, having covered a planned total of 8,459miles. The GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title attempt comes on the back of several independent tests which have proven Honda's 1.6 i-DTEC engine to consistently out-perform its quoted fuel efficiency in real-world driving conditions. Keen to once again underline this performance and in the challenging spirit for which the brand is famed, Honda aims to set a benchmark with a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title never before attempted in Europe.