2001 Honda Prelude on 2040-cars

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Honda takes us through 50 years of automobiles in 60 seconds

Honda's wonderfully simple, fun ads are not in short supply right now. We showed you Hands, the followup to 2003's The Cog, last week. If you haven't had a chance to look at those two great videos, we strongly encourage you to head over that way and give them a watch.
The latest minute-long commercial is a bit more dear, though. And while it may be in Japanese, it's still a cool look back at Honda and its car-building history.
This is also a great video if you're a fan of odd, vintage Japanese vehicles. Honda's T360 and a few old Civics are featured heavily, although we can't help but notice that a few very big names are missing. Where's the NSX or the S2000? How about the original Insight, a car so revolutionary it still has a cult following today? Honda has made some great cars, we just wish it'd show off more of them. Check out the video below.

Autoblog Podcast #387

Episode #387 of the Autoblog podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Steven Ewing and Michael Zak talk about more General Motors recalls, upgrades and a diesel for the 2015 Ford Focus ST, and the BMW M235i scoring ahead of the Porsche 911 and Chevrolet Corvette Stingray in Consumer Reports testing. We start with what's in the garage and finish up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the new rundown below with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #387: The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience. Topics: GM recalls 8.4M more cars in North America Ford Focus ST upgrades and diesel CR says M235i is better than 911 In the Autoblog Garage: 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee EcoDiesel 2014 Honda Accord Coupe V6 6MT Long-Term 2015 Subaru WRX 2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid Hosts: Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, Michael Zak Runtime: 01:35:26 Rundown: Intro & Garage - 00:00 GM Recalls - 26:26 2015 Ford Focus ST - 41:56 BMW M235i - 50:24 Q&A - 59:16 Get the podcast: [UStream] Listen live on Mondays at 10 PM Eastern at UStream [iTunes] Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes [RSS] Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Feedback: Email: Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes Government/Legal Podcasts BMW Ford GM Honda Jeep Subaru Safety Diesel Vehicles Performance bmw m235i

Junkyard Gem: 1995 Acura Integra SE Sport Coupe

When Honda introduced the Acura brand to North America for the 1986 model year, there were just two models we could buy here: the Legend luxury sedan (developed in partnership with Rover and sibling to the Sterling 825) and the Civic-based Integra. Most Integras we've seen on the street for the last couple of decades have been the third-generation models sold from the 1994 through 2001 model years, and — like their Civic counterparts — plenty of them have held together well enough to rack up impressive mileage totals. Here's a '95 Integra SE coupe that came close to the 350,000-mile mark during its 27 years on the road, found in a Northern California self-service yard a couple of weeks back. In 1995, the SE trim level was near the top of the American Integra hierarchy (just below the soon-to-be-famous GS-R), priced at $19,890 for the Sport Coupe three-door with five-speed manual transmission. That's about $35,895 in 2022 dollars. Hey, Emperor Akihito's daily-driver was a '91 Honda Integra sedan, so that's a lot of prestige for the price (yes, yes, the Emperor of Japan rides in the back of a Toyota for official duties, but we never could buy a new Toyota Century here). With the Special Edition, you got all the luxury features of the mid-grade LS (including power moonroof, air conditioning, cruise control, and anti-lock brakes) plus 15" alloy wheels, fat Michelin tires, a big decklid spoiler, and a six-speaker AM/FM/cassette audio system. The GS-R's 1.8-liter VTEC engine made 170 horsepower in 1995 (having swapped a '96 GS-R engine into a '92 Civic hatchback, I can tell you it's a pretty wild powerplant by middle-1990s standards), but the non-VTEC version that went into the saner Integras was rated at just 142 horses. The Civic Si that year had a mere 125 horsepower and far less luxury than its wealthier Integra brother, but it also cost just $13,450 (about $25,160 today). These cars were built very well and lasted for decade after decade if not abused, and this car benefited from owners that took good care of it. Unfortunately, the craze for hot-rodded Hondas really got rolling in the middle 1990s, and many of these cars met unhappy endings involving crashes and/or exploded engines. It wasn't many years ago that a car like this would have been stripped clean by junkyard vultures within hours of landing in a California self-serve car graveyard.