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Honda goes big for bikes: Concept CB, Super Cub [w/video]

Unlike similar many major automobile shows around the world, the Tokyo includes a significant number of motorcycles in addition to the new, four-wheeled vehicles on display. Showing its standing as a major player in the two-wheeled world, Honda has quite of slate of intriguing concept bikes at the show this year. With its futuristic, razor-sharp styling, the Neowing concept wouldn't look too out of place in a sci-fi anime. However, the bike's layout lets it lean into turns, while still offering riders three-wheeled stability. Power comes from a flat-four engine with hybrid assistance. Honda also takes its little Grom 50 motorcycle and adds some dirt bike aesthetics. The Scrambler Concept-One does that with vintage-inspired details like the pads on the tank and holes in the muffler guard. Meanwhile, the Scrambler Concept-Two goes for a more modern look and some military-inspired green paint. For another retro look, the company also imagines two new versions of the classic Cub. The EV-Cub Concept replaces the engine with an electric motor for short-distance commuting. Alternatively, the blue Super Cub Concept sticks with gasoline for fuel but tries to get the best economy possible for longer rides. Finally, the CB Concept updates the already classically inspired CB1100. Up front, the headlight now uses an LED, and the air-cooled inline-four gets a new, two-chamber exhaust to replace the current three-chamber design. As the photos above show, the chrome trim really makes the bike pop on stage. Check out the videos below for a closer look at the Grom 50 and Cub concepts. Honda Announces Overview of Exhibit for the 44th Tokyo Motor Show 2015 - Exhibiting Original Honda Mobility Products Under the Concept of "The Power of Dreams" - TOKYO, Japan, September 30, 2015 - Honda Motor Co., Ltd. today announced its lineup of production and concept-model automobiles and motorcycles as well as other highlights for its exhibit at the 44th Tokyo Motor Show 2015, which will take place at Tokyo Big Sight. (Press days: October 28-29, 2015, Public days: October 30 - November 8, 2015). Using its global brand slogan - The Power of Dreams - as the booth concept, Honda will exhibit a broad range of items including innovative mobility products that are useful in people's daily lives as well as a lineup of mobility products topped by racing machines that pursue excellence in driving performance.

Honda gets weirdly R-Rated with new Civic Type-R launch video

Honda is still about a year away from bringing back the Civic Type R to challenge Europe's hot hatch ranks, but the wait isn't stopping the brand from starting its promotion in the UK with a truly strange ad campaign.
Titled R-Rated, the marketing plays with the idea of Honda's Type R badge not being something for every driver, and its 60-second short film Disruption definitely isn't for everyone. The teaser video is meant to personify the spirit of the hot Civic by combining aggressively weird imagery with a glimpse of the new model. It cycles through things like a pack of wolves, androgynous models, a lady with a samurai sword and a flaming speed camera before getting to what we all want to see - the car. It's a weird, by turns creepy, video that feels like it's trying to be outlandish without always showing there's much thought behind the madness.
Perhaps the most frightening thing about the Civic Type R is that there are still major doubts about whether its 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder with an estimated 280 horsepower will make it to North Ameircan showrooms. We understand the business case may be tough, especially when the CTR's hatchback bodystyle isn't sold in America at all, but we think Honda's North American showrooms could use a bit more performance edge, and an affordable halo car like the Type R could do just that.

China's largest dealer body pushes back against foreign automakers over huge inventories

Do not think for a second that automakers forcing inventory on dealers in order to pad the numbers is a ruse known only in the US. Stories of individual brands have hinted at the trouble Chinese dealerships are having trying to move units as the country's economic growth remains hot but comes off the boil, like the one revealing that 95 percent of Toyota-FAW showrooms are losing money. Yet Toyota isn't the only culprit, and the issue has become so dire that the China Automobile Dealers Association (CADA), the largest dealer body in the country, has written to the government to complain. Chinese car sales are expected to close out the year with an annualized growth of six-percent, down from last year's 14 percent when targets were set, while in the background the pace of overall economic expansion is the slowest its been since the early nineties. Automakers, shipping cars on schedule to make their earlier targets, have blown up inventories such that they are an average of 1.8 times monthly sales, when the preferred multiplier is from 0.9 to 1.2. According to the CADA, the price wars and necessary incentives mean that only 30 percent of dealers are operating in the black. That number is down a whopping forty percent since 2010. In response, Toyota has already said it will not make its 2014 target of 1.1 million cars sold. We're a long way from 2012, when Toyota planned on selling 1.8 million cars in China in 2015, a target that's now as realistic as a manticore. BMW, Honda and Nissan have erased numbers on their spreadsheets, too; BMW growth dropped from 20 percent to 8 percent midyear after it began "reducing wholesale supplies," and Honda has been reworking its plans as sales have decreased each of the past six months. It's a big deal for Chinese dealers to begin protesting publicly, the CADA saying, "In the past, dealers were angry, but dared not speak out. But now, they have to shout because the situation is getting so unbearable." With six-percent growth forecast for next year and dealers unwilling to remain underwater, The Year of the Sheep coming in 2015 could portend meaning beyond the zodiac. News Source: ReutersImage Credit: AP Photo/Andy Wong BMW Honda Nissan Toyota Car Buying Car Dealers