2003 Honda Odyssey Ex-l Mini Passenger Van 5-door 3.5l on 2040-cars

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Why Toyota's fuel cell play is one big green gamble

Imagine going to the ballet on Saturday evening for an 8 pm performance. The orchestra begins warming up shortly before the show, but it turns out the star performer isn't ready at the appointed time. The orchestra keeps playing, doing its best to keep the audience engaged and, most importantly, in the building. It keeps this up until the star finally shows and is ready to dance ... which turns out to be ten years later. That's a Samuel Beckett play. It's also how many observers, analysts, alt-fuel fans and alt-fuel intenders feel about the arrival of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) – the few of them who are still in the building, that is. Toyota's hydrogen development timeline rivals that of the US space program. In fact, within the halls of Toyota alone, research on FCVs has been going on for nearly 22 years, meaning that one company's development timeline for FCVs rivals that of the US space program – it was 1945 when Werner von Braun's team began re-assembling Germany's World War II V2 rockets and figuring out how to launch them into space and it wasn't until 1969 when a man set landing gear down on that sunlit lunar quarry. The development of the atom bomb only took half as long, and that's if we go all the way back to when Leo Szilard patented the mere idea of it, in 1934. Carmakers didn't give up on hydrogen in spite of the public having given up on carmakers ever making something of it, so there was a good chance that hydrogen criers announcing the mass-market adoption of periodic chart element number two one would eventually be right. Now is that time. And Toyota, not alone in researching FCVs but arguably having done the most to keep FCVs in the news, isn't even going to be first to market. That honor will go to Hyundai, surprising just about everyone at the LA Auto Show with news of a hydrogen fuel cell Tucson going on sale in the spring. The other bit of thunder stolen: while Toyota's talking about trying to get the price of its offering down to something between $50,000 and $100,000, Hyundai is pitching its date with the future at a lease price of $499 per month ($250 more than the lease price of a conventional Tucson), free hydrogen and maintenance, and availability at Enterprise Rent-A-Car if you just want to try it out. We've seen and driven Toyota's offering and we all know its success doesn't depend on cross-shopping, showroom dealing and lease sweeteners.

Honda Smart Home, NJ dealer show the power of solar

Car dealerships are not usually thought of as "green" enterprises. They sell, after all, the fossil fuel-powered vehicles that account for about 18 percent of the CO2 emissions created in the US each year. As demonstrated by Rossi Honda in Vineland, NJ though, it doesn't have to be that way. Sure, the franchise still sells cars - lots of them - but they power the entire operation with sunlight in a way that provides ancillary benefits. The franchise has installed over 900 solar panels to become electric-grid neutral. Owned and operated by the seemingly indefatigable Ron Rossi, the franchise has installed over 900 solar panels to become electric-grid neutral. They aren't plastered across the roof of the showroom and service center, though. Instead, the array is mounted on canopies over his inventory, protecting them from sun, snow, and hail. Costing about $1.3 million to install, Rossi expects the system to save twice that amount in electricity bills over its 25-year life expectancy. Not bad, right? It makes us wonder why all dealerships don't do this. Honda itself recently completed its own solar project. The super-efficient Honda Smart Home is equipped, not only with its own beefy 9.5-kW solar array, but also with a 10-kWh lithium battery-based stationary storage system to buffer the building's electricity. Amongst its many party tricks, the home incorporates a DC-to-DC charging set up that allows the complimentary Fit EV to charge with half the efficiency losses of a typical home charging unit. While the installation is quite impressive and will serve as a "laboratory" of sorts for different groups involved with the project at the University of California, Davis, we can't help but wonder if the Japanese automaker couldn't get a bigger bang for its environmental buck elsewhere. A program, perhaps, to help its many franchise dealers to take up the Rossi challenge and go grid neutral. You can watch Rossi show off his array and other increased efficiency efforts by scrolling below for a pair of videos: one from Honda and one produced by Automotive News. As a bonus, we have time-lapse footage of the Honda Smart Home going up accompanied by press releases discussing both efforts. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party.

2014 Honda Odyssey gets some tidy tweaks [w/video]

Here in New York, Honda is offering up a refreshed version of its well-liked Odyssey minivan, bringing with it a slew of updates including the segment's first in-car vacuum. It looks to be a neat little feature, one that families will no doubt get a lot of use out of. Kids are spill-machines, after all.
On the outside, the Odyssey gets a revised front end with dark headlamp surrounds, shiny cross-bars in the grille, and an aluminum hood and bumper. We think the blacked-out grille trim looks fine on this charcoal model, but question how smart it will look on models with lighter paint tones. Out back, there are new LED taillamps, and it looks like a new wheel design will be on offer, too.
Other changes for the 2014 Odyssey include some structural reinforcements for improved safety and some new available nannies like lane-departure warning and forward collision warning. Inside, buyers will find new finishes inside the cabin, a redesigned center stack and pushbutton start. Scroll down for the full details in an official video and in Honda's press release, and have a look at new images live from the show floor in the gallery above.