2014 Honda Pilot Ex-l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2015 Australian Grand Prix all about grooves and trenches [spoilers]

We can't remember the last time 90 percent of the action in Formula One had nothing to do with cars setting timed laps. Yet that's was the situation at the Australian Grand Prix, continuing the antics from a scarcely believable off-season with blow-ups, driver and team absences, a lawsuit, and a clear need for some teams to get down and give us 50 pit stops. Nothing much has changed from a regulation standpoint, and at the front of the field nothing has changed at all. Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes-AMG Petronas claimed the first position on the grid like someone put a sign on it that read, "Reserved for Mr. Hamilton;" teammate Nico Rosberg was 0.6 behind in second, Felipe Massa in the Williams was 1.4 seconds back in third. Sebastian Vettel proved that Ferrari didn't do another Groundhog Day routine this off-season, slotting into fourth. His teammate Kimi Raikkonen was not even four-hundredths of a second behind, ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the second Williams, Daniel Ricciardo in the first Infiniti Red Bull Racing, and rookie Carlos Sainz, Jr. in the first Toro Rosso. Lotus, now powered by Mercedes, got both cars into the top ten with Romain Grosjean in ninth, Pastor Maldonado in the final spot. However, even though the regulations are almost all carryover, in actual fact, everything has changed this year. Mercedes is even faster. Renault is even worse. Ferrari and Lotus are a lot better. Toro Rosso is looking like anything but a junior team. And McLaren is – well, let's not even get into that yet. Furthermore, this weekend was shambles: 15 cars started the race, the smallest naturally-occurring grid since 1963. Manor couldn't get its cars ready before qualifying. Bottas had to pull out after qualifying when he tore a disc in his back and couldn't pass the medical clearance tests. The gearbox in Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull gave out on the lap from the pit to the grid, and to give misery some company, the Honda in Kevin Magnussen's McLaren blew up on the same lap. When the lights went out, Hamilton ran away and was more than a second ahead of his teammate at the end of Lap 1. The advantage disappeared, though, because behind him, at the first corner, we got our first pile-up. As Raikkonen drove around the outside of Vettel at the right-hand Turn 1 it looked like Vettel, going over the kerbing, hopped to his left and bounced into Raikkonen.

Honda Accord Hybrid falls well short of 47 mpg, says Consumer Reports [w/video]

Do not poke Consumer Reports with the hybrid fuel economy stick. That seems to be the lesson illustrated here yet again. The Honda Accord Hybrid is the latest to arouse the ratings bear, returning "just" 40 combined mpg in CR testing. Even so, that makes it "a class leader for fuel economy among midsized sedans," besting even the Civic Hybrid in CR testing, but that's still a lucky roll of the dice short of its EPA rating of 47 mpg. Remember, it was back in December 2012 that CR knocked the Ford Fusion and C-Max hybrid models for the exact same failing: certified with an EPA-rated 47 mpg but delivering "just" 40 mpg.
Beyond that, while the Accord Hybrid earned a lower overall score than the traditional gasoline Accord because of its ride, handling and refinement issues, it gets unqualified applause from the institute for its "very impressive hybrid system."
It will be interesting to see if CR's findings will negatively impact the model's sales, which to this point have been impressive enough that demand is outstripping supply. In the meantime, you can check out CR's brief video review of the Accord Hybrid below, and check out the magazine's press release chiding its mpg rating.

Junkyard Gem: 1981 Honda Accord LX Hatchback

The first-generation Honda Accord was the kind of sales success that vehicle manufacturers dream of but almost never attain: a car so far superior to its competition that buyers had to shell out big markups and sit on waiting lists if they wanted to take one home. Nothing could touch the value-per-dollar you got with one of these cars back then, and they soldiered on for decade after decade. Most of them are gone now, worn out and thrown away, without much of an enthusiast community to restore them (with notable exceptions, of course). Here's an Amal Blue '81 LX hatchback I spotted in a Denver-area self-service yard last week. This one is pretty well loaded, with air conditioning, automatic transmission, AM/FM mono radio, clock, the works. Under the hood is the 1.8-liter CVCC engine in "49-state" emission-control configuration (California had stricter emissions standards than the rest of the country during this era). The vacuum-hose diagram for this car is a bit complex, but nowhere near as bad as the terrifying nightmare that CVCC owners faced a few years later. 1981 was the last model year in which all Accords sold in the United States were shipped over from Japan. The Voluntary Export Restraint agreement of 1980 resulted in Honda building its Marysville, Ohio, assembly plant, and second-gen Accords were American-made. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Because life isn't always a simple Sunday drive. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. In Japan, the CVCC Accord got action-movie music in its ads. Related Video: Featured Gallery Junked 1981 Honda Accord LX View 19 Photos Auto News Honda