2017 Honda Civic Lx on 2040-cars

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Honda, Hyundai and Kia get best word-of-mouth recommendations in US

Forget advertising, incentives and, yes, even our excellently crafted vehicle reviews, sometimes the best way for automakers to sell cars is still good ol' fashioned word of mouth. In an attempt to measure this "word of mouth" power, The Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting firm, has created a new study called the Brand Advocacy Index (BAI). The index takes a look at how various industries perform from person to person. Those industries include automotive, smartphones, grocery, mobile telecommunications and banking.
The study polled more than 32,000 individuals across Europe and in the US to come up with the top 55 brands in these various industries. On the automotive side of things, the top brands in the US were Honda, Hyundai and Kia, all tied at 63 percent. On a global scale, Volkswagen and Toyota scored the highest with a 65-percent BAI rating (both in France). The average BAI for auto industry players tallied 50 percent.
As for companies in other industries, Apple's iPhone was the index's top-rated smartphone, Trader Joe's was the highest recommended grocery store, Virgin was sat atop the mobile telecom industry and USAA was the top retail bank. Scroll down for the full press release on the new study.

Honda's latest fuel pump recall covers 761,000 vehicles worldwide

Honda will recall around 761,000 vehicles worldwide to replace fuel pumps that could fail and lead to stalling engines. This recall, which is described in the National Highway Safety Administration campaign number 21V215000, isn't the Japanese automaker's first recall for bad fuel pumps. It includes 628,000 vehicles sold in the United States. Honda isn't aware of any crashes or injuries related to the issue. This most recent recall includes models from both Acura and Honda, some from 2019 only and others stretching into the 2020 model year. From Acura, some ILX, MDX, MDX Sport Hybrid, RDX and TLX models are included. From Honda, the recall covers certain Accord (including the Hybrid), Civic (Coupe, Sedan and Hatchback and including the Si and Type R), Fit, HR-V, Odyssey, Passport, Pilot and Ridgeline. Finally, some Honda CR-V models from 2018 and 2019 are also included. Less than a year ago, Honda issued a recall over the fuel pumps of 136,057 vehicles in the U.S., some of which seem to overlap with this latest recall. Back in 2019, two separate recalls covered well over half a million vehicles for other fuel pump-related maladies, though it's not clear if any or all of these issues are related. With so many recalls over fuel pumps, it would be a good idea for owners of 2018-2020 Honda vehicles to enter their VIN numbers at either Honda's dedicated recall website or use the various tools provided by NHTSA. Related video: Featured Gallery 2019 Honda Pilot View 37 Photos Green Recalls Acura Honda

SAE World Congress: Honda FCEV fuel cell stack has cells just 1 mm thin

The only update we have for people who are paying ultra-close attention to the progress of the hydrogen-powered Honda FCEV concept is that we now know how thin the individual cells in the car's fuel cell stack are. Speaking at the 2015 SAE World Congress in Detroit this week, American Honda Motor Company Manager of fuel cell vehicle marketing, Steve Ellis, told AutoblogGreen that the fuel cell stack is now 33-percent smaller and offers a 60-percent improvement in power density. We knew this already. What we didn't know is how Honda got there. Ellis said that these improvements are due in part to a reduction in the size of the fuel cell thickness. Each cell in the stack is one millimeter thick, he said. For everyone who isn't counting the millimeters of this car, here's the broader situation. Honda and the state of California (and others) are working hard on getting H2 infrastructure up can running. "The stations are accelerating as we speak," Ellis said. Three new stations have opened in the last few months and the state has pledged $20 million per year until there are 100 stations in California. Honda has also invested in FirstElement to install stations. The production FCEV will feature a range of over 300 miles and have a three-to-five minute refueling time. The car will launch in Japan in March 2016, with US and European sales starting at some unspecified time after that.