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KBB 2013 Brand Image Awards has some obvious and oddball winners

The sixth edition of the Kelley Blue Book Brand Image Awards have crowned a wide range of winners - in a couple of cases the recipient of the laurels might say more about KBB users than they do about the actual winner. Compiled from the responses of more than 12,000 shoppers on KBB.com over the past year, there are 13 categories broken into non-luxury, luxury and truck segments "representing the combined wisdom of the American car-buying public."
The award categories have been revamped this year, with some dropping off, some new ones appearing and at least one other given a new term. What isn't surprising is that Honda won Most Trusted Brand for the second year running, Best Value Brand for the third year in a row and took Best Overall Brand, which wasn't on last year's list of awards.
On our own shores, in the non-luxury categories Chrysler got Most Refined Brand and Buick took Best Value Luxury Brand. Neither one of those marques won anything in last year's Brand Image Awards, while Cadillac, which won Best Interior Design Brand and Best Comfort Brand last year - those awards disappeared this year - went home without a single accolade.

Honda Civic Tourer... now with bikes!

Honda is rolling in to the Frankfurt Motor Show this year with a version of its Civic Tourer wagon. Called the Active Life concept, the modified Euro-market estate is outfitted specifically for cyclists. To that end, the Japanese automaker has equipped the show wagon with a rack capable of holding a pair of full-size bicycles – not on the roof, where you'd expect them to be, but inside the vehicle. With the rear seats folded down, and thanks in no small part to innovative fuel tank placement, the Civic wagon can swallow nearly 60 cubic feet – several more than the Ford Focus estate, for example, albeit less than the VW Golf Variant. The Honda Civic Tourer Active Life Concept is also equipped with a retractable arm for bicycle maintenance, a built-in air pump, a retractable bench, and toolbox, water tank, and front wheel holder integrated into the side of the trunk. There's a sleek box on the roof for accessories, too. And it's all capped by a special blue paint job with metallic gradation, silver roof, custom rear bumper, 18-inch alloys, and a customized interior with blue stitching, black headliner, and suede and leather trim. It'll be displayed alongside the Civic Tourer that recently set a world record for fuel efficiency. The bigger news, however, will be the presentation of the all-new Civic sedan. In short, there'll be plenty of Civic action to check out at the Frankfurt Messe this year, and we'll be on hand to catch it all. But in the meantime you can scope out this concept right here.Related Video: HONDA TO SHOWCASE THE CIVIC TOURER ACTIVE LIFE CONCEPT AT 2015 FRANKFURT MOTOR SHOW - Civic Tourer Active Life Concept makes its debut - GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title-holding Civic Tourer 1.6 i-DTEC on display on Honda stand Honda will reveal the Civic Tourer "Active Life Concept" at this year's Frankfurt Motor Show, underlining the Tourer's class leading cargo space and versatility within the C-segment. The Concept study shows that style and space can work together; a custom paint colour further enhances the sleek and sporty exterior and an accessorised interior demonstrates the Concept's suitability for an active lifestyle and the needs of its customers. Utilising the unique centre fuel tank layout, the Civic Tourer Active Life Concept makes full use of its 1668 litres* trunk space and a low loading height.

Honda S660 proving popular with middle-age Japanese buyers

The S660 roadster has been a success so far for Honda. (At least, that is, insofar as a niche-market sports car limited to the Japanese Domestic Market can be considered a big seller.) It just hasn't resonated with the customers that the company expected. Honda revealed the S660 in concept form at the Tokyo Motor Show nearly two years ago, and subsequently put it into production. The convertible Kei car pays homage to models like the S500, S2000, and Beat. It packs a tiny 660cc three-cylinder engine mounted amidships and driving the rear wheels. Despite its connection to past models, the S660 features an entirely modern design that, along with its low price, was expected to appeal to younger buyers. But while Honda has already sold out all 8,600 examples it's slated to build this year, a surprising 80 percent of them have been snapped up by customers over the age of 40 who are mostly buying them as second cars. The development is not entirely isolated. As Bloomberg points out, the number of licensed drivers in Japan "under the age of 40 has fallen 46 percent over the last 13 years." Those are rather startling numbers that dwindle the market down for youth-oriented vehicles like the S660. Honda is expected to begin taking orders for next year's allocation of S660s in October. At that point, the company anticipates the average age of its customer base will drop. But with fewer young drivers on the road in Japan, it shouldn't expect it to drop by much.