2021 Honda Civic Sport Sedan on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Toyota tops Consumer Reports best, worst used car values

We often mock Toyota for building boring, soulless cars, but a new study by Consumer Reports suggests that regardless of whether that's true, the company has some of the best used cars on the market. In its report on used cars from 2004-2013, the Japanese automaker had 11 vehicles among its brands on the list - more than any other automaker.
CR breaks the list down by cost and vehicle size, and Toyota has at least one entry at every price point and in nearly every segment. To score a recommendation, a vehicle had to perform well in the magazine's initial tests and score above-average reliability results. It also tried to only suggest cars with electronic stability control. Of the 28 recommended vehicles, Honda/Acura had the second most mentions at six, and Ford, Hyundai and Subaru managed two each.
The Detroit brands also made it to the list, but not in a positive way. Consumer Reports compiled a list of 22 vehicles it wouldn't recommend because "they have multiple years of much-worse-than-average overall reliability." General Motors had the most unrecommended models on the list at six, but Chrysler and Ford weren't far behind, with five cars each from their brands not making the grade. The full list of recommendations is available on CR's website.

Nissan Rogue gives brand rare monthly sales lead over Honda

The five top-selling brands in the automotive industry are usually Ford, Toyota, Chevy, Honda and Nissan, in that order. This lineup emerged intact when counting a year's worth of sales for 2013, and there was no reason to expect it would change at the beginning of 2014. But it did. Thanks to surging sales of its all-new Rogue, Nissan managed to pull ahead of Honda to become the fourth best-selling auto brand in January 2014, selling 81,472 units (an increase of 10.41 percent compared to January 2013) to Honda's 80,808 (a decrease of 3.96 percent).
The Rogue led the way for Nissan, contributing an additional 4,880 units in January compared to the same month last year - a 54.5-percent increase for a grand total of 13,831 units. But the Rogue had help, with the Frontier pickup adding an extra 2,307 units (an 87.9-percent increase), the Juke an extra 1,081 units (a 45.8-percent increase), the Altima an extra 1,051 units (a 4.9-percent increase) and the Maxima an additional 983 units (a 32.9-percent increase). Honda, meanwhile, was hurt by falling sales of the Accord (down 13.9 percent) and Pilot (down 7.6 percent), and stagnant sales of the Civic.
Honda, however, should take pride in the fact that it's luxury division, Acura, outsold Infiniti, Nissan's luxury division, last month - 10,823 units sold to 8,998. That margin of victory was large enough to keep the parent company of American Honda ahead of Nissan North America for the month of January.

2015 Honda Civic Type R to sire next-gen CR-Z?

Salt shakers at the ready, boys and girls. There's a rumor out of Australia claiming the next Honda CR-Z will be based on the forthcoming 276-horsepower, turbocharged Civic Type R. Apparently Honda's research and development bigwigs have been unnerved by the reception of the Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ twins and are eager to return fire.
Now, don't get too excited - Honda isn't following the Volkswagen model of offering virtually unchanged mechanicals in a different bodyshell (Beetle Turbo and GTI, for example). Instead, the report says the future CR-Z will retain its hybrid powertrain, albeit with a serious kick in the pants. A prototype is said to already be zipping around Japan with a turbocharged, direct-injected, 1.5-liter, four-cylinder engine and the current CR-Z's electric motor and battery pack. With a reported 221 horsepower mated up to a seven-speed, dual-clutch transmission (say buh-bye to the CVT and six-speed manual) and the next-gen Civic platform underneath, the rumored CR-Z has all the makings of a hot hatch riot.
Of course, this all sounds wonderful. This is also the point where you should be enjoying that salt. We really like the idea of a properly hot CR-Z that can compete with John Cooper Works Mini models and the new Ford Fiesta ST, but the three-door hybrid has been such a slow seller for Honda in the US that it might not field a second generation here, no matter how improved it might be. Let us know what you think of an amped-up CR-Z in the comments. Is it a good idea, or is this one Honda model that's just too far gone?