1990 Honda Civic Base Hatchback 3-door 1.6l on 2040-cars

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Honda says Accord is America's best-selling car among actual consumers

The latest round of new vehicle registration data has been good for Honda - three of the Japanese brand's models are retail sales leaders and the Accord was the most registered car built in America in 2013, according to the data compiled by Polk. In fact, 360,089 units of the family sedan were purchased by individual consumers last year, an increase of 12.2 percent.
There was also good news from the Civic and CR-V camps, as those two models topped their respective segments in terms of retail (non-fleet) sales, with each notching over 300,000 registrations. Combined with the Accord, this trio of Hondas accounted for a whopping 1.11 million retail sales last year.
Honda spokesperson Sage Marie reflected on Polk's findings, telling Autoblog:

Recharge Wrap-up: Honda releases "Green Dealer" Guide, Tesla's China president steps down

Honda has released its "Green Dealer" Guide to the public. The guide, which is used to outline ways for Honda and Acura dealerships to be more environmentally responsible can also help other businesses take the same steps to green up their practices, save energy and even save money in the process. The guide, which ranks dealers based on a points system, provides incentive to dealerships to implement the environmentally practices, but it also helps Honda assert itself as a leader for green business. Read more at Automotive News or in the press release below. Nissan Leaf owners in the UK love their car, and aren't looking back at their fossil-fueled past. According to a survey by Nissan, 93 percent use the EV as their main family vehicle. 89 percent report saving money driving, 64 percent prefer it to driving a conventionally powered car and 95 percent would recommend the car to a friend. Most said they wouldn't go back to a gas or diesel car. One owner even gave up his Aston Martin for a second Leaf so he and his wife wouldn't argue over who got to drive the EV to work each day. That's love. Read more at Next Green Car and at Hybrid Cars. Renault has outlined its future sustainable mobility plans, including two pieces of technology going into production cars soon. Renault will put a smaller, more efficient electric motor into production, as well as a three-cylinder dual-fuel gasoline/liquid petroleum gas engine. The HYDIVU prototype will help Renault research mild hybrid technology for light commercial vehicles. The VELUD project will look into making the last mile of urban deliveries more sustainable. Renault is also testing a two-cylinder, two-stroke diesel engine for small vehicle platforms. Read more in the press release below. Tesla's China president has resigned. Veronica Wu had been in charge of the company's operations in China for the past nine months, and with her leaving the company, Tom Zhu will step into the role. Jochen Siebert of Shanghai-based JSC Automotive Consulting says that, "Tesla counts on China as one of their main drivers of growth after California, and it might have been more difficult than they thought." Tesla states it is still "confident in the Chinese market," where it has sold the Model S since April. Read more at Bloomberg.

Honda ditching Takata for next Accord's airbags

Today brings unsurprising news that Honda will move away from Takata and source airbags for the next-generation Accord, among other models, from one of the embattled company's competitors. Both companies have been in headlines of late after the former recalled millions of vehicles that were fitted with the latter's airbag inflators, which had the unpleasant tendency to spew shrapnel at consumers. The move, as Reuters explains it, is particularly devastating for Takata. Honda is the company's largest customer, and the Accord represents its biggest product, accounting for over a quarter of the company's sales last year. It gets worse, though, as a confidential source with knowledge of the situation is reporting to Reuters that both the 2016 CR-V and Odyssey will source their airbags from Toyoda Gosei. If true, that'd mean that Takata will be losing out on more than half the cars Honda sells in the US market. At this point, Takata, Honda and Toyoda Gosei have all passed on opportunities to comment to Reuters.