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Honda rolls out new N-Box Slash kei car in Japan

Honda may not compete with the likes of the expanding Fiat 500 and contracting Mini families in the North American or European markets, but back home in Japan it has a whole series of retro hatchbacks, grouped together as part of its N series. And now there is one more. Called the N-Box Slash (or N/ for short), the boxy but stylish new hatch is built to fit into Japan's rigid Kei car class, which means a tiny footprint no longer than 11 feet long and five feet wide. That makes it even smaller than the already-diminutive Smart Forfour or Renault Twingo, but into that compact form, Honda has fit five doors and four seats under a tall roof. In fact those front seats even fold flat and flush with the rear ones to make for as big a bed as you could possibly fit inside its compact dimensions. Technical details remain scarce, but power likely comes from the same 600cc three-cylinder engine - turbocharged or not, driving the front wheels or all four - as the rest of the N series, which already includes the N-One, N-Box, N-Box+ and N-WGN. Feel free to read the original Japanese or Google-translated press releases below, just don't expect it or any of its stablemates to show up in a North American showroom any time soon. 2014.11.27 ???????N-BOX SLASH(?????? ?????)????????????? Honda??12?22?(?)???????????N??????1?5?????????N-BOX SLASH(?????? ?????)?????????11?27?(?)?Honda????????????????? N-BOX SLASH?????????????N??????????????????????????????????????????????"???????"?"??????"??????????????????????????????????????????5???????????????Honda?????????? ???????????????N???????????????????? ?????????????????????? http://www.honda.co.jp/Nboxslash/new/ ?1 ?N??????????????????????????????????????Honda??????????????M?M(????????/???????)?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????N??????1?????N-BOX(??????)???2?????N-BOX +(?????????)???3?????N-ONE(????)???4?????N-WGN(?????)? ?????????????? ?????????? 0120-112010(???????)?????????? ### (translated) 2014.11.27 Preceding publish new mini passenger car "N-BOX SLASH (NTT box slash)" in the home page Honda is, December 22 (Monday) to have plans to release "N" series ? 1 information about the fifth installment of the new mini-car "N-BOX SLASH (NTT box slash)", November 27 ( I was preceded published in Honda's home page on the tree).

Leno checks out '64 Honda S600 hot rod

Among the hundreds of cars and motorcycles Jay Leno has in his own enviable collection, he's got a classic 1964 Honda S600. It's a cherry example that he's been restoring and it was recently featured in an episode of his popular video series. But this new video shows a different take on the little beast altogether. Rather than go for preservation, this vintage Japanese roadster has undergone the full hot-rod treatment. Or more like a rat rod, we should say, given its heavily patinated appearance. But don't let looks deceive you: this weathered little roadster is packing quite a punch, from the worked-over mechanical bits and motorcycle components to the nitrous tank in the trunk. Turn up the speakers to hear it shriek and check it out in the video above.

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.