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Japanese earthquakes send ripples through auto industry

The earthquakes since April 14 in Japan's Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu are having aftershocks on the US auto industry, particularly for Toyota. The company shut down most of its factories in the country due to parts shortages, and the plants will be closed at least through April 23. "Decisions regarding recommencement of operation at plants in Japan will be made on the basis of availability of parts," the company said in a statement. According to Automotive News, Toyota's closed factories include a vast range of popular models in the US, including the Toyota Prius, Mirai, RAV4, 4Runner, Land Cruiser, Lexus ES, LS, IS, GS, RC, NX, RX, GX, and LX. The company's only sites in Japan that are still open build Hino trucks, Daihatsu models, and the Toyota Century limo. Toyota isn't yet sure whether these shutdowns could lead to vehicle shortages in the US. "As you can imagine, we are still reviewing the situation and working to learn more," company spokesperson Aaron Fowles told Autoblog. "While we know that production will be suspended in stages at most of our vehicle assembly facilities in Japan between April 18th and the 23rd, we do not know if they will continue production suspensions. Also, any effects to our inventory and/or sales have yet to be determined." He expects the automaker to know more in the coming days. Many of the affected Toyota plants aren't even in Kumamoto Prefecture, but major suppliers have factories in the region. For example, Aisin Seiki and Renesas Electronics both had to shutdown operations at plants in the area, according to Automotive News. Toyota isn't the only automaker affected. Nissan experienced a brief slowdown but was back to work on Monday, and Honda has suspended a motorcycle plant in the region until Friday. Mitsubishi had to close a production line due to the parts shortage, according to The Japan Times, but it didn't affect US models. "A supplier to our Mizushima plant has been impacted but they only supply an engine part for our mini car line. That line has been temporarily shut down due to that situation," spokesperson Alex Fedorak told Autoblog. "That same plant builds the Lancer and i-MiEv and there has been no impact to that line and production continues uninterrupted." Two major quakes hit Kumamoto Prefecture around Kumamoto city in the past week. The first on April 14 measured 6.4 magnitude, and a second on April 16 measured 7.3.

Are you the 2014 Honda Fit?

Despite being the oldest model in North America's subcompact sweepstakes, the current Honda Fit remains a paragon in its segment, offering unparalleled packaging, good road manners and robust reliability. In fact, even with far more modern competitors like the Chevrolet Sonic, Ford Fiesta, Hyundai Accent and Nissan Versa Note on the scene, it may well still be the best of the bunch.
All of which explains why we're so nervous about the next-generation model, shown in these apparently leaked stock shots scanned from an in-country magazine (no, that rear end really isn't that wonky, it's the page curl distorting the image).
Will the next Fit retain the current car's incredible seating flexibility? Will it still offer a sweet-shifting manual transmission and a four-cylinder seemingly happy to bounce off its rev limiter all the livelong day? We won't know until we try it, but if these shots are representative of what we can expect in North America, it certainly will look very different. While the same two-box shape with roughly the same greenhouse remains, the front end looks much more aggressive than before, with squinty-eyed headlamps blending into a Civic-like grille, all sitting over a lower fascia with unusually oversized air intakes. The profile view is dominated by the front quarterlight and a new sharply rising character line that originates in the front fenders and terminates in the headlamps.

Honda NM4 concept motorcycles channel Akira

Honda has rolled out a pair of new motorcycle concepts at the Osaka Motorcycle Show in its home market of Japan, and they're our first glimpse at the company's "neo-futuristic" NM4. Shown in both stealthy black and an eye-catching white, the NM4s are sharp creations that feature interesting riding positions.
Honda calls the concepts' seating "the cockpit position," claiming that it unifies bike with rider. We don't know about that, but we will admit that compared to most sportbike seats - which are more or less just bits of padding to squeeze between your legs - these bikes' saddles look more or less like conventional seats. Honda says that their backrests are adjustable, which should provide a comfortable riding experience. Still, with these bikes' sporting looks, we can't imagine their low seats are going to be great for dipping knees through the bends (although the should lower the center of gravity, so perhaps it's a wash).
Both show bikes, NM4-01 and NM4-02, are powered by 745-cc, two-cylinder engines, while dual-clutch transmissions are employed to dispatch unspecified amounts of power to their wide rear tires. The bikes are nearly identical save for different colors, but the NM4-02 features an integral set of hard panniers for increased utility. We've got a gallery of both, so hop up above and take a look. You can also scroll down for a brief press release from Honda.