Gassavers & Matt get some love from autobloggreen.com

[MetroMPG]

Just hopped over to Autoblog Green for my daily dose of treehugger-ish automotive news, and whose name is staring back at me?

Mister Matt Timion! Gassaver overlord, and man about the keyboard.

The ABG piece (http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/10/10/were-the-90s-a-decade-of-bad-decisions-for-honda/) is a comment on one of Matt's opinion pieces about Honda straying from the FE path.

The conclusion is swell:

Matt, we think you're doing some great work with your website and wish you the best.

[DaX]

Pretty good read. Congrats on the fame, Matt!

[SVOboy]

Matt's picture is so cute, too.

[Matt Timion]

wow... who knew?

I really like their response. Of course there was more to the story than I wrote in my little blurb, but I had to get something out there that I felt was important. Of course the consumer drives the market, and in order to stay profitable, Honda HAD to build bigger cars. Unfortunately, their affordable smaller cars were abandoned until recently when the Fit was introduced to America.

Looks like they are back on track :)

[SVOboy]

You could reply to the post on ABG, you know.

[Matt Timion]

You could reply to the post on ABG, you know.

That's insane!

[rh77]

Nicely done Mr. Matt! :thumbup: Keep it rolling... :cool:

RH77

[cfg83]

Hello -

I like both articles, but I also agree that Honda did and didn't change after Mr. Honda died. At the time I thought that the CRX would have been saved if Mr. Honda had lived longer (I'd planned on getting the next gen for the rest of my life). I never liked the Del Sol because I thought it was a step down in terms of utility and MPG (and power steering? Who needs it!). One thing I did notice is that even as Honda got "bigger" in terms of the cars it offered, it still maintained it's emissions standards. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think all of their SUVs were at the same level of emissions compliance as regular cars. That is to say, they could have lowered their SUVs emission compliance to the "farm truck standard" loophole, but they didn't.

Question : Was the Honda Beat manufactured after Mr. Honda died? I'll bet it was one of his pet projects.

Another thing I have noticed is that a line of cars almost always gets bigger over time. It seems inevitable that the next generation must always be longer, wider, and heavier, while offering more interior volume than before. That's why a Honda Civic (to me) is not really a Civic anymore.

They were also one of the last big players to the SUV market, before the CRV, they slapped their logo on an Isuzu Rodeo SUV and called it the Honda Passport. Soooo, you could make the claim that they resisted the market.

I think their mistake was not to *offer* cars like the Honda Fit in North America during this time. The Honda Fit is their number one volume car worldwide, so they could have been offering it as at least a "boutique special" over this time.

I think an analysis of their car line across the world needs to be looked at to see what happened after Mr. Honda died.

CarloSW2

[MetroMPG]

Question : Was the Honda Beat manufactured after Mr. Honda died? I'll bet it was one of his pet projects.

It started production just over 15 years ago:

http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=448&highlight=honda+beat

[Matt Timion]

Hello -

I like both articles, but I also agree that Honda did and didn't change after Mr. Honda died. At the time I thought that the CRX would have been saved if Mr. Honda had lived longer (I'd planned on getting the next gen for the rest of my life). I never liked the Del Sol because I thought it was a step down in terms of utility and MPG (and power steering? Who needs it!).

Little known fact... the Del Sol IS the CRX. Outside of the USA the Del Sol is known as the CRX.

[cfg83]

Matt -

Little known fact... the Del Sol IS the CRX. Outside of the USA the Del Sol is known as the CRX.

Oh yeah, I remember that. My point is that from a practicality standpoint, the Del Sol was never a CRX. I could fit a 5 piece drum set in a CRX. Was the Del Sol ever offered in an HF version? And the love it/hate it shape of the CRX was lost when the Del Sol came along.

The Del Sol was a great car, but is wasn't a CRX (even though it was, ;) ).

CarloSW2

[cfg83]

theclencher -

I was distraught when the Del Sol came out. It looked to me like the folks at Honda had completely lost their minds, replacing a model I lusted after with one I loathed.

The *only* thing about the Del Sol that I liked was the nose. A CRX with that nose would have been cool. I remember reading that the drivetrain had become softer and less fun than the CRX as well. I mean, the 911 (squashed VW beetle) became a signature design for Porsche. Why not the CRX for Honda :( ?

*sigh*

CarloSW2

[Matt Timion]

theclencher -



The *only* thing about the Del Sol that I liked was the nose. A CRX with that nose would have been cool. I remember reading that the drivetrain had become softer and less fun than the CRX as well. I mean, the 911 (squashed VW beetle) became a signature design for Porsche. Why not the CRX for Honda :( ?

*sigh*

CarloSW2

I do believe that Honda is planning on making a new CRX.... at least that is the rumor

[DaX]

I personally thought the Del Sol was a rip on the Porsche 914. If you look at many of the body lines, they are at least similar, with the Sol's being more swoopy. Another similarity between the Sol and the 914 is the (rumored) initial plan of making the car a mid-rear. Open up a Del Sol trunk...it's surprisingly roomy...roomy enough for a power train. I totally support the conspiracy theory that early on this car was designed to be a mid-rear and at some point much later in the design process, they decided to change it to a FWD setup.

[cfg83]

Matt -

I do believe that Honda is planning on making a new CRX.... at least that is the rumor

Wow. Let, see, I've been waiting 15 years to hear that. I better start trolling for concept car/spy photos on the net.

CarloSW2