2012 Civic comes to Detroit: Will it be Honda's hero?

Here's a good article explaining Honda's plans to "Revolutionalize" the new Civic (far cry from the 'evolutionary' original approach.... thanks for the tip Wayne!
By James R. Healey and Chris Woodard, USA TODAY

Honda's redesigned 2012 Civic compact car will make a long-awaited debut at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Monday, a coming-out party in advance of its arrival at dealers in April or May. The as-yet-unseen Civic show car, apparently very close to the real thing, must do more than draw the standard concept-car ooohs and aaaahs.

It must presage a new Civic good enough to prove that Honda (HMC) still has the touch, that it can still roll out cars that make buyers willing to wait in line and pay more than sticker price.

The once-golden car company hardly is a disaster, but it has been drifting in the U.S., unable to capitalize on rival Toyota's recall-fueled slide, losing ground to Ford (F) and Hyundai in the hearts and minds of buyers, and unable to fire anybody's imagination with recent launches of low-volume specialty cars that don't quite make sense to buyers.

"They need a hit," says Ed Kim, director of industry analysis for consultant AutoPacific. "Honda no longer has the edge. In efficiency, technology and design, they are no longer the leader."

Details remain secret, but Honda is promising that this ninth-generation Civic will be "completely revolutionized" and will raise compact-car standards for innovative technology.

Civic is "hugely important to us" and "the emotional pivot point" of the brand, says John Mendel, Honda's executive vice president in the U.S.

Civic is Honda's second-best seller, behind the larger Accord sedan, and in some months has passed Accord. Civic was the sixth-best-selling vehicle of any kind in the U.S. last year and is the car that introduces many buyers to Honda. U.S.-market Civics are made in Ohio, where thousands of jobs depend on the car's success. And the small-car segment overall, in which Civic is a main player, makes up about one-third of all U.S. car sales. The small-car category is expected to grow as buyers seek lower prices and better fuel economy.

What's more, if the new Civic misses the bull's-eye, even after being delayed a year to help Honda save cash during the recession, then a struggling Civic becomes both harbinger and symbol of Japanese-brand automakers struggling to rediscover their magic. For decades, Japanese-brand car companies "had the corner on the small-car market. The domestic offerings were not at the same level, did not provide the same quality, value, reliability," says Rebecca Lindland, auto-industry specialist at consultant IHS Global Insight.

"That's changed a lot. We're seeing products coming out" of General Motors (GM), Ford Motor and Chrysler Group "that are incredibly competitive. For example, Chevy Cruze and Ford Focus."

Honda's share of the market was 10.6% last year, down from 11% in 2009. But Mendel points to data showing that competitors gained ground by cranking up heavily discounted bulk sales to corporate and government fleets and rental car agencies, low-profit sales that Honda eschews.

What's going on at Honda

Consequently, he doesn't think Honda has lost its Midas touch. "I don't think there's a mojo deficit at all," Mendel said in an interview at the automaker's U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif.

Whatever malaise might be stalking American Honda — the U.S. operation that includes the Honda mainstream brand and the Acura luxury brand — is tricky to define.

"I don't sense that there's a dynamic excitement any more," Lindland says. "It's nothing definitive." But the Honda brand's U.S. sales of 1.1 million last year fell short of the 1.2 million that IHS Global Insight had forecast a year ago.

Honda's main Japanese-brand rivals, Toyota (TM) and Nissan, will be relatively weaker competitors until they redesign their Corolla and Sentra, respectively. A mildly refreshed Corolla is just hitting showrooms; Toyota hasn't said when a full redesign is coming. Even though aging, Corolla still outsold Civic by 5,864 units last year. A new Sentra is about two years off, though Nissan plans to unveil another small car at the New York auto show in April.

There could be room for all. A combination of higher gasoline prices and the new small-car entries are expected to boost compact cars to 15.7% of all new car sales, up a percentage point from last year, predicts J.D. Power and Associates.

J.D. Power analyst Jeff Schuster is encouraged about the new Civic. "It looks like it will be a more sporty vehicle that should do well in the segment," he said.

While most Civic buyers match the demographics of the rest of the compact segment — 51, probably no kids at home, mainly interested in reliability and fuel economy — the car's sportier engines and suspensions have lured more driving enthusiasts than rivals have. Young and loyal, they are an important core for Civic and Honda.

Jeff Palmer, who founded the Temple of VTEC website for Honda enthusiasts, is praying the new Civic stays sporty and continues to be "a great car."

Civic, of course, could be a wild hit. Honda "might have a tiger by the tail there. Sometimes you introduce at just the right time," says Jack Nerad, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book, mainly known as a source of real-world auto pricing and consumer research.

Toyota taint

But Honda has faced troubles because of Toyota's recalls in the past year. Toyota, the top Japanese car company, recalled more than 7 million vehicles for just two problems — improper floor mats and sticky acceleration pedals — that could cause runaway acceleration. Other high-profile recalls involved such frightening issues as potentially faulty brakes. The government imposed two $16.4 million fines against Toyota — the maximum possible — for not reporting the floor-mat and sticky pedal issues promptly. And it separately fined Toyota another $16.1 million for tardy notice of nearly 1 million vehicles with potentially faulty steering relay rods that had been recalled earlier.

"Toyota's trouble didn't benefit Honda," AutoPacific's Kim says. "A lot of those people ended up (shopping for) a Ford for the first time, or a Hyundai the first time." Honda's Mendel says,"We never targeted to take advantage of" Toyota's troubles. "It's not how to win a race."

Instead, Honda focused on its own new models, which Mendel says are hitting sales expectations. Some, though, have seemed out-of-sync with the market:

•CR-Z. The two-seat, gas-electric hybrid was dinged last month by influential Consumer Reports magazine. CR said, "Even if the CR-Z turns out to be reliable, it scores too low for us to recommend."

The publication cited "a long list of drawbacks" that included stiff ride, poor steering feel, poorly tuned stability control, and "lousy" visibility.

•Insight. Also a hybrid and the car on which CR-Z is based, the Insight is aimed directly at Toyota's Prius and was criticized by CR and others for a cheap interior, mediocre mileage (by hybrid standards) and a noisy powertrain. Honda sold just 21,000 Insights last year; Toyota, 141,000 Priuses.

•Accord Crosstour. Fitted with all-wheel drive, sloping rear roofline and a premium price, this Accord is somewhat modeled on the BMW X6 crossover, but without BMW's "sport-activity vehicle" panache.

•Acura ZDX. Another attempt to blend crossover-utility-vehicle underpinnings with a fastback-sedan body.

Acura spokeswoman Alison Sobkowski points out that ZDX is meant to be a niche player to enhance Acura's image. She says the brand overall had a good sales year. Its 134,000 sales exceed IHS Global Insight's year-ago forecast of 124,000. Acura should benefit because its models are lower-price than better-selling import rivals at a time premium-car buyers are seeking value.

Acura also scores high in quality and reliability rankings by third-party evaluators, such as CR and J.D. Power and Associates.

Unfriendly dealers

Honda dealers as a group typically score in the bottom third in J.D. Power's annual Sales Satisfaction Index, a survey of how well new car buyers were treated at the dealership. Last year, for example, Honda dealers as a group were 23rd among 32 brands for which Power had sufficient data. The year before, 25th of 37. The pattern holds all the way back to 2001. As buyers begin to see there are more and more choices, tangential issues such as pleasant dealerships matter more.

Eroding forte

Honda began as an engine-building company and made vehicles simply as a way to package and profit from its engine expertise.

"They are still a very, very good engine company," Lindland says.

But Hyundai is equipping its latest vehicles with ever-more-efficient and sophisticated four-cylinder power plants. And Ford has a unique selling proposition in its EcoBoost engine line: Those increase power from small engines without sacrificing significant mileage, by using a combination of direct injection and turbocharging.

"The big question for the next Civic: Is it going to be another innovative car, or is it going to be one of the 'safe' Civics?" says AutoPacific's Kim. "Honda has an opportunity to get it" right.

Source;
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2011-01-07-autoshow07_CV_N.htm

The Genius Behind Honda's Design Excellence

Here's an intersting read....

By Adil Jal Darukhanawala
On a recent visit to the Honda R & D facility in Wako, Japan, our Editor in Chief Adil Jal Darukhanawala was enlightened by one of the most creative minds at Honda's design stable, Mr Nobuki Ebisawa, General Manager, Honda R & D Co. Ltd. Here is the exclusive interview.

AJD: They say the visual aspect of the car is what turns on many motorists to go out, look at it, consider it and then buy it. One of the key elements in this strategy is in the realm of the designers. No one plays this better, emotionally, visually, physically, to convey every sense of the term where passion, dynamism, utility, and also practicality comes into the picture. I’m standing here in one very famous design studio at Honda's R&D Company at Wacko in Japan. This place did the first designs for two great Honda badges – the Civic and the Accord. Today it is churning out cars for the next generation. And we are going to speak to the person who heads it, runs it with a lot of skill, technology and passion going all the way back to the qualities endowed by Soichiro Honda, the company founder. I’m going to introduce to you Ebisawa-san, who is the heart and soul of Honda’s design studio.

Ebisawa-san, welcome to ZigWheels. Can you tell us about Honda design. What is the real Honda design philosophy, the DNA.

EB: Honda's DNA is represented by the two cars that we launched when we got into the automotive market, the S500 which is a very small sports car, and the other one is the T360 which is a small truck. The fact that those two cars were launched into the market almost simultaneously, this represents a key factor of the Honda DNA. The S500 is a sportscar which represents the dynamism and fun of cars. The other one is represented by the small truck which represents the mobility, the functionality of transporting people and goods. Dynamism and functionality – those form the core, the main axis of Honda’s DNA.

AJD: Very importantly, Honda came from motorcycles into cars. How much of the motorcycle rider do you still keep in mind when you think about evolving cars? Do you want to keep him in the same Honda family when he moves from motorcycles to cars?

EB: Of course, for motorcycles the first thing that comes to mind is the fun of riding, which connects to the dynamism of automobiles that we talked about earlier. At the same time, the motorcycle has the minimum and really efficient functionality in terms of mobility or moving people and goods. In that sense, even in motorcycles I believe that the combination of functionality and dynamism have been the key core in the design. IT is fair to say that we are developing motorcycles and automobiles based on the same DNA, with the same core.

AJD: Honda has moved across from a lot of different concepts - the sports car which you spoke about, the S500, and the truck as well. You were also the originator of the very small mini van, the Step Wagon. But I have never seen Honda pursue the Step Wagon concept outside Japan, whereas the other Japanese manufacturers took the small vans outside of Japan.

EB: It is true that we are not selling the Step Wagon outside Japan, however we are selling, for example, a model called Freed in Thailand and the Odyssey in the US as well. If you just look at the Step Wagon, we aimed it at the Japanese domestic market and we wanted to maximize the value of this car for the domestic market. That is how we stand right now.

AJD: This brings me to a very fundamental question. Many a times Japanese automakers have been accused of being very insular, looking only within Japan and not trying to take those concepts outside Japan. What you mention about the Step Wagon is very similar. This is different from what Maruti Suzuki has done with its Eeco and Omni, which are very similar in concept to the Step Wagon.

EB: I guess Suzuki has its own ideas, its own thinking. We are thinking of global cars, and when we say global cars, our four pillars are the Accord, the Civic, the CR-V and the Fit, or Jazz as it is known in India. Our strategy is to promote those four pillars all over the world and at the same time we try to come up with cars that are suited to the local needs of the different regions of the world and deploy some models there. That is our overall strategy. This is because even if you took the same car, depending on the market or the customers, depending on how they are accepted and how they are positioned is different from one market to another. So while we maintain those pillars very solidly, at the same time we try to tailor region dedicated cars that are finely suited to the needs of those markets.

AJD: Then you also have something like the City which we saw for Asia, and we also have the new small concept that is coming for the emerging markets. So that’s a change in your thought process, is it?

EB: The pillars remain unchanged. It is true that so far in the past when we talk about market-dedicated cars, we had cars targeted towards the Japan market or US market. We have many of those, that is true. Against that backdrop, it is true that the City was the first car that was targeted at the Asian market, and the small car here is the one that is targeted towards India, and to be deployed across Asia as well.

AJD: Very importantly, how much of a focus in design terms will come across the emerging market in the world which is Asia, because so far everything was focused etiher towards the US, Europe or Japan. How much will it now veer towards countries like India, China? Because they have very different sets of operating principles in play, and also local sensibilities are different from Europe and USA.

EB: First, we launched the City for Asia, next will be followed by the small car focusing on India first. We still don’t know what the acceptance will be for those cars yet. So what we would like to do first is to see how the market reacts to those models and how much acceptance those cars will see. And I believe that the proper sequence of events will be once we see how those cars are accepted in these markets and if necessary, come up with new models for those markets. Of course we do realize that Indian and other Asian nations are very critical, important to the future of this growth going forward.

For the rest of the article, follow this link;

http://www.zigwheels.com/news-features/auto-insight/the-genius-behind-hondas-design-excellence/7380/2

Honda's Sportscar plans for 2012 and beyond?

A Temple of Vtec member AznSupastar came across a MagX style magazine with some renderings/illustrations of what the next gen S2000 and NSX may look like....
Here's the link to the TOV forum that I found this on, some of the other members have translated the text;
http://www.vtec.net/forums/one-message?message_id=946550
Awesome find!