Losing Civic pride
By Colin Campbell - Thursday, December 2, 2010 - 1 Comment
Following weak sales, Honda will no longer offer its iconic Civic in Japan
Vijay Mathur/Reuters
In 1972, Honda Motor Co. launched the Civic, a small, rust-prone hatchback that would eventually help define the company and launch it into the ranks of major global automakers. But after more than three decades that saw millions of Civics put on the road, Honda will stop selling the sedan in its home market this month as demand for the iconic car has all but dried up in Japan.
In the mid-1970s, the Civic accounted for over 70 per cent of all Honda sales in Japan, or over 175,000 vehicles annually. Last year, the company sold just 9,000 Civics as Japanese buyers turned to smaller vehicles. Despite plummeting sales in its home market, however, North American sales of the Civic—a car that now resembles more of a beefy, mid-size sedan than the original three-door econobox—remain strong. The car is still built in 13 factories around the world.
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The hardest sell
By Chris Sorensen - Thursday, November 11, 2010 at 8:40 AM - 7 Comments
Carmakers are rolling out new, highly rated compact cars, but can they convince consumers to go small?
SUV sales in Canada are now up 20 per cent | GM; Mark Elias/Bloomberg/Getty Images
On a windswept airfield near Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., dozens of automotive scribes spent last week putting a new crop of 2011 vehicles through their paces as part of a consumer-oriented annual testing event. And, for the first time in years, the excitement wasn’t limited to pricey “prestige” vehicles with nameplates like Porsche, BMW and Jaguar. Instead, it was in the unassuming compact and subcompact categories—the so-called “econobox” segment that has been historically associated with puny engines, bland styling and hard plastic interiors.
After soaring gas prices and the recession exposed Detroit’s penchant for focusing on big gas guzzlers as an epic folly, the North American auto industry has been forced to get serious about the small car market and heed government demands for better fuel economy. That’s particularly the case at General Motors and Chrysler, which were bailed out with billions of taxpayer dollars.
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Racing to rebuild GM
By Chris Sorenson - Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 11:20 AM - 4 Comments
Sales are coming back, as is the swagger. Is this rebound for real?
The idea was for Bob Lutz, the vice-chairman of General Motors, to challenge doubters of the beleaguered automaker to race him on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats. He would drive Cadillac’s muscular, 556-horsepower CTS-V luxury sedan while challengers would have their choice of rival production models. And, with any luck, Lutz would win and a brilliant marketing campaign would be launched.But the ad agency’s concept apparently wasn’t bold enough for the former Marine, who, incidentally, flies fighter jets in his spare time. He pushed for having the throwdown on an actual racetrack, where the chance of damage to GM’s battered brand would rise with each twist and turn. “I said, ‘Hey, that’s an interesting idea, but let’s not use the salt flats, because going fast in a straight line isn’t proving anything to anybody,’ ” Lutz said in an interview with Maclean’s. “The world has always known that Americans can build cars that go fast in a straight line.” Continue…
