May 10, 2005
2005 Honda Odyssey
MSRP: $25,195 - $38,495
Invoice: $22,671 - $34,623
Pros: Very comfortable seats/smooth ride. I love the sliding doors and heated seats.
Cons: Unidentifiable noise coming from back of van
The van is very luxurious. As usual, Honda vehicle stands out among other vans. I love the dual sliding back doors and fact that second row passenger windows actually roll down. All other vans I looked at only had windows that were stationary or just vented. I worry about how the power doors will stand up over time, but they are great for now. Ease of storing third row seats is great. Storage compartment in back seems larger than in other vans. Storage of middle second row seat is very convenient also. I cannot fairly rate fuel econcomy or performance yet, as it still has under 1000 miles on it. If the van gets the gas mileage as rated, I will be pleased.
April 21, 2005
Tokyo Auto Salon 2005
|
Ducks Garden Fairlady Not a pretty ornothologist, sadly, but a rehash of a 1967 Nissan drop-top. And Ducks Garden are the tuners who could find nothing better to do with an ageing MX-5. |
|
Honda Fit HB Honda's 'Incremental Mould' technology gives customers the chance to design their own bodywork. And this is Italian styling legend Zagato's crack at the Jazz. Fit? Try beer goggles. |
|
Elexceed RS Eco-commuting was once about Sinclair C5s. But this is Tokyo, and they're in a hurry. The £10k RS is a plug-in single-seater that'll do 44 miles between charges and hit 45mph. |
|
Esprit 350z Z33-R This is Nandrolone abuse, muscle-car style. Esprit has stuffed a 2.6-litre twin-turbo straight-six from the Skyline GTR into Nissan's 350Z. And tweaked out a full 702bhp. |
|
Mugen Legend Max Think Honda Legend, think slippers and pension books? Not Mugen. It's jammed in a detuned 600bhp four-litre V8 Le Mans engine, and it still revs to 10,000rpm. |
|
Proto Star Part Rolls-Royce, part coffee cake, all ill-disguised Honda Jazz. It's a design study from Shizuoka College of Technology. Thanks guys. |
|
Toy Box Alligator II Somewhere under this Thunderbirds freak show is a Micra. And chop shop Value Progress says just 10 orders will put the £22k six-wheeled eyesore into production. No. |
|
Mazda MX-5 Coupe Bit late in the day, but we like the Italian sports car inspiration behind the MX-5 Coupe. Have Mazda's design bods been taking notes? |
|
RX-7 If twin turbos don't quite fit the brief, sod it, try twin engines. Scoot has mated two of Mazda's manic rotary units to create its 470bhp RX-7 street racer. |
|
Puchiche It's hard to be taken seriously when your name is Yamashita. Harder still when you spend £16,000 of your hard-earned turning a Suzuki Cappuccino into a carbon-bodied 911-a-like. |
06:04 AM in Honda, Mazda, News, Nissan | Permalink
March 21, 2005
2006 Honda Ridgeline
For its next swipe at market share, Honda reinvents the pickup truck.
BY DAVE VANDERWERP
March 2005
In the past four years, Honda has become well equipped on the SUV front, redesigning the small CR-V and introducing the full-size Pilot, boxy Element, and upscale Acura MDX. But strangely enough, until now the company has never tried its hand at a pickup truck. For 2006, Honda is introducing the first H-badged alternative, the Ridgeline, which represents a new generation of truck with a unibody chassis, a four-wheel independent suspension, and even a trunk.
Honda’s truck is targeted at a narrow portion of the small-pickup market. There is no two-wheel drive, two-door model; and neither a manual transmission nor a low-range transfer case is available. This makes Ridgeline options typical Honda-simple. All trucks have the same spacious four-full-doors cabin, 3.5-liter V-6, five-speed automatic, four-wheel drive (Honda’s on-demand VTM-4 system), and five-foot-long bed.