U.S. Honda exec says model updates may come faster

Very hard to comment on makers of cars right now & especially Honda since it is one of the main leaders with competition behind it.

I was in to have my Subaru 'Forester' lubed & ready for this winter season. One of the salesmen, having time on his hands, showed me the latest 'Forester'. Thing is it so much larger then my '06 model which I like, loaded with a maze of goodies I would not want. True some were outstanding, but in my way of looking at car/truck & just want firm traction on the snow to icy roads & up some steep twisty road to the gun range.

I did not ask him the price, size of the engine or such. JUST in case my vehicle is totalled for now I know I would NOT look at a Forester, but another Jpn maker more close to sensible in my mind.

I sure wish that Honda would bring back the S-600 which was good for 90 miles to the gallon - I owned three and today they are a classic worth 23,000 dollars a piece.

Personally, I wish Honda models weren't increasing in size year after year. They're giving up their legacy of efficiency (and gas mileage, by the way). My '92 Civic Si hatchback got 40 mpg on the highway. That was with a 126 horsepower 1.6 liter engine and no hybrid technology. It was also screaming quick, handled like a go-kart and didn't break - I had exactly one problem in the 5 years I owned it, and that was fixed under warranty.

My '02 Acura RSX Type-S has all the above attributes, with a 2.0 liter, 200 horsepower engine, but it gets 32 mpg on the highway. In 10 years, what is essentially the same underlying model has gained 500 pounds. The current Honda/Acura models are getting bigger every time I look.

I have no illusions of Honda reversing course with its current models, but I hope they'll consider giving us some more compact and efficient new models, and soon.

I wish the Japanese car makers would go back to making cars out of steel instead of what ever crap they are making cars from for the last 10 years. My last CRV had severe corrosion after just 5 years. They take so much care in the assembly and quality control, but they dissolve ii driving on de-icer.

John Becker I read somewhere that it is common policy for car makers to increase the size of their cars of a certain mark with each update. The volksvagen Golf is now much bigger than its predecessors. The current polo is the same size as the Golf was when it came out. I guess that this may be something to do with wishing to capitalise on brand loyalty (which falls to some extent on the mark of car, which may be why you bought the Accura) and upon the common (though not shared by you) desire to get a bit more when one purchases a new car, and equally common (in the USA at least) tendency to get physically bigger over the course of ones life (probably not shared by you). At the same time again, new car models are introduced at the low end. So it may be that the average size of the Honda cars has not increased.

The average size of Honda cars may not have increased in Japan. In the U.S., we've only recently added the Fit and the re-designed Insight. Yes, both are small, but the average size of Honda models in the U.S. has definitely increased.

I've been driving Hondas for 20 years and have seen them increase in size (while I have not). I love my RSX, but I think my next go-round will be something more along the lines of a Fit - small, practical, and (marginally) sporty.