Honda Accord 2011

It seems that the petrol-sniffing Yellow Sac spider that forced Mazda to issue a recall on some 52,000 cars in the USA last week has a thing for mid-size Japanese sedans as the eight-legged arthropod also caused problems to Honda in the past. According to reports, Honda posted a Technical Service Bulletin in the summer of 2009 alerting its dealers to check Accords for possible infestation by the Yellow Sac spider, but had not issued a recall then.
�Spider webs are clogging the EVAP canister vent hose or the drain box,� said Honda�s service bulletin with the corrective action being to clean the webs and install a spring in the drain box.
Now, in the wake of the Mazda6 recall, Honda reportedly told its dealers to be on the lookout for the same spider in 2008-2009MY Accords.
But while in the Mazda6 the spider webs could cause air pressure problems in the gas tank potentially leading to a crack and fuel leakage, Honda says that�s not the case with the Accord. "It's just not happening in our cars," Honda spokeswoman Christina Ra told CNN. The company said that in the Accord, the spider webs create blockages with the only visible symptom being a "check engine" light coming on.


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Honda Masuk Sekolah-sekolah Kejuruan

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com — PT Astra Honda Motor (AHM), agen tunggal pemegang merek Honda di Indonesia, akan masuk ke sekolah-sekolah, khususnya sekolah menengah kejuruan (SMK) di beberapa kota besar di Tanah Air. Lho, mau jualan untuk memenuhi target! Mereka ingin meningkatkan kualitas pendidikan di bidang otomotif, khususnya kendaraan roda dua.

Program ini merupakan salah satu bentuk

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Honda Tarik 500 Ribu Mobil

Perusahaan otomotif Honda juga mengatakan menarik hampir setengah juta sedan dan minivan dari Amerika Serikat minggu ini untuk memperbaiki kebocoran cairan rem. Tindakan yang sama dlakukan seminggu setelah Toyota menarik 1,5 juta kendaraan dari pasaran. Pihak Honda menyatakan ada 471.820 unit yang dijual antara 2005-2007 khususnya sedan Acura RL dan Odyssey minivan Honda yang dirilis

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Honda Tarik 500 Ribu Mobil

Perusahaan otomotif Honda juga mengatakan menarik hampir setengah juta sedan dan minivan dari Amerika Serikat minggu ini untuk memperbaiki kebocoran cairan rem. Tindakan yang sama dlakukan seminggu setelah Toyota menarik 1,5 juta kendaraan dari pasaran. Pihak Honda menyatakan ada 471.820 unit yang dijual antara 2005-2007 khususnya sedan Acura RL dan Odyssey minivan Honda yang dirilis

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Honda CR-Z - video emerges

Continuing Tarmac's coverage of the Honda CR-Z, we felt it necessary to bring you the video that recently emerged from Honda about their pursuit of driving pleasure in the small hybrid.

Some interesting points to note - Honda have apparently bought a MINI, a Volkswagen Scirocco and a Lotus Elise (coincidentally, all of which appear in Tarmac's top ten of the past ten years...) with which to benchmark the sporty CR-Z. They have also apparently brought prototypes to Europe throughout the development process in order to ensure the car handles well on a variety of surfaces.

(Video: Honda, via Carscoop)

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Honda CR-Z finally revealed in full

Having been the subject of brochure leaks and other sneak previews for many months now, Honda's hybrid CR-Z has finally been officially unveiled at the Detroit motor show.

The production car, though less dramatic than the concept, still looks great and remains remarkably close to the original design. Sharing styling cues with both the first and second-generation Insight hybrids and the first two generations of CRX, Honda claims that the car will be great fun to drive despite its modest power output of 122bhp and 128lb/ft of torque (at a low 1000-1500rpm). All this is provided by a 1.5 litre VTEC four-cylinder with Honda's IMA (Integrated Motor Assist) hybrid system.

The 60mph from rest benchmark comes up in just under ten seconds - not a figure that will set the world alight, but enough in a compact and lightweight hatch to have some fun, especially on UK roads. Honda's intentions for a great drive are spoken loudly by their decision to offer a six-speed manual transmission as well as the CVT typical of normal hybrids, and the CVT itself offers a paddle-shift mode. As with many modern cars with "sporting" intentions, the CR-Z offers a three-mode drive system with normal, sport and economy settings.

Economy on America's EPA cycle is estimated (in UK gallons) at 43mpg city and 46mpg highway for the CVT model and 37mpg/44mpg for the manual transmission, though this is of course determined by whether you choose to drive it like a hot hatch or like a hybrid...

The CR-Z is expected to go on sale in the Summer. If there's one car that Tarmac test drives this year, the CR-Z will be it! (Yes, those promised drives will start happening eventually...)

(All images: AutoBlog)

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Past, present and future in advert form

If you've been watching prime-time TV recently you might well have noticed two particular car adverts that stand out from the usual dross (VW and Honda adverts excepted, as they're usually excellent). These adverts come from Renault and BMW, and both run along a similar theme - that cars are more than simply just transport - they're objects that have changed our lives for the better and continue to do so.

How do you do that without sounding too cheesy? Get respected actors Patrick Stewart and Ewan McGregor (for BMW and Renault respectively) to do the voiceovers, give them an uplifting soundtrack ("Somewhere only we know" by Keane in Renault's case) and place as much emphasis on your past cars as you do on the ones you want to sell today.

Car adverts are an awkward business. Volkswagen usually seem to manage, with German and now international firm Doyle Dane Bernbach having handled most of their advertising since the original Beetle ads in the 1950s. Some of Honda's adverts in the past decade have been excellent - Cog and Choir stand out in particular, and Impossible Dream, which was possibly of some inspiration to Renault and BMW with their recent efforts.

The approach taken by Renault and BMW is refreshing. Of course, it might not be to all tastes, but both adverts seem to take a step back from the self-indulgent and glitzy unreality of normal car adverts and make both companies seem that little bit more down-to-earth.

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Tommy Kaira hybrids

Japanese car tuning and manufacturing firm Tommy Kaira have now turned their attention to hybrids, it seems, in a break from their normal line of hot Nissans. In contrast to the wild GT-Rs, Skylines and Z-cars that usually benefit from Tommy Kaira's body and engine upgrades, the Toyota Prius 3 and Honda Insight might seem a little tame, but the big wheels, beefy exhausts and squat stance used rather suits the shape of each car - especially the Insight.

Of course, one has to question the motive for performance tuning on hybrids. When manufacturers have spent so long perfecting aerodynamic shapes in wind tunnels and choosing low-rolling resistance wheels and tyres, it seems nonsensical to take several steps back by increasing drag and resistance with kits like these.

You also have to wonder who'd actually buy the kits. I certainly can't see them being popular with the Ecomodding crowd, and many car "enthusiasts" seem to take a dim view of hybrids, expecting they'll spell doom and gloom for performance motoring, so there doesn't seem to be an obvious market there earlier.

But of course, the main market is in Tommy Kaira's native Japan, where customers aren't beyond tuning tiny Kei cars, let alone relatively powerful hybrids. Perhaps there, where aerodynamics have little effect in inner-city traffic, the draw of a tuned hybrid is much greater.

And of course, a belated happy New Year to all Tarmac's readers. Best wishes for 2010!

(Images: Tommy Kaira)

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Most frugal car in the real world? Autocar finds out with a race...

Manufacturers make big claims about their fuel economy figures. Occasionally, even these claims can be bettered, as Toyota's now closed blog for the iQ managed back in January, extracting 72mpg when Toyota themselves only claimed 65mpg. Often though, real-world driving prevents us from extracting the optimum economy from our cars.

Autocar's test then perhaps sheds a little more relevance on achieving high miles to the gallon. Armed with a Ford Fiesta Econetic, a Vauxhall Corsa Ecoflex, an Insight, a Prius, a BMW 116d and a Smart ForTwo CDi, they each hit the track at Bruntingthorpe with a single litre of fuel and a driver trying to achieve as many miles in the hour as possible. By working to distance rather than outright economy, it avoided the whole race becoming a slow eco-trundle.

The most efficient at the end of the hour? Ford's Fiesta Econetic. It achieved almost sixty miles at the hands of Matt Prior, equivalent - unsurprisingly - to roughly 60mpg. A little way short of Ford's 76mpg combined figure perhaps, but much more representative of what drivers can expect in their daily grind, and a long way from shabby.

The other cars in the test all managed to average around 55mpg, including the diminutive Smart despite being driven pedal-to-the-metal until it spluttered to a halt after 53 minutes.

The full story can be found in the 30th September issue of Autocar, out now. Alternatively, you can watch the video:

(Picture credits: Tarmac)

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80mpg from diesel-powered first-gen Insight

Yes, you read that correctly. AutoBlogGreen has released news that a company called Red Light Racing has installed Volkswagen's 1.2 litre, 3-cylinder Pumpe Düse TDI in a first-generation Honda Insight and the net result is 80mpg in US gallons - a staggering 96mpg imperial.

The engine has been taken from Volkswagen's Lupo 3L, a model that was only available in mainland Europe and itself made 94mpg imperial, equivalent to 3 litres/100km. The Lupo however was solely diesel-powered - and Red Light Racing state that they haven't even hooked up the Insight's hybrid motor to the diesel unit yet and once they do there could be another 15-20% improvement.

The Lupo 3L was highly modified from the standard Lupo TDI - like the Insight, it used aluminium in much of its construction, and also in common with the Insight it used low rolling-resistance tyres and a stop-start function to save fuel when stopped in traffic. The engine produces 61bhp and makes 140Nm of torque, which is 9bhp less than the Insight's 1.0 litre petrol IMA unit but a useful 27Nm more torque. Coincidentally, both Lupo 3L and Insight weigh in the region of 850kg, so the engine seems ideal for use in the Insight, though according to Red Light Racing the installation naturally wasn't too straightforward.

Diesel clatter aside, the new engine should provide very pleasant driving characteristics too. The final quote goes to Red Light Racing, clearly a company after Tarmac's heart: "The main idea was to take existing hardware, hack it, and make a vehicle that could be produced by major manufacturers or individuals that would deliver tremendous fuel economy without a tremendous leap in technology. I believe we succeeded."

(Image credits: AutoBlogGreen and Wikipedia)

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