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Honda: Your family deserves the best! Check out the 4 Honda models that won 2011 U.S. News Best Cars for Families Awards...http://t.co/hqGgTft

Filed under: Truck, Honda, Rumormill

The Honda Ridgeline is dead! Long live the Honda Ridgeline!

Despite a coming refresh for the 2012 model year, Honda has been widely reported as planning to send its unibody Ridgeline down the same road as its Element and S2000 after 2013. Even if that's true, that doesn't necessarily mean the curtain will have completely closed on the automaker's pickup truck offerings. According to AutoWeek, the next-generation Honda CR-V - previewed in the official concept image seen above - could spawn a compact pickup variant. Since the CR-V is itself based on the Civic, in a roundabout way, this could mean that we're looking at a Civic pickup, which is a bit tough to wrap one's head around.

A full-size car-based pickup never really set Honda's sales charts on fire, so maybe a smaller iteration will do the trick, right? We'll believe it when we see it.

In the meantime, Honda has a bunch of other updates planned for the next few years, including the launch of an all-new Accord in 2012. The next Accord will once again be offered with a hybrid variant (which hasn't been offered since 2007), and this gasoline-electric powertrain could also find its way under the hood of the CR-V.

Elsewhere in Honda's portfolio, AW asserts that the slow-selling Crosstour will finally get an entry-level four-cylinder model, and the Pilot will get a complete overhaul in the fall of 2013. Furthermore, rumors of a hotter Mugen-inspired CR-Z are still being mumbled, and a Fit EV city car may arrive as early as 2012.

Next Honda CR-V to spawn compact pickup? originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Budget, Hatchback, Honda

The trusty Honda Fit hatchback was far and away the segment leader when the second-generation car arrived in late 2008. But since then, the B-segment has been a huge point of attention for many automakers, and as such, Honda's all-star now has some pretty serious competition from the likes of the Ford Fiesta, Hyundai Accent, Nissan Versa and Mazda2, not to mention soon-to-be-released newcomers like the Chevrolet Sonic, Toyota Yaris and Kia Rio.

In an effort to keep the Fit fresh, Honda has, um, fitted it with some new standard equipment for 2012, as well as some minor styling tweaks. Sport models now get a new grille, black headlight bezels and a new finish for the 16-inch alloy wheels. The base Fit receives body-colored mirrors and a new wheel cover design. New standard features on the Fit Sport include steering wheel-mounted audio controls, as well as Bluetooth hands-free telephone on navigation-equipped cars.

Under the hood, the Fit's 1.5-liter inline-four carries on unchanged, producing 117 horsepower and 106 pound-feet of torque, mated to either a manual or automatic transmission, both of which are five-speed units. It'll be another couple of years before the Fit's all-new replacement arrives. Just in time, too - by then it'll be the old dog in a segment of new pups. Follow the jump for Honda's official release.

Continue reading Honda details updates to 2012 Fit hatchback

Honda details updates to 2012 Fit hatchback originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Honda: 2012 Honda Accord Offers Style, Performance and Value http://t.co/b5YoshN

Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Honda

Honda has just announced it will build a new assembly plant in a suburb of Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico. This will be Honda's eighth assembly plant in North America and third in Mexico, and is being built for the production of "fuel-efficient subcompact vehicles" for the Mexican and North American markets.

The new plant will cost Honda $800 million to build, be completed in 2014 and add 3,200 jobs to the region when its operational. While we don't yet know what it will build, the plant's estimated annual capacity will be 200,000 units, which raises Honda's North American production capacity to 1.83 million vehicles annually. According to the company, 87 percent of all Honda and Acura vehicles sold in the U.S. are made in North America.

The smallest vehicle Honda currently builds here is the Civic, which is made in both Indiana and Ontario, Canada. As for what this new Mexican plant will build, our best guess is the Fit, which is already a worldy car being built and sold as the Honda Jazz all over the globe. The only other small cars that Honda sells in the U.S. are its two hybrids, the Insight and CR-Z, and to date the company has kept production of its hybrid vehicles in Japan.

Continue reading Honda announces new Mexican plant to build small cars for North America

Honda announces new Mexican plant to build small cars for North America originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Honda: Shout out to the 88 @Honda Racing / HPD Dependability Award participants who came to the #Honda Indy 200 last weekend!..http://cot.ag/onPA8K