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What's Wrong With This Picture: CR-Z DOA? Edition
by
Edward Niedermeyer
(IC: employee)
Published: March 10th, 2010
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The first videos of the Honda CR-Z lapping Suzuka have surfaced, and they’re about as exciting as C-Span after a handful of Valium. And this is apparently a tuned version. Between this and the recent pre-launch equivocation by the CR-Z’s chief engineer, our expectations for Honda’s Insight Coupe couldn’t get much lower [via Autoblog].
Edward Niedermeyer
More by Edward Niedermeyer
Published March 10th, 2010 3:42 PM
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I was the only person in the world (besides Honda PR people and, most likely, Toyota PR people) excited about this car... until I saw this. This has to be one of the most tepid hot laps I've seen. The car had some promise of being a nimble and sprightly FWD-er, but this video makes it clear that it is a rehash of the first generation Insight. Not a bad thing, but sold on the wrong isle.
Honda, for all it's engineering prowess, doesn't "get" hybrids any better than GM did, and it seems like their own arrogance is getting in the way. This will be about the third or fourth time that they've taken a crack at the market and every single product up to and including the CR-Z has been What some hotshot at Honda thinks the market wants versus what the market will actually buy. Near as I can figure, this is the same behaviour that lead to Honda's other misfires (the Ridgeline, the Element). None of these have been bad cars, but they're cars without a market. Meanwhile, you get Toyota, which designed a hybrid not on the basis of what their engineers thought the customer would like, but what would be most acceptable to a wider buying public. As such, out went engineering theory about how IMA is simpler, easier to shoehorn in and theoretically more robust, how you could use hybrid power as a kind of electric supercharger, or people would value performance over ride comfort and space. The second-generation Insight was tacit admission that Honda was wrong, but even then there was reluctance; the CR-Z was yet another engineering playtoy. It really makes me suspect that when Honda gets it right it's more often by chance. Not that, say, Toyota doesn't have moments of insanity (FJ Cruiser, anyone?) but they're generally niche experiments.
Reading through the Autoblog article comments, one commenter said the CR-Z lapped the track 2:52. He said that's the same time as a Mercedes E350 and two seconds behind an NSX. Is that a bad thing? Could it be "hybrid hate" is playing a role in everyone dumping on this car?
Guys, I drive a CVT Nissan Note, on dry day I have to double check that I am in D position instead of neutral, because even on flat roads, gravity seems to provide more acceleration than the engine. I have driven shopping carts at the supermarket that were more exciting to drive. I'd take that car anyday...