Thursday-afternoon press  conferences at Mitsubishi and Nissan remained mostly deserted  as the Fourth Estate congregated at Honda to hear the not so secret news that Honda will return to F1. I didn’t go because I thought we don’t cover F1. When I remembered that we now do, it was too late. Did I mention that running around Tokyo covering the auto beat is a world of tough decisions?

Honda had exited the sport in 2009 after what the BBC calls “years of poor results with its own team.” Of course, the global meltdown had something to do with it also. Honda will be back as an engine supplier to the McLaren team, or, as its statement says, “Honda will be in charge of the development, manufacture and supply of the power unit, including the engine and energy recovery system, while McLaren will be in charge of the development and manufacture of the chassis, as well as the management of the new team, McLaren Honda.”

Formula One will introduce a blown 1.6 liter V6 engine with energy recovery systems, a move that fits into carmakers’ plans of disengaging from 8 cylinder engines.

With Nissan drinking Red Bull and Honda powering McLaren, all eyes are on Toyota. There are off and on rumors that they might be back as Lexus, but nothing official yet.

I recently made a troubling discovery. Samsung, noted manufacturer of telephones the size of a license plate, is now producing a refrigerator with Twitter. Let me repeat that for those of you who merely skim my articles (Hi, mom!). Samsung manufacturers a refrigerator with Twitter.

The refrigerator’s screen (which also includes other similarly useless apps) is located just above where you get ice. This is highly convenient. Primarily, it’s convenient for Samsung, who will gladly replace the screen for thousands of dollars when you get it wet. But it’s also convenient for you, the refrigerator operator, since it allows you to get ice and tweet: I just got ice. #cold #drink #icerocks2013 #yourdrinkiswarmerthanmine

I know what you’re thinking: Is this going to be about cars? And the answer is: only sort of. At this point, you’re more than forgiven if you’d rather see what Sajeev has written today. (Bye, mom!)

The theme of all this is that technology is coming, whether you like it or not. I still remember, years ago, thinking “yeah, right!” when I heard they were going to put cameras in cell phones. Now, I can use my phone to take a photo of my iced drink, tweet the photo, and then re-tweet it using my refrigerator. (No, I have no idea how Twitter works.)

Of course, technology’s ever-expanding reach is also affecting modern cars. The best example of this is Toyota’s Entune navigation system, which you can now use to get movie reviews, buy movie tickets, and make restaurant reservations. According to Toyota, this does not lead to distracted driving, an assertion which is apparently believed by the NHTSA and no one else.

Hyundai Blue Link offers a far creepier take on infotainment. Yes, you can do the normal stuff, like use Pandora and re-tweet your twitters (or something). But you can also set up a geographical perimeter and receive text messages every time the car leaves it. This is a wonderful idea pitched as a benefit to families with young drivers, though it will almost exclusively be used by families with cheating spouses.

Blue Link can also send you a text message every time the car exceeds a certain speed. This one actually is brilliant, since it allows you to confront your spouse about where he went and how fast he got there. Imagine the court transcript: “Defendant was tracked to Stacy’s home on Thursday, May 9, using Hyundai Blue Link. Defendant travelled there at 87 miles per hour.” #busted!!

More Technology

Beyond infotainment, we have to contend with new technology in other areas. Take, for example, BMW’s latest turn signal mechanism. Here’s how it works: you press the signal. It stays on, but pops back into the normal position. So you press it the other way to cancel it, which causes the other signal to turn on. Eventually, you’re killed in a fiery crash as you try and figure out how the hell the turn signal works. BMW is not totally opposed to this, since it means you can no longer complain on the JD Power surveys.

Personally, I’m of the belief that we don’t really need any new technology in the world of turn signals. That’s because every car in the history of the automobile has used pretty much the same system, and it works quite well. But there’s one new feature that’s really gotten me excited: Honda LaneWatch. Although Alex L. Dykes isn’t a fan, I’m here to provide a counterpoint.

LaneWatch is standard on all Accords above the EX trim level, which is all the Accords you’d buy, because you’re not a cheap bastard, am I right? Here’s how it works: first, you press the right turn signal. Immediately afterwards, a camera turns on that displays literally every single thing on the right side of your vehicle. Seriously: when I’m in Atlanta heading north, the camera shows the next lane, the neighborhood to my right, the next county, and – if I’m on a slight incline – most of the Atlantic Ocean.

I recently had a Honda Accord press car with LaneWatch, and I was so impressed by the feature that I didn’t use the passenger mirror once throughout the entirety of my time with the car. This is pretty cool: a camera that completely takes the place of a side-view mirror. Concept cars have teased the idea for years, but here I was actually experiencing it in a $25,000 Honda Accord!

Where LaneWatch does become gimmicky is that you can turn it on and monitor things without the turn signal activated. While this can be enjoyable, it’s possibly the only thing more distracting than using your touchscreen to buy movie tickets. Still, when used for its intended purpose, LaneWatch is tremendously helpful. The picture’s clear, it’s aimed exactly where you want, and – to help you decide if it’s safe to change lanes – it even displays three different on-screen lines: Green, Yellow, and BMW Driver.

When I gave back the Accord and returned to my LaneWatch-less SUV, I began to realize just how much technology is missing from my life. So I did the only rational thing I could think of: I drove straight to the store and joined the 21st century. And I love it. This message was sent from my refrigerator.

Doug DeMuro operates PlaysWithCars.com. He’s owned an E63 AMG wagon, road-tripped across the US in a Lotus without air conditioning, and posted a six-minute lap time on the Circuit de Monaco in a rented Ford Fiesta. One year after becoming Porsche Cars North America’s youngest manager, he quit to become a writer. His parents are very disappointed.

Our last look at the Accord was back in September when we ran a two-parter (part 1, part 2) after being invited to the launch event. Yes, shockingly our invite wasn’t lost in the mail. As TTAC has said in the past, there are problems with launch events. Usually you’re running around in a pre-production car that may not be “quite right” yet, you have to split your driving time with some dude from another publication (shout out to Hooniverse on that trip).  Drive time is limited, and exclusively done on roads selected by the manufacturer. Sometimes you don’t get the trim level you want either. What I wanted was one step up from the base model, the mainstream EX and I wanted it on the same roads I’ve driven the other Camcord competitors. Here’s that review.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Exterior

Honda has long been known as a serious kind of car company. Press events are orderly, the Honda folks wear suits and their products are similarly starched. While we have a new corporate nose up front with a chrome “smiley” face and aggressive headlamps, the rest of the profile is buttoned up and professional. The large (and low) greenhouse says “I have kids,” an image that Honda has been embracing with their latest commercials, essentially admitting they are leaving descriptives like “sexy” and “dramatic” to Hyundai and Ford. I have to admit I am quite torn, I love the Fusion’s sexy sheetmetal making it my first pick in terms of looks, but oddly enough the “plain Jane” Accord is number two for me because it’s simple clean. The new Kia Optima is a very, very close third thanks its nose job for 2014. I’m not convinced that the Camry’s nose or the Sonata’s dramatic character lines will age well, let me know what you think in the comment section. Something important to keep in mind is the Accord has bucked the growth trend and has shrunk on the outside compared to the previous generation making it among the smallest in this segment. Good if you live in the city, bad if you were hoping for a Honda land yacht.

Typical for Honda, the Accord has no factory installed options to choose from, you simply pick your trim: LX, EX, Sport EX-L, or Touring. LX, EX and Sport models can be had with a manual or a CVT while EX-L and Touring models are CVT only with the four cylinder and auto only with the V6. Aside from the lack of fog lights in the LX and a tiny bit of black trim on the LX and EX models, the only visual clues to which Accord you’re driving are the wheels and exhaust tips. When it comes to sleepers, there’s nothing that fits that description like an Accord.

Interior

Honda’s interiors have long been known for their simple functionality rather than opulence or elegance and Honda is still singing the same tune. Despite being an all-new model for 2013, Honda hasn’t radically changed the interior design, opting instead for incremental improvements and more standard features. All Accords now get standard dual-zone automatic climate control, Bluetooth phone integration, a backup cam and active noise cancellation. Honda seems to have listened to the complaints from reviewers and customers and took a methodical and dedicated approach to making the Accord quieter on the road. In addition to the fancy noise cancelling software, there’s more foam, more carpet and a one-piece dash designed to prevent squeaks later in life.

Honda’s seat engineers seem to be designing seats specifically for my back lately. The Accord and the refreshed Civic both sport supportive seats that coddled by back and backside on long journeys. There is a caution I must toss in however, the lumbar support in Sport, EX and LX models is fixed and pronounced. If you need some adjustability in your back support, you’ll need to step up to a leather model to get it. 2013 has brought a raft of materials improvements to the Accord cabin from improved seat fabrics to more squishy dash bits and the ever-so-popular stitched pleather. Thankfully Honda spares potential owners the shame of faux wood trim, instead opting for a modern brown pattern that I found attractive. The trim and the style are not as stylized or futuristic as the competition, but controls are easy to locate, and consistent in their high quality feel.

Thanks to the Accord’s upright profile, getting in and out of the back seats is an easy task, something I can’t say of the Fusion. Once inside the height pays further dividends with more headroom than the coupé-like competitors. Despite being smaller on the outside and having a smaller wheelbase than the outgoing model, legroom is up by a welcome 1.3 inches in the rear and the trunk has grown to a [finally] competitive 13.7 cubic feet. On the down side, Honda forgot that sometimes people need to carry large items and three people, not possible in the Accord if you fold down the rear seat since it folds as a single unit.

Even base model Accords are well equipped with dual-zone climate control, auto headlamps, cruise control, backup camera, and a one-touch up/down window for the driver. Because of the comfortable seats and high level of standard gadgets, the Accord is the poster child of “easy to live with” like that comfortable sweatshirt.

Infotainment

Honda’s relentless drive to streamline options means a high level of standard tech on the Accord. All Accords get an 8-inch high-res screen in the middle of the dash, Bluetooth integration for speakerphone and audio, iDevice/USB interface, Pandora internet radio app integration and SMS messaging features if your smartphone supports it. (At the time of our drive, Pandora radio is restricted to Apple iDevices and SMS messaging to Android devices, Honda giveth and taketh away.)

Browsing the lots of my nearest Honda dealers, it seems the EX and EX-L models account for the bulk of purchases and lot space, not surprising since they straddle the middle in terms of price from $24,605 for a manual EX to $32,070 foe an EX-L V6. All EX models get keyless entry/go, Honda’s up-level audio system and their Lane Watch blind-spot viewing system. (Trust me, LW is more exciting than it sounds). Stepping up to the EX-L model or above gets you a higher resolution 8-inch screen and a 5-inch touchscreen LCD in the center of the dash that acts as the primary audio control interface. The addition of the second display allows you to see some audio information at the same time as the 8-inch display either shows you the navigation screen (if you’ve opted for it) or some other information source. Want to know more? Check out that video above.

Drivetrain

I know we’re here to dream of EarthDreams (which is quite possibly the worst thing anyone has ever named an engine family), but we should start out with that optional V6.  As before the V6 has cylinder deactivation tech, but Honda decided that the old system which would cut out 2 or 3 cylinders depending on the load was more trouble than it was worth, so for 2013 the V6 will only drop to 3 cylinders but the range of operation has been expanded. Thanks to the tweaks and a new 6-speed automatic, the V6 is good for 278HP and 252 lb-ft of torque while delivering 21/34MPG. The V6 has a well-tuned exhaust note and scoots to 60 in the same 6.2 seconds that the Altima 3.5 managed, but the Accord lags the Altima in real-world fuel economy by 3 MPG. This isn’t the engine you want.

What piqued my interest at the launch event was Honda’s new 2.4L direct-injection four cylinder engine. The engine and new CVT turned my impression of the Accord on its head. The engine’s 185HP still arrive at a very-Honda high RPM of 6,500, but thanks to the direct-injection sauce torque jumps to a [nearly] HP matching 181 lb-ft with a strong pull from idle and a peak at a decidedly un-Honda 3,900RPM. If you choose the 6-speed manual, you no longer have to rev the nuts off the engine to get the Accord in motion. Most shoppers however will findP a Continuously Variable Transmission under their Accord’s hood, although they may not even notice. Why? This is quite possibly the world’s best CVT.

Yes, I know I have a rep for the love-that-dare-not-speak-its-name, but I have my reasons for liking a CVT: fuel economy, mountain climbing, and maximizing acceleration in underpowered cars like the 107HP Versa. This CVT is actually pleasant to drive. I’m not sure how the boffins managed it, but Honda’s new CVT switches ratios quickly and crisply with a feel that is so close to a standard automatic the average person might not be able to tell the difference. If you have driven a Nissan with a CVT, you get what some call a “rubber band” feeling that pressing the throttle gets instant response but builds, levels, then after you release the throttle it takes a while for the engine to “return” to a dull roar.

The Accord on the other hand has the feeling of a downshift where the engine shifts to a high RPM almost immediately, then like a normal CVT, stays there while you accelerate and when you lift it drops rapidly like a normal transmission upshifting. Passengers in the car were confused, some thought they detected shifts and thought it was an auto, while a few realized it was just a good CVT. This is as it should be. If you need another reason to give the CVT a shot, the 27 city, 36 highway and 30 combined MPG rating should make a believer out of you. In my mixed driving I averaged a stout 32.5 MPG. If you absolutely must have the manual, you’ll be limited to four-cylinder LX, EX and Sport models (the V6/MT combo is Accord coupé specific). The manual will save you $1,200 at the register but cost you more at the pump with fuel economy dropping to 24/34 and in my testing the combined number was some 5MPG lower than the CVT.

The Accord has long been known for its double wishbone front suspension, a design that some prefer because of increasing negative camber gain as the suspension reaches the end of travel. On the downside it’s heavier, more expensive and according to Honda contributed to the NVH that owners and reviewers whined about. What does that have to do with anything? The wishbone is gone, replaced by a MacPherson strut arrangement like just about every other FWD car in the USA. Does it matter? Not really, most people would be hard pressed to tell the difference since the Accord is hardly a track day car. Or is it?

The mid-size sedan is the ultimate comprise car, just watch a sedan add some time. They are supposed to schlep the kids to daycare and then carve that canyon on your way to your impressive day job where everyone congratulates you on making the smart decision to buy the family car instead of the Mercedes roadster. Truth be told, any mid-size sedan carves corners with shocking aplomb, holds at least two car seats with ease, looks good enough to valet park and manages to keep from breaking the bank. You know, except for that Dodge Avenger I’m trying to forget. But I digress.

Honda made a big deal out of the weight reduction at the launch event, but in truth the 3,336lb curb weight merely represents a tend in the right direction and lands the Accord in the middle of the fray. What is different is how Honda chose to tune the Accord. Out on the road the steering is moderately heavy with a hint of feedback (more than can be said for most sedans these days) and the suspension is firm for a family car. The combination create a feel that I would almost describe as “Germanic,” something that paradoxically cannot be said of the latest Passat. When the feel and suspension are mated with 215/55R17 rubber on the EX and EX-L models, the Accord can dance with the best of the competition. The Sport model’s 235 width tires might sound attractive but beware, the rubber is bundled with new steering stops that increase the turning circle from good to enormous. My suggestion would be to buy a regular model, jump to 225s and deal with the occasional rubbing.

Thanks to a combination of excellent road manners, a surprisingly quick 6.8 second jump to 60 and the best mid-sized non-hybrid/non-diesel fuel economy we have tested so far and the Accord EX becomes my favorite four-cylinder mid-size sedan. It’s not as sexy as the Fusion, but it’s cheaper by a nose, more exciting than a Camry, more mainstream than a Kia or Hyundai (yes, I did use that as a factor because you know shoppers will) and statistically more reliable than some of the other options on the road. There’s always a “but” and here it is: the Altima 3.5 starts at $25,760, weighs the same as the four-cylinder Accord, clears 60 in 5.5 seconds and averaged a shocking (and totally worth it) 27.6 MPG during our week.

Hit it

• The best CVT ever created.
• Our average fuel economy was only 1MPG lower than a Civic.
• Excellent chassis dynamics.

Quit it

• Lane Watch is as gimmicky as it sounds.
• You have to upgrade to the EX-L to avoid the urethane steering wheel.
• I still don’t understand the split screen radio/nav situation. Someone explain that to me over a beer.

 Honda provided the vehicle, insurance and gas for this review

Specifications as tested

 0-30: 2.8 Seconds

0-60: 6.83 Seconds

1/4 Mile: 15.25 Seconds @ 93 MPH

Average Observed Fuel Economy: 32.5MPG over 659 miles

Honda is making a big bet on CVT transmissions, with a $470 million assembly plant that will crank out as many as 750,000 CVTs and employ 1,500 people.

Automotive News reports that the plant, located in Celaya, will be located alongside a factory that will produce the next-generation Honda Fit. Currently, the 4-cylinder Accord, Insight and Civic Hybrid all use CVTs, and the next generation Fit is expected to get that transmission as well. But more models will have to employ those gearboxes to help meet capacity requirements, and Honda is being tight-lipped on future product plans (as per usual).

Fans of the Acura NSX have long wondered about Ayrton Senna’s personal NSXs. Little information was known, aside from a couple rumors on his Wikipedia page, and a few Youtube videos showing him driving both a red prototype and a white NSX-R.

While often seen with a red example, it turns out that Senna’s personal ride in Brazil was a black version (the best color, in my opinion). This 1993 model has just 5600 km on the odometer and slightly different headlamps compared to North American models. The red one was apparently kept by Senna in Portugal and was for sale at one point. The black one is under the care of Senna’s family. While the write-up is in Portuguese, running it through Google Translate won’t yield too much new information about the car. Nevertheless, it’s a cool bit of trivia for fans of Senna, or Honda’s legendary sports car.

Continuing with our look at long forgotten (and some not so long forgotten, but forgotten just the same) concept and show cars from the major automobile manufacturers. Part One, Acura to Chevrolet, is here. Part two, Chrysler to Ford, is here.

Sure, once you see it, the Honda SSM (Sports Study Model), first shown at the Tokyo show in 1995 and styled by Pininfarina, was obviously the concept for what became the S2000 roadster. The question is do S2000 fans even remember the SSM?

Try and see if you can recall the Infiniti Triant from 2003.

Chrysler recycled the Jeepster name for this 1998 concept, which you may actually remember.

Quite a number of die cast model companies and brands, including Maisto, Hot Wheels, Matchbox,  and Tonka have produced toys and models of the Jeepster. If you’re a member of Generation Y, you may just remember the Jeepster.

Along with the Jeepster, the Varsity concept from 2000 made Hooniverse’s list of Jeep’s top 25 concept vehicles (not included on the list were the very cool Mighty FC cabover “forward control” truck and the JC-12 pickup concepts from last year). Jeep does indeed have a history of cool concepts, but I wouldn’t call the Varsity as memorable as the twin Hemi powered Hurricane that could turn on its own axis.

I don’t know if the 1969 Jeep XJ-001 concept is what convinced American Motors to buy Jeep from Kaiser the following year, or not. Jeep had been buying AMC engines for a while and when they decided to build their own version of a muscle car, with a custom fiberglass body on a CJ-5 chassis, they dropped in an AMC 360 cubic inch V8.

The XJ-001 is actually notable in Jeep history as it introduced one of the earliest full-time four wheel drive systems, which they called ”Quadritrac”. That would morph into Quadra Trac when the system was first offered for sale in 1973.

I can’t imagine where ever Kaiser got the idea to name this 1951 concept the “Safari”. Seriously though, I’m pretty sure they got the idea to use fur and zebra skins from the Cadillac Debutante the year before. The car companies were lucky there was no PETA then.

When I saw this photo of this Lincoln concept from 1988, I said, “what a cool car”. Lincoln has a history of making concept cars that, years later, enthusiasts say, “now that’s a car that Lincoln should have made”.

Then I saw what they named it. In what alternate universe is the brand Lincoln associated with the word machete? If it had gone into production, would they have gotten Danny Trejo to do their ads?

Now that Morgan has brought back the Three Wheeler, with the blessings of Baruth, and Polaris is about to introduce the Slingshot reverse trike, perhaps Mercedes-Benz should put the F300 Life Jet leanable trike concept from 1998 into production. I wonder if they paid any royalties to Fritz Fend‘s family.

The Mercury brand had some exciting show cars. Perhaps if some of them had gone into production, the brand might still be here with us today. The MC4 concept was based on a 1996 Thunderbird (Sajeev take note). The car’s designer, the late John Hartnell, gave it both suicide doors and de Tomaso Mangusta style rear center-opening hatches (with integral taillights). That combination alone should have made it a memorable concept car but memory can be fickle.

When Ford sold off some of their corporate collection of concept cars in 2002 to raise money for charity and celebrate FoMoCo’s centennial, the pre-sale estimate on the MC4 was $60,000-$120,000 with no reserve. It was hammered off at $645,500, the second highest sale price at that auction You may not remember it, but someone sure did. I bet his wife remembers the auction too.

The Mercury Messenger wowed the critics in 2003, so it’s not really that obscure, but does anyone think that Mercury dealers would have known what to do with a sporty two seater? It was supposed to be Mercury’s new brand look, which lasted until the Messenger was retired from the show circuit.

A great looking car but is there anything about it that says “Mercury”? Part of the problem is the name. Who calls a two seat sports coupe with a V8 engine the Messenger? For gosh sakes, this was a company that made cars called the Eliminator and the Marauder. Lincoln shows a Machete and Mercury shows a Messenger? Boy, Ford really got its brands messed up before Mulally turned things around. Besides, the Messenger was based on the Mustang, they should have called it the Cougar.

Less memorable was the Mercury Mystique, another suppository shaped minivan.

Before there was Ford One, there was the Mercury One, a joint project of Mazda and Mercury.

Somehow the name Mercury Palomar isn’t quite right. I know there’s an observatory on Mount Palomar and Mercury is indeed an astronomical body, but the car brand is named after the god, not the planet, so you end up with a car that’s actually named after a god and a mountain, not a planet and and observatory as the marketers guessed. The inspiration for the Palomar’s name was obviously the retractable roof, just like an observatory has. The inspiration for the roof itself was possibly from South Bend, not outer space. Well, sort of. In 1959, Brooks Stevens, who would later design the similarly featured Wagonaire and other Studebakers, designed three concepts cars called the Scimitar for the Olin Matheson Chemical Corp. to demonstrate the functional and decorative use of aluminum. One of the Scimitars was a station wagon with a retractable roof that let you carry tall items. The retractable roofed wagon is one of those ideas that pops up from time to time on concept and production vehicles most recently with the 2004 GMC Envoy XUV.

Continued in part 4 tomorrow, Mitsubishi to Plymouth.

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can dig deeper at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks – RJS

The 420,000 mile Ford truck. The 420,000 mile Chevy truck. The 420,000 mile Camry. The 420,000 mile Accord.

I have covered all of these brands and models to the point now where I just hope, wish and dream of a different vehicle to highlight.

A few months ago I finally had a pair of Saturns make it to the top. A little before that there was a 90′s Altima that handily beat nearly 7000 other cars and trucks.  This week…

No such luck. Although there was one surprise.

This is how the Top 5 looked this time around out of 6863 trade-in contestants for the week.

1. 2003 Ford E-350 XLT:  426,776 miles

2. 2000 Honda Civic EX:  387,915 miles

3. 2001 Nissan Xterra SE: 377,966 miles

4. 2000 Ford Crown Vic:   353,951 miles (TAXI!)

5. 1999 Toyota Sienna LE: 341,630 miles

The Xterra was a welcome surprise from the usual Toyota, Honda, Ford, and Chevy domination.

A Manual. 4WD. The engine needed service but that won’t matter given that it will be fixed up and exported in short time. Almost every older, high mileage, Japanese SUV with four-wheel-drive and a handshaker winds up on the export side of the ledger.

Like many of the exported vehicles with gonzo mileage, I’m sure this one will also be given an ‘exempt’ recording of the mileage on the title and a nice healthy 200k mile rollback. They sell better that way.

So the big five here are more than likely highway oriented vehicles. Livery and transport companies usually favor domestics for their continuous travels, and we can argue the reasons why until Ford finally builds a suitable Panther replacement.

High mileage is fun to categorize, but let’s face it. There is bias. The fleet world is Ford and Chevy happy. So let’s look at the high mileage list from a more aged perspective.

What about vehicles that are at least 20 year old? What brands and models registered the highest mileage this time around?

Number one would be this 1992 Toyota Paseo with another handshaker and sun faded racing stripes on either side of the hood. Toyotas from the mid-80′s thru the mid-90′s have a notorious tendency to have their paint streaked and speckled at the points where the sun and debris hit em’ the most.

Still, even the worst Toyota paint jobs are far better than the wafer thin domestic paint-jobs of the time. But if I can offer one universal weakness to early-90′s Toyotas, it would be paint fade.

This 21 year old mileage champion was followed by a 1990 Lexus LS400 (290k), a 1990 Honda Accord (279k),  a 1993 Ford F150 (278k), and a 1992 Camry (277k).

So it seems like we’re stuck at the same point as before. Well, maybe not folks. I’ll throw in a few factoids given that today is tax day. .

After 64,049 vehicles tallied, the brands with the highest percentage of models with over 180k are…

1. Honda 

2. Toyota

3. Lexus

4. Acura

and a surprising 5th…

5. GMC

The first four have 20+% of their trade-ins with over 180k. GMC is at just over 17%.

Now for an even bigger shocker…

13% of Mitsubishis are now traded in with over 180k. I happen to finance an awful lot of them these days with a clear conscience. So this is no surprise from where I sit. 

Meanwhile, Mercedes tallies a mere 6.9%. BMW yields 5.9%. Audi barely hits the mileage pedal with only 4.5%, while VW does little better, even with dozens of TDI models, at 4.9%.

To further crown the European propensity for penurious plentitude when it comes to all things mileage related, the two absolute worst marques for mileage are Jaguar at 2.6% and Land Rover at 2.8%. Porsche is even worse at 0.52%. But since a Porsche daily driver is an exception rather than the rule, we gave it a bye.

On the homefront, we have one other surprise. Cadillac is barely beating the bad old Kias of the 90′s and early 2000′s. 3.8% for the former Northstar division vs. 3.7% for a company that brought us shitboxes such as the Sephia and the early Kia Rios.

Do you have free time today? Or happen to work for an OEM? Click here and have fun.

The end of Q1 2013 in the United States saw numerous competitors in the mid-size sedan segment duking it out for the Number 1 spot. North of the border, the situation followed a familiar pattern as well; the race for the sales crown was dominated by compact sedans, rather than mid-sizers.

While the Hyundai Elantra hung on to its year-to-date lead, the second place Honda Civic was the top seller in March, narrowing the Elantra’s lead to a mere 50 units year-to-date. The two compacts are way out in front, selling over 11,000 units each in the first quarter. The third place Mazda3 trails with 8851 units sold through March. Rounding out the top 5 are the Canadian-built Toyota Corolla and the Volkswagen Jetta, which managed to edge out the Chevrolet Cruze for 5th place.

Canada’s top sellers are much more heavily weighted to smaller, more frugal cars, given the various econmic factors at play. But that hasn’t stopped cars like the Mercedes-Benz C-Class and BMW 3-Series from cracking the top 20 either. BMW has long offered a 320i or 323i value model in Canada, priced in line with a well-equipped Honda Accord, to entice Canadian buyers into making the jump to a premium car. Only now will Americans be entitled to such a model, thanks to shifting economic and demographic factors.

On the truck side, the Ford F-Series still has a commanding lead, with 25,870 units sold, though the Ram 1500 is making a strong showing in second place with 18,189 units sold. The big losers on the truck side are the Dodge Grand Caravan, with sales down 16.6 percent year-to-date, and the Honda CR-V, which saw a nearly 35 percent decline.

The mid-size sedan sales race has become a close one over the first quarter of this year – while the Toyota Camry has established a healthy lead, the race for second through fourth place comes down to an 8,000 unit spread between the Honda Accord, Nissan Altima and the (game-changing) Ford Fusion.

Despite leading the segment with 100,830 units sold in 2013, sales of the Camry were down 4 percent compared to 2012. Automotive News quotes Toyota’s Jim Lentz as saying that ”not sure we can do much more than 400 [thousand] Camrys”, suggesting that the car may lose some market share – and possibly the title of America’s best-selling car.

While Toyota has been willing to put cash on the hood of the Camry to move units, it is facing some stiff competition. The Camry was outsold slightly by the Nissan Altima in March, while the second place Accord, with 88,427 units sold, is apparently the best selling mid-size sedan on a retail basis – if you believe Honda’s claims.

The third place Altima is down by about 10 percent versus Q1 2012 sales, with 86,952 units. Last year saw Nissan dealers aggressively pushing stock of the soon-to-be-replaced 2012 model out the door to make way for the new car. Meanwhile, the Ford Fusion has cracked the 80,000 unit mark itself, reporting a 26 percent gain over the same period.

To illustrate the gulf in sales between those four and the rest of the segment, one need only look at the numbers; the Chevrolet Malibu, with 49,179 units sold so far, is outsold by the Camry on a 2:1 basis, despite the Camry being one of the oldest cars in the segment and the Malibu being all-new. Ditto the Sonata, which is also one of the segment’s older vehicles and, according to Hyundai, limited by capacity constraints.

The days of having to wait for a new model to roll out across different regions may be over. Honda is using its regional R&D centers to help speed up introduction times for the next-generation Fit, something that could become the norm over the next few years.

Aside from strengthening R&D bases in emerging markets like Brazil, where Honda plans to double its staff from 100 to 200 workers, the move comes as consumers are able to instantly access information on new model launches across the globe, thanks to the internet. Consumers have apparently become impatient with having to wait for a new model roll out and are reluctant to purchase an older car if a new one is said to be around the corner. The unified rollout schedule will apparently solve that issue.

The last generation Fit was introduced in 2007, but it took until 2009 to be introduced across the globe. The lag time stemmed from making changes so that the Fit could be built at various assembly plants using locally procured parts. With the next generation Fit, different regions will draw up their own designs best suited for regional production and local parts suppliers. The changes will likely be a number of “under-the-skin” differences related to vehicle assembly rather than fundamental cosmetic or mechanical differences.

For anyone like myself – that is, a car fan who grew up in the 1990s and watched Japan’s sports cars disappear from the American market in one sudden swoop, news that Japan’s once mighty auto industry is being “hollowed out” might come as a shock. The cars that defined my youth – the RX-7s, Supras even the VTEC Honda compacts, are a distant memory. Most of what Japan offers on our shores are aimed at the mainstream, while at home, kei-cars and hybrids dominate the market.

A lot of the criticism leveled at Japan is that their focus on the mainstream market and alternative powertrains is what sparked their auto industry’s current malaise. But this is a superficial and fallacious assumption that supposes that the glut of superb Japanese cars in the 1990s is a baseline for our expectations of what a Japanese auto maker should be building and selling. In fact, it is an aberration that will never occur again.

Japan, early 1990s. It is a boom unlike even the MBS-fueled manic episode that tinted the last days of my adolescence. Everything is expensive, but who cares, because everyone is rich! Contrary to what Detroit tells you, the reason nobody in Japan buys foreign cars is because of conformity. There is a famous phrase in Japanese business culture; “the nail that sticks up, gets hammered down”. You, the salaryman with cash to burn, will support the home team. You will buy one of these fabulous cars created by our all-conquering auto industry, and you will replace it every few years due to the shakken inspection system and because it is uncouth to drive an old, used car.

If 1950s American cars are a reflection of the optimism and prosperity of that era, then let’s look was offered by a country that saw its stock market plunge by trillions of dollars. Gullwinged-Mazda kei cars. Honda Legends with four-figure gyroscopic navigation systems. 1.6L V6s engines in D-Segment Mitsubishis. Why? Because they could. It was pure, unabashed hubris that led auto makers to field umpteen variations of the same mid-size car or open different sales channels for each model, like the Honda Accord, which begot the Honda Vigor, Inspire, Ascot, Innova, Rafaga, Saber and Torneo. All of them were only slightly different from one another but they were sold across three separate sales channels dubbed Primo, Clio and Verno. It was a scenario that made General Motors pre-bankruptcy sales strategy look lean by comparison.

The competitive nature of the Japanese auto industry and the “gentlemens agreement” limiting cars to 276 horsepower meant that an arms race of technology was being waged. R&D budgets were limitless. No technology was too complex or too expensive to implement on any given product. Twin turbo rotary engines at Mazda, four-wheel steering and all-wheel drive at Nissan, active aerodynamics at Mitsubishi, and of course, the all-aluminum, F1-inspired NSX at Honda. Even at the lower end, there were countless high-performance variants of the lowliest econoboxes: Type-Rs and Spec-Rs and Cyborg Rs and 9000 RPM, 1600cc VZ-Rs and BZ-R’s (not to be confused with our current, boxer-blighted BRZs) which were Corollas with 5 valves per cylinder and individual throttle bodies. That was technology that Ferrari never even saw until long after the BZ-R was introduced.

It was utter insanity, but Japan was in a unique position to support these offerings. Aside from its economic growth, its demographic picture meant that those born just after WWII, when birth rates were still high, were hitting their earnings peak. And since everyone was flush with money, they could afford to buy these cars.

When the bottom fell out of the economy, the cars mentioned above were already too far along in the development cycle to be canceled. The OEMs had no choice but to release them after sinking so much money into their development. And while the higher end product was pulled from our market, they soldiered on in Japan. With no foreign competition, there wasn’t much to lose. Everything was so advanced and over-engineered that they still felt – and in some cases, even looked – fresh and modern despite being a decade old.

Now fast forward to 2013. Nearly a quarter of the population is over 65, and Japan’s population growth is negative. The bulk of consumers are likely buying their last car, and young people are famously not interested in the automobile.  Now that there is no domestic consumer base, the product development ethos has irrevocably changed. What were once solutions to local problems and tastes must now be targeted at a global audience, with all of the peculiarities and regulatory demands and business cases that come with it.

Instead of the three-rotor Mazda Cosmo or the gorgeous Nissan Silvia, we have the Toyota 86, a car that was apparently so risky that a corporate behemoth like Toyota had to partner with a relative bit player like Subaru just to bring it to production. The one upshot in the economics of the current economics of the auto industry is that to maximize the ROI for this car, there will inevitably be more variants. Definitely a convertible. Maybe a sedan. Just maybe, if we’re lucky, a shooting brake.

It is fashionable nowadays in the automotive press to stake out a position that brands oneself as the vanguard of automotive enthusiasm, defender of all that has “soul” and “character”, while admonishing the manufacturers for offering bland pablum instead of the exciting enthusiast machines that once existed. Ultimately these are just the ignorant ramblings of those who are unable or unwilling to understand the external forces that shape cars; macroeconomics, government regulations, demographics, geography, trade policies.  The auto industry is not a charity that produces widgets for driving enthusiasts. It is a business like anything else, and its output is directly related to the input.

Meanwhile, you can go to the dealer and buy an MX-5 that has barely risen in price, when taking inflation into account, since being introduced nearly 25 years ago. You can still buy an honest-to-god Made In Japan European-market Accord, or a sublime rally-derived Mitsubishi. You can finally buy a new Z car or a GT-R, two products we clamored for in the late 1990s. Now they’re here, along with the WRX , a product that we also cried out for not too long ago. Are things really that dire? Or are we so dissatisfied with our present that the only escape is to romanticize an era that should have never been?

Honda’s 2014 Odyssey doesn’t have any of the stuff that enthusiasts care about. Never mind the fact that it’s a minivan, but there’s no powertrain upgrades or shiny rims for its midcycle refresh. But you know what it does have? A vacuum cleaner. Honda partnered with ShopVac to create a vacuum cleaner for the Odyssey, one that can run indefinitely with the engine on, or for as long as 8 minutes with the engine off. If you have small children or pets, this is a god send. I won’t label it a game changer or say that Honda is about to dominate the minivan market, but it is going to sell a lot of buyers on the showroom floor when they see this.

It’s funny that despite their astounding sales success and frequent ingenuity, the automotive press persists with the “Honda has lost its way” narrative.  The CR-V is the top selling crossover. The Civic is the best selling compact car, and the third best selling car in the land 0 the Accord was in second place, behind the Toyota Camry. The Odyssey is the second best selling minivan, right behind the Dodge Grand Caravan. Among the top selling vehicles in the United States last year, three of the top 10 were Hondas, more than any other OEM. And they did it barely any fleet sales.

The CR-V is a great example. It frequently gets taken to task by the automotive media for being “boring/soulless/an appliance/whatever demeaning adjective” but I’ve long maintained it has three items that effectively sell the car to buyers; a standard backup camera, one-touch rear folding seats and a cargo floor that is at knee level. No amount of Skyactiv technology, stick shifts or European inspired handling can make up for those three things, not when all of them are directly functional in the context of grocery shopping or picking up the little ones from daycare. The proof is in the sales charts. On the other hand, it’s an interesting reflection on how relevant the automotive press is to the average consumer  and their needs. “Not at all” looks to be the answer.

Honda’s lineup may be boring, sterile and unattractive to the people who bought Integra GS-Rs in 1995. But for the people actually in the market for a new car, these are the things that make them sign on the dotted line. I may have lost faith that we’ll ever see another CRX or S2000, but if Honda keeps up this sort of ingenuity, they will be around long after other niche makers fall by the wayside during the industry’s inevitable consolidation.

They may not have western-style unions in China, but workers sure do strike. Workers at Honda’s transmission plant in Foshan, Guangdong Province, walked off the job on Monday after their pay increases weren’t as large as they had hoped.

According to The Nikkei [sub], Honda agreed to bigger raises, and workers were back on the job on Tuesday.

The Foshan transmission plan employs more than 2,000 employees. It was one of mostly Japanese- and Taiwanese-owned factories that were hit by a wave of strikes in 2010.

Ayrton Senna would have been 53 today. To celebrate the life of an extraordinary man, here’s a video of the world’s best racing driver piloting my all-time favorite car around Suzuka.

1988 CRX Si

My buddy John is one of the smartest guys I know and over the many years we have been friends John has always been a step or two ahead of most people, myself included. In 1988, when I was selling spark plugs and oil for just a scratch over minimum wage, John who is just a few months older than I, was writing computer programs and maintaining the data systems for a fairly large shipping company. He has always been a responsible, hardworking man but, to be honest, he is also a bit of a computer nerd.

Computer nerds and fast cars seem like an odd combination, but one trip to through the parking lot at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, WA will convince you otherwise. Fast cars and bikes are common and that isn’t because all these people have money burning holes in their pockets. The best programmers, John explains, are all about making machines go fast. To them, cars and computers are two sides of the same coin.

Uber-Nerd Bill Gates is reputed to own a Porsche 959

John was always a Honda guy. Growing up, his dad had several Honda N600s and prior to the CRX he had owned a 1979 Prelude. About the time I purchased my Turbo Shadow, John started looking for a new car himself and with me in tow we hit all the local car dealers. Since his income was a lot better than mine, we were able drive cars I could never afford and we had a great time. But eventually we came back down to Earth and found our way to the Honda shop where John soon fell in love with the CRX Si.

The CRX was a tiny black go-kart of a car. The dash was low and the giant windshield made it feel like you were sitting right on the pavement. The seats were rock hard and put you close to the floor with your legs almost straight out in front of you. The five speed transmission was slick shifting but the hydraulic clutch felt like a limp wristed handshake compared to the more manly clutch in my Shadow. The engine made around 105 horsepower and although the car was light and fairly fast, it never felt genuinely powerful. The whole package made it seem rather like a toy and to my youthful mind, that was a problem. Today I know better.

The CRX was a pure sports car. What it might have lacked in straight-line power, it more than made up for in the curves. The little car handled like it was on rails and, because John and I sometimes swapped keys, I soon found that I could carry a great deal of speed through the corners. It was a fun, slick little car and I enjoyed every chance I got to slide behind its wheel.

Click here to view the embedded video.

By 1992 I was in the Merchant Marines and John had taken a transfer to his company’s headquarters in New Jersey. Far away from his family and friends, John decided that the move wasn’t to his advantage and left the company. It took some time for him to find a new job after his return to Seattle and, as his finances began to suffer, he made the decision to sell the CRX. Sometimes, when it rains it does actually pour and John had a tough time selling the little car. He advertised it for several weeks and for resons unknown received scant interest. Eventually, he sold it to the son of a family friend for a fraction of its true value. Two weeks later, that young man totaled the car.

Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, I know now I should have bought John’s CRX. Not only would it have helped my friend in his time of need, it would have put me into another of those legendary cars from the late 80s. Knowing that the kid crashed it tears my heart out. Live and learn.

But it makes me wonder – If you had it to do over again, what is the car that you should have bought?

Thomas Kreutzer currently lives in Buffalo, New York with his wife and three children but has spent most of his adult life overseas. He has lived in Japan for 9 years, Jamaica for 2 and spent almost 5 years as a US Merchant Mariner serving primarily in the Pacific. A long time auto and motorcycle enthusiast he has pursued his hobbies whenever possible. He also enjoys writing and public speaking where, according to his wife, his favorite subject is himself.

Some things in life are just plain goofy when you start thinking about them a good bit.

Consider the lyrics to the Lynyrd Skynyrd anthem”Sweet Home Alabama”, coupled with Forrest Gump dancing with his childhood love.

Or Born In The USA as a song frequently used to further political candidates. When the lyrics point straight at the constant screwing of the common man by the powers that be.

Finally we have the Honda Accord. A car renowned for quality, and yet, enthusiasts bitch about it more and more with every succeeding generation.

This 1993 Accord is a testament to the ‘Best of the Best’ from days of yore. The last year for a generation of Accords that were arguably the most competitive ever built.

This paritcular one has 422, 421 miles. Other than leather seats, this EX wagon came with every possible option you could have for an Accord at that time.

Sliding moonroof, ABS, Power everything. The paint isn’t exactly showroom new but given 20 years and over 400k miles, we can overlook that non-fatal issue.

The only weakness these models had were a few of the sensors within the tranmsision. Every once in a blue moon they would go south. The enthusiast would visit a forum and find a cheap solution. The oblivious would go to the Honda dealer and get their financial brains blown out. Other than that, these vehicles helped make Honda dealerships as infrequently visited as the Maytag repair man before he got outsourced to the third world.

Some folks belive that this reality of wholesome all-encompassing goodness did not last. I agree to an extent Everything from broken odometers, mediocre ABS systems, to abysmal V6 automatic transmissions helped bring the Accord down a notch or two below the decontented Camrys of the common era.

But then again, those 3rd gneeration Camrys were not exactly as perfect as people make them out to be. I should know. I owned one for 12 years and between the groaning rear suspension, loose motor mounts, crappy oxygen sensors and Volvo 240-esque acceleration, I didn’t see a lot of love beyond the bulletproof powertrain .

Nevertheless, we do see this generation Accord and the 1992 – 1996 routinely put on the highest echelons of the quality pedestal. This raises another tough question.

What direct competitor out there has managed to match either of those two vehicles in terms of quality?

GM models with the 3.8 Liter engine from 2003 onwards have earned a rightful good reputation. But that’s perhaps a slither of good in a sea of average to worse.

Ford Tauruses with the Vulcan V6 can be durable. But quality? With that Wal-Mart interior? Not a chance!

The only Chrysler midsize sedan worth a shout towards quality would be the ones equipped with the 3.5 Liter engine. Then you would have to worry about the rest of the vehicle.

Mazda Automatics? Altima Engines and Automatics? Sonata? Optima? Galant? Legacy? Passat?

I do see glimmers of hope here and there. But other than the Taurus, I almost never see these cars frequent the top 25 mileage champions on a weekly basis. In my mind there is a reason for that.

An enduring repuation for quality is not an easy thing to achieve. From my viewpoint, you need to be two clicks above nearly every competitor when it comes to interior quality, ease of maintenance, and the longevity of the powertrain.

Has anyone else done it? You be the judge. The rest of us will be the jury.

Although wagons get their fair share of ribbing on TTAC (mostly to poke fun at the absurd declarations of arm chair product planners), the Honda Civic is yet another product that we won’t get here due to the business case not making sense. What makes it worse is that unlike, say, the Mazda6 wagon, the compact segment already has a few hatchback/wagon entrants available in North America.

The Civic Tourer, as it’s known, will go up against the upcoming VW Golf Wagon (sold here as the Jetta SportWagen) and the Ford Focus Estate (not sold here). The European Civic shares a name with the North American version and little else. And yes, it will have a diesel engine and a manual gearbox available.

Why lampoon the Mazda6 wagon and praise the Civic wagon? Surely, we must be biased. After all, that’s the default answer for any unfavorable analysis at TTAC. But it’s important to note that not all wagons, and their business cases, are created equal. The Mazda6 wagon is produced in Japan by Mazda, and an unfavorable exchange rate, capacity constraints and the prohibitive cost of federalization make the business case for the wagon a non-starter.

So what about the Civic? Why can’t Honda do it if Hyundai can import the European i30 as the Elantra GT? For one thing, the Elantra GT is built in the Czech Republic, where labor costs are far lower than Japan and the UK, where the Civic Tourer is likely to be built. The i30 was also designed to be sold globally from the get-go. The Civic, unfortunately, has been thoroughly localized, meaning this car has been designed with the European market in mind, and it’s unlikely to leave any time soon.  Once the most well known compact hatchback, Honda hasn’t fielded a two box Civic in years, ceding the market to Hyundai, Ford, Toyota and just about everyone else. What a shame. This Tourer is so much more attractive than the rest of Honda’s small car lineup.

As expected, sales of Japanese cars in China took a nosedive to levels not seen since the days after Japanese cars and dealerships were torched last September. Sales of Nissan and Toyota are down a whopping 46 percent. No, it’s not a new flare-up of anti-Japanese riots. This time, it’s the effect of the Chinese Lunar calendar.

In January, sales of all cars in China, including Japanese, were up compared to January 2012, simply because Chinese New Year fell into February. February sales of all cars will be reported as way down, simply because China was closed.

Instead of this whacko chart that shows January and February sales, and that does nothing except making people dizzy…

… we present you with consolidated sales for both months to get rid of the calendar effect. As you can see, five months after the anti-Japanese riots, sales of cars with Japanese nameplates are still hurting in the Middle Kingdom. There is a steady trend towards normalization, but it is tough slogging. Considering that the Senkaku/Diaoyu issue remains in the news in China, the Japanese crawl back to normal is remarkable. When all is said and done, and assuming no real flare-up, Japanese carmakers will have lost a full year of growth in China.

P.S.: I am looking forward to reading how the merry spinsters at GM sell their huge (calendar-induced) February loss of sales in China … Currently, mum’s the word.

When you have 120 dealers looking at the same exact car on a Monday morning, you have three options if you plan on buying a car.

1) Bid

2) Watch

3) Leave

After I saw a 2003 Infiniti FX35 with 220,558 miles sell for $9100 plus the auction fee, I left for good.

Right now we are in the midst of tax season. A time when millions of consumers get their tax refunds from Uncle Sam and, on average, spend it all within a 72 hour period. A few pay off their debts. A few more buy top of the line televisions, cell phones, and electronics. The rest put a thick down payment on an older used car that is now being financed for anywhere between three to six years.

A luxury SUV like the Infiniti can be sold for stupid money at the moment. We’re talking a $1500 down payment and about $85 a week for 36 months. On the miracle that the buyer makes a full payoff on the loan, you’re looking at about $15 grand in total once you calculate all the tax, tag, title, finance charges and assorted other bogus fees that are usually levied onto that number.

Is it a terrible buy for the consumer? Of course! But in the end, an affordable monthly payment in exchange for the impersonation of wealth is the only thing that will truly matter to them.

You may think this is a suckers bet par excellence, and you would be right.

But there are plenty of other suckers that were down the line last week. Consider these prices…

1999 Lincoln Town Car, Cartier Edition: $3200, 206,789 miles.

2002 Lexus ES300, scraped on one side: $3300, 274,166 miles.

2007 Chevy Tahoe LT, Rough interior: $11,000, 248,804 miles.

Who would finance any vehicle that is already well north of 200k?

A lot of companies will if the potential level of return is attractive enough. Dealerships will keep the riskier deals on their books for a few months, and then sell many of the potential dogs for a pre-determined price to a finance company. That company will, in turn, sell it to a Wall Street firm that will package it into a conglomeration of ‘asset backed securities’, where it will be given a credit rating. Then it will be marketed to a variety of buyers in the finance world far and wide.

Overheating? Why yes it does get hot here in Atlanta! How does $7995 sound?

Does this sound familiar to you? It should. Yes, these are the type of seeds that sprouted the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the near ruin of our economy. But the same mechanism of buying and selling these automotive assets also serves a vital purpose for every automaker that finances or leases their vehicles. 

Every automotive manufacturer has one thing in common. They want to sell their ‘paper’ so that they have the financial resources needed to keep building their business. Toyota, GM, Honda, VW, Nissan… even the smaller automakers such as BMW and Mazda require plenty of liquid cash to survive.

They can’t pay their people in IOU’s any more than the consumers who are currently financing their vehicles. So they will sell the paper to those buyers who are willing to accept the risks.

2013 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara – Built In The USA / Now Financed In China

There is no shortage of takers. This article offers plenty of the basics of the ‘prime’ world of automotive remarketing which historically involves selling far lower risk deals at reasonable returns.

But if you are to get one thing out of an obscure part of the automotive industry, read and dwell on this quote…

“For the most part we have seen a reversion back to the kinds of underwriting standards we saw five years ago, before the crisis, and for that we are not unduly concerned,” says Glenn Costello, senior managing director at Kroll.”

Mr. Costello may know a lot about the fundamentals of this business from a pure numbers perspective. But if I were a buyer of those securities, I would be real careful of buying anything that carries the same type of risk as the vehicles I saw go through the block.

The number of sub-prime deals for automotive asset backed securities has more than doubled in little over a year. The quality of those vehicles has not followed the same path. From what I see at the auctions, they are getting far worse in condition and mileage.

Are you underwater in your car? How about your trunk? $6995! Buy now!

I am not one to recommend shorting specific companies. But if I were to short anything in this business, it wouldn’t be an automaker. Not by a longshot.

I would be looking squarely at those companies that either retail to sub-prime customers, or finance companies that specialize in the higher risk areas of this market. When it comes to late 2014 and all the delinquencies begin to be removed from the credit reports of those who got hit during the last financial storm, you are likely going to see a swarm of new car buyers abandoning the crappy old sleds for new metal that may even cost less on a monthly basis.

Of course the loans will likely run in the six to eight year range by then. But hey! New wheels! And the cycle will begin anew.

It’s hard to swallow the fact that the above photograph of me perched on the hood of my father’s Integra GS-R, one of the all-time great Acura products, is now nearly 20 years old. I can’t even remember the last time I saw an Integra on the road. Most of those cars have been crashed, stolen, rusted out or some combination of all three. There is nothing remotely close to the three-door VTEC hatchback in Acura’s lineup right now – and if you ask some people, that’s exactly why Acura is in its current predicament.

At least Acura brass are fairly candid (well, as much as one can expect from a PR pro) about the brand’s current situation. Spokesman Mike Accavitti told Bloomberg

[Acura’s] “biggest negative is we are known as a value company in the premium space…what we have to do from a marketing perspective is ramp up the emotional element.”

Bloomberg’s article states that Acura is eschewing the conventional approach to expansion, namely, growing sales in China, in favoring of focusing on the U.S. market and rebuilding their reputation in America. The RLX is getting positive press (despite being a front-drive, V6 powered sedan, which many enthusiasts regard as poison in the luxury segment), but the replacement for the TL will have to do the heavy lifting. It’s also worth asking how far the $1 billion dollar investment will go, given that $1 billion is typically required to bring a single new model to market. It’s an impressive figure to throw around, but in the context of the industry, it’s not an enormous sum.

Many of us would argue that Acura’s lineup from two decades ago did provide that necessary excitement that’s been missing for so long. Sure, Acura may not have been what we now call a “Tier 1 luxury brand”, but neither were they derisively viewed as little more than tarted up Hondas (as many people seem to think now). But in those two decades, so much has changed.

The best example of how different things are now is Audi. What was once an absolute non-entity still reeling from a malignant smear campaign, into the chicest luxury car one can buy right now. Rather than follow the usual suggestions for rear-drive platforms, V8 engines and a general emulation of BMW, Mercedes or Lexus, the Audi example might be the best to follow; a slow, measured and deliberate climb to the top, rather than hoping for an overnight Hail Mary pass that will suddenly reverse the brand’s standing.

A weakening yen and a rebounding economy have occurred just in time for Honda. The auto maker is opening its first new Japanese plant in 49 years, bucking a trend by Japanese auto makers of opening new plants in every locale but Japan.

Numerous trends, including a shrinking population, a strong yen and the 2011 tsunami spurred Japanese auto makers to open plants across the globe as a hedge against those factors. Localization of production was the dominant theme of the last couple years, with Nissan, Honda, Toyota and even smaller players like Mazda busying themselves with establishing factories in North America and the BRIC countries.

Honda’s new plant in Yorii, an economically depressed city northwest of Tokyo, will still build cars solely intended for the Japanese market, rather than for export. While Yorii will build vehicles like the Fit for domestic consumption, Honda’s new Mexican plant will build that model for North American markets.

Contrary to lore, American cars are a hot export product that is in high demand abroad – as long as there are foreign badges on the Made in America cars.  For the first time, Toyota will ship U.S.-made Venza to Russia and China, says The Nikkei [sub].

Toyota will ship 4,000 Venza to Russia, 1,000 to Ukraine, and “several thousand” to China. By 2014, Toyota expects to be exporting 150,000 vehicles a year from the U.S., 20 percent more than in 2012.

In December, TTAC reported that transplants export cars in surprising numbers. BMW exported 70 percent of the 276,000 cars it built 2011 in Spartanburg, SC, helping South Carolina overtake Michigan as the No. 1 exporter of automobiles. Mercedes-Benz exports half of its cars made at its Birmingham, Ala. plant to countries outside NAFTA. Honda wants to become a net exporter of American made vehicles. At Nissan, “the numbers are trending toward Nissan being a net exporter,” a spokesman in Yokohama said.

All these exports create American jobs for Americans in America, and they improve the American trade balance.  In a few minutes, UAW operatives will tell you it’s all wrong.

Feeling the need to build a segment vehicle that slots below the CR-V, both in terms of size and price, Honda showed its Urban SUV Concept at the Canadian International Auto Show. To drive home the point that they are marketing this at young’uns, Honda amped up the hyperbole while Skrillex blared out of the main speakers onstage.

Described as having “vibrant character lines”, apparently it has “social seating favoured by young adults” while making use of Honda’s Magic Seats. This I can only imagine simply means that the damn thing will seat five and have a split-folding rear bench, not unlike every other SUV in existence. Doors on the Concept remained firmly shut, preventing anyone from seeing what this social seating actually looks like. If Honda really wanted seating that is favoured by young adults, they need only equip the vehicle with five iPads and an Xbox.

Based on the upcoming Fit, the Urban SUV Concept has a planned release date of 2014. This vehicle and the soon-to-be-restyled Fit will reportedly be built at Honda’s new plant in Celaya, Mexico.

One of the most enduring narratives in the past few years has been the idea that somehow, Honda has lost it’s way. The maker of affordable, high-quality and fun to drive cars had suddenly become a purveyor of bland appliances that were the furthest thing from what they built their name on.

I’d argue that those who only focus on the loss of the Integra Type-R, the S2000 and the double wishbone suspension are taking a short-sighted view of Honda as a company. If anything, they are carrying on in exactly the same manner as they always have – it’s just that they haven’t adapted to the unprecedented shifts that have occurred in the post-bailout car market.

To understand Honda, you have to look outside the enthusiast lore of Soichiro Honda, VTEC engines and Formula 1. Honda is, above and beyond everything else, the iconoclast in the Japanese market, the small company with an international mindshare belying that size. Soichiro Honda, the legendary namesake founder, was something of a rebel, having little time for the stifling conformity of post-WWII Japan. The Japanese government attempted to merge Honda with a number of smaller auto makers and stop them from exporting their cars to the states – a move Soichiro successfully fought, that led to the company being given permission to export their wares to America. Ever since, Soichiro’s unconventional views have defined the company.

Key among these is an unshakable conviction – some would say bordering on arrogance – that whatever Honda does is the right way, the only way to do things. View things through this lens, and a lot of their decisions begin to make sense. Why introduce a V6 Accord when the 4-cylinder model was selling in huge volumes and offered a superior driving experience? Why give Acura a V8 engine when Honda’s V6 was just as powerful and more efficient to boot? Why introduce a minivan when the Accord wagon was sufficient? And when we do, why not give it conventionally hinged doors and a 4-cylinder engine? This philosophy is summed up perfectly by Soichiro himself: “We do not make something because the demand, the market is there. With our technology, we can create the demand, we can create the market.”

From 1973 until the turn of the millennium  Honda’s convictions served them well. They rode wave after wave of success in America, selling every single car they could make, winning accolade after accolade, avoiding the recalls and scandals that plagued their competitors. If one subscribes to the narrative popular with us gearheads, then the mid-2000s are the start of Honda’s decline into beigeland. But this is a narrow-minded view that has little grounding in reality. Sales of Honda’s core products – the Accord, CR-V and Civic – have been exceptionally strong on a consistent basis. The CR-V, a vehicle so boring that even my own mother admitted that it was a dull drive, is the best example of how Honda’s ingenuity is far from dead. The little features, like the knee-high cargo floor, the multi-angle backup camera and the one-touch rear folding seats, are what the other 99.9 percent of buyers care about. Honda knows what side their bread is buttered on. But these days, Honda’s innovation and engineering skill manifest themselves in the Fit’s Magic Seat rather than the Prelude’s 4WS system.

So what about us? What about the people who yearn for something that’s exciting to drive and look at? Here, Honda’s legendary adherence to their convictions starts to border on arrogance. Having long believed in environmental stewardship before it was trendy (think 4-cylinder engines, light weight and the S2000 having LEV certification), Honda foisted upon us cars like the CR-Z.  Substantial tax breaks on hybrid cars in Japan created a situation where the rest of the world was forced to accept this oddball product. The fact that nobody wanted the car was immaterial. Honda felt that was the right thing to do, and that they could create a market for it.

This strategy may have worked in previous eras, but Honda wasn’t prepared for a fundamental shift in the car market – they no longer had a monopoly on good cars. Pick up a car magazine from a decade ago, and there was a clear stratification in commodity segments like the compact and mid-size segments. Back then, mentioning the Kia Optima and the Honda Accord in the same breath would have been a farcical notion. Ditto the Cavalier and the Civic. Now, one could make the case that the Optima and the Cruze are equal to their Honda counterparts, something that would have been previously unthinkable. The democratization of quality wiped out much of Honda’s competitive advantage.

Ironically, the 2012 Civic might be our best hope for a change in Honda’s attitude. Despite being a perennial whipping boy among the enthusiast press, the Civic sold in astonishing volumes. Even though it took substantial incentives and lease deals to move units, the Civic destroyed the competition, outselling the Toyota Corolla/Matrix (for sales ranking purposes, they count as one) by nearly 27,000 units. With 317,909 Civics sold in 2012, Honda beat Mazda’s entire sales total with one model alone.

If this were any other era Honda -the Honda of old, the one that retained CVCC long after catalytic converters had become old tech, the one that built a brand new factory for its all-aluminum, hand-built supercar –  would have given the press a giant middle finger and continued to pump these cars out. But they didn’t, because things are different now. They re-grouped, admitted they made a bad bet and tweaked the car after just over a year on the market. In the conservative, risk-averse culture of Honda that prizes saving face above all else, this is tantamount to an admission of gross incompetence. It may not be what we were hoping for, but the first step to fixing things is admitting that you have a problem.