Honda Civic 2.0 16v

Um ano em oito dias. A Honda já havia aproveitado o último Salão do Automóvel paulista para anunciar as novidades de seu sedã médio esperadas para o presente mês, mas ainda não se tinha idéia de que elas também fariam o novo ano/modelo do Civic chegar tão cedo. Se é difícil afastar o pensamento de que manter este ritmo levaria os japoneses a chegar ao próximo réveillon na metade de uma linha 2058, as melhorias aplicadas ao seu carro-chefe têm tudo para fazê-lo merecer a atenção (e a garagem) de muita gente.

Sedãs médios já foram o objeto de desejo de muito brasileiro. A reabertura das importações abriu os olhos do país às vitrines do exterior de um modo geral, mas aqueles anos 1990 ainda viam marcas como Nissan, Peugeot, Renault e Toyota lidar com uma presença de mercado deficiente e as consequências que isso trouxe. Por outro lado, as marcas de luxo começavam a tentar a sorte entre nós, mas enquanto elas ainda se restringiam aos sedãs, peruas e cupês de alto luxo os japoneses davam a volta por cima nos anos 2000. Fizeram suas fábricas brasileiras e nos contagiaram com sua fama mundial de qualidade e resistência, mas merecem elogios ainda maiores porque o fizeram com veículos médios. Claro que os escalados foram veteranos como Ciivic e Corolla pelo carisma que acumulam há décadas, mas começar a atuar no Brasil daqueles tempos sem um carro popular não deixava de ser uma jogada arriscada. Contudo, seja pelo estilo moderno, cabine luxuosa ou motores eficientes, os japoneses não só prosperaram como começaram a incomodar as nossas montadoras mais tradicionais, porque expuseram a defasagem de seus equivalentes – elas ainda produziam resquícios do que foram suas linhas de luxo de outrora, cujos argumentos de venda convenciam cada vez menos clientes a não olhar para aqueles novatos mais modernos e de preço bem parecido.

Tudo isso fez essa década chegar à segunda metade ostentando uma frota de sedãs médios com nível maior do que nunca. Câmbio automático, computador de bordo, teto solar... Vários desses itens começaram a se tornar frequentes no Brasil graças ao sucesso desses carros, que ofereciam o máximo de requinte antes de se fazer o enorme salto de preço à seara de BMW ou Mercedes-Benz - era uma época em que marcas como a Ford não se aventuravam a subir com carros como o Fusion, e as do nível da Audi não cogitavam brigar no segmento do A1. Ou seja, o “luxo acessível” do Brasil se formava com nomes como Bora, Focus, Marea, Vectra e as gerações contemporâneas dos japoneses mencionados. Isso lhes deu a adoração de uma clientela sóbria, feita por empresários de meia-idade e em geral de situação financeira confortável, dando aos tais sedãs a reputação de "carros de patrão" ou, como satirizava a antiga campanha do Nissan Sentra, "carros de tiozão". E como toda clientela fiel, agradá-lá demandou que as montadoras respeitassem certas preferências. Você lembra, por exemplo, de quando nossos carros só emplacavam no mercado usando duas portas? Situação parecida é o que começou com os motores há uns vinte anos.

A razão pode ser a excelente fama de exemplos como o AP-2000 da Volkswagen, o Família I da Chevrolet ou os multiválvulas com e sem turbo da Fiat, ou mesmo o desejo de contraposição à fama de “carro barato” associada aos 1.0, mas o fato é que os motores 2.0 viraram o perfeito complemento à imagem de luxo que os modelos médios têm no Brasil, especialmente os três-volumes. Os benefícios do downsizing hoje já conseguem estender a boa aceitação aos 1.8, mas abaixo disso somente se tiverem algo de muito especial - é o caso dos 165 cv do 1.6 THP usado por Citroën e Peugeot. A Honda aplicou seu novo motor em estratégia parecida à do Corolla, com o 1.8 16v de agora restrito à versão LXS (R$ 66.690). Já a novidade se destina às duas superiores, que trocaram de nome para LXR (R$ 74.290) e EXR (R$ 83.890). Trata-se de um 2.0 16v i-VTEC flex de 155 cv de potência e 19,5 kgfm de torque (com etanol) com sistema para aquecer a gasolina em dias frios, dispensando o tanque secundário e sua tampa ao lado do capô. Ele também traz o modo Econ e seu botão verde no painel, e sempre estará associado ao câmbio automático de cinco marchas, cuja opção de trocas sequenciais se fará por borboletas atrás do volante. Além disso, a versão LXS ganhou um novo câmbio manual com seis marchas e mantém a opção do automático (R$ 69.900).

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Honda Civic 9,5

An unusual phase number for an unusual phase update. For someone who doesn’t live in the US this may sound odd, specially in countries that also sell Civic, but the North-Americans have criticized this car so hard that Honda needed to perform a last-second facelift in order to solve these problems before they affected the car’s solid reputation. After lots of media speculations of all kinds, the last Los Angeles Auto Show finally received the official version of the “new new Civic”, which you will meet reading this article.

Since the last generation, Honda decided to create different versions of their best-seller, in order to suit each market’s particular needs of body, engine and equipment options, along with minor visual differences. But nobody knows what Honda thought when configuring the North-American version, because this car was criticized by everyone. The design resembled too much the previous generation, the interior had bad coating and assembly quality, the handling became worse, there was too much internal noise… This car started to lose the awards it was used to receive every year, so Honda needed to act quickly to stop their compact sedan from losing sales to competitors like Chevrolet Cruze, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra, Mazda 3 and Toyota Corolla. The Japanese response came with facelifting the entire line only eighteen months after the current generation’s release, surprising everyone because they brought heavy changes: the pictures show the sedan has changed the front and rear style, with more chrome details whose inspiration was taken from the new Accord and bring a more sophisticated appearance to the car. The overall impression is a more mature car, which still haven’t abandoned the previous generation’s style but now uses a different interpretation of it: instead of that raw Japanese sportivity, Civic now follows a North-American elegance.

That facelift didn’t apply to the coupe version, though. What the entire line has received is the series of small-but-very-important updates to the interior. The peculiarly-shaped dashboard received better materials (including some leather parts), improved assembly and a new, more classy design for the air-conditioner’s outlets and buttons. Besides all that, Honda states that Civic received thicker windshield and bigger soundproofing in several areas, in order to reduce the internal noise. They also included some new technologies in this car, such as electronic systems for lane-departure and forward-collision warnings. When it comes to the trim levels list, the DX entry-version is no longer offered, leaving to LX the title of cheapest one available. Honda took this opportunity to maintain the previous LX’s equipment level, and allow itself to announce that every Civic now comes with more items – with all the optional ones, this list includes GPS navigation, Bluetooth connection and multi-view auxiliary cameras. This update is interesting because the deepness of those improvements is usually performed by other brands only at half-age facelifts, when the car has spent about three or four years in the current generation but it’s still too soon to invest in a complete new phase. Therefore, all this effort is a nice way for Honda to reconquer their customers’ approval.

However, as in almost every facelift of that kind there weren’t changes to the engine department. The standard option is the 140-hp four-cylinder 1.8 with a five-speed manual or automatic transmission, but Civic can also use the 2.4 with six manual speeds. These options also apply to the coupe version, which received only the interior updates. This means it still features a sporty design, with well-proportioned volumes to avoid a big-vehicle impression: it may not be the most powerful option of its category, but doesn’t seem visually heavy like a coupe Elantra would look like. Besides that, the Si version was also updated, adding the classic aerodynamical kit with side spoilers, more aggressive bumpers and that big rear spoiler – this area became a little confusing with this typical sports-car-item right above the chrome line which almost every sedan since the 1980s has used to join its tail lights. And at the top of Civic’s huge versions list, there are not one but two gasoline-opposers: the hybrid version pairs a 1.5 gasoline engine with the electric one to generate 110 hp and the excellent 44 mpg rate, using a CVT transmission. Besides that there’s the Natural Gas version, restricted to compressed natural gas, with 32,5 average consumption; the common versions achieve 32 mpg with manual and 33,5 mpg with automatic transmission, while Si stays at 26,5 mpg always with six-speed manual transmission.

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Honda Brio Amaze

The strategy of showing “teasers” few days before a car release is proving itself very successful for the automakers, when it comes to increase the media and public’s interest. The simple posting of a picture or a video on the Internet showing only a part of the about-to-arrive vehicle is enough to attract the world’s curiosity, no matter if it’s a super sports car or a low-cost hatchback. That’s what Honda used to attract the spotlights to their compact sedan, which will try to prosper in a very competitive market, at many countries.

In the past few years, the multi-category brands have understood that although the emergent markets’ car demands are very particular, these countries return their fulfillment with surprising sales, frequently comparable to what they get on their homelands with more expensive vehicles. Mazda already sells Mazda2, Mitsubishi created Mirage with big focus at the efficiency, Toyota released Etios, and now Honda follows this track with Brio. Their idea is to repeat their brands’ quality at construction, durability and technology, but with some concessions in order to offer the cheapest final price it’s possible. Competitive pricing really is a strong sales argument, but the average customer became each time more demanding, in all categories. In nowadays, the cheap cars have to keep low prices but without “seeming” it: they can’t have black bumpers and small wheels anymore, for example. Besides that, the interior needs to offer the biggest space it’s possible, and with big trim levels at the most expensive versions – those are the very particular demands that countries like Brazil, China and India present for their low-budget categories. But there’s one more aspect that these customers appreciate very much, and therefore makes a huge part of these cars’ success: the design.

If the buyers want their car to resemble more sophisticated ones, they expect it to start this by the exterior. Some take advantage of their brands’ visual identity, such as the latest Fiat Palio and Chevrolet Onix (both created in Brazil), with good proportions and no external parts shared with other cars, avoiding drawing freedom losses. These came precisely from two of the best-selling brands in one of the most experienced country when it comes to small cars, which denotes all the expertise they have. And here lies the Japanese problem, which was those other brands’ issue decades ago: as these cars are their very first incursions among the low-cost category, they still don’t have experience with them. So their first idea is to adapt what’s already done with the more expensive ones, but the problem is that it doesn’t work as the first impression may think. The size differences make some elements look good in some cars but not in others, not to mention the customer kind each car will have – try to imagine Hyundai Equus with Mini Cooper’s round headlights or Peugeot 107 with the first Land Rover Discovery’s roof windows, for example. When it comes to Brio, the original hatchback wasn’t already the best design example to remember, but what makes the sedan worse is the wrong choice of the elements.

The front needs to be short but keeping good space for the engine, so it’s a little tall. But using a very small central air intake with big headlights and big lower intake with large blank spaces between than gives the overall impression that these parts are “lost”, visually disconnected. The very strong creases at the side give a dynamism sensation at bigger cars, but in this sedan seem only too heavy. And the back would really deserve credit for the sophistication idea of the chrome details, if it wasn’t for the very, very small size seen at the pictures. The intention of projecting a small-scaled Civic or Accord is good, but this result seems like a squeezed version of those – at the side photo, have you seen how the roof falls to the trunk? Entering the car, its central console’s can’t be described without using “weird”, but the big internal space is a pleasant fact, along with the sophistication given by the three-colored coating and items such as the multimedia sound system. This car’s sales will begin with Thailand, going later to India, Indonesia and Malaysia. When it comes to the performance, it’ll maintain Brio’s 1.2 16v, with i-VTEC valve command and 90 hp with manual or CVT transmission options, but a very nice feature is the Econ mode: as in many other Honda vehicles, activating it changes several driving parameters to reduce fuel consumption.

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Honda Crosstour 2013

Some articles ago this blog has mentioned the huge importance of respecting each market’s preferences when it comes to cars, due to the simple reason of this being how to give the customers what they want. The eighties have proved that imposing the same vehicle to many countries doesn’t sell well, although the mathematics prove that sharing parts between several cars reduces production costs. This “economical art” is what stimulates the release of cars such as the Nissan Titan of said article, and the crossover you’ll read about here.

Crosstour is a good example of that combined strategy because it filled a gap in Honda’s North-American showroom without demanding an exclusive project. In other words, if CR-V is a small crossover and Pilot is a full-size SUV, they managed to put the new car between them in size and with a much more sporty proposal, so the three don’t converge into attracting the same public, using no more than the US Accord’s platform. This car is a conceptual rival for Toyota Venza, and both of them work as cheaper versions of BMW X6’s idea: starting from the typical crossover base, they exchange the five seat’s space for a much more casual style, giving a urban look instead of resembling an SUV. 2013 will see a slightly facelifted Crosstour, whose biggest visual changes are a cleaner-designed and more imponent front. The front and size pictures show that this car has a really elegant resemblance with the youngest Accord and Pilot, but Honda’s problem was don’t knowing when to stop: there’s a black plastic part right above the rear license plate, which tries to remind CR-X’s (and its hybrid successor CR-Z’s) two-party windshield – besides those cars used this solution to improve the aerodynamics, splitting it with a big spoiler makes this area unattractive to a crossover with much bigger size.

However, it’s undeniable that Honda’s crossover is very stylish. This fastback-like design gives it a bigger dynamism sensation than Venza and even X6 because those ones have taller rear ends. But if they haven’t done their best with the rear design, the interior has improved a lot. There are design changes to give a “tougher look”, material changes to improve the overall quality and a new multimedia entertainment system, with a big touchscreen on the central console. Opening the hood reveals the biggest improvement: Crosstour has received the new Earth Dreams engines. This new family uses lots of technology to reduce consumption and emissions, and here is shown with a 192-hp 2.4 and a 278-hp V6 3.5, this one with full traction available. Those are a more sophisticated interior and more efficient engines to a car which preserves the huge internal space seen at the pictures. Since this car’s sales are exclusively focused in North America, it makes total sense that Honda showed the concept-car at the last New York Motor Show and now plans to show the official version at the Los Angeles show. Its sales will begin right after, starting from US$ 27.230.

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Honda N-One

Yesterday was an important day to Honda Japan. That market received the third member of their N-Series vehicles, right after N Box and N Box +. The very first glance at N-One could label it as only one more kei car, a very famous category at that country, and in fact it doesn’t deny that. However, this hatchback not only avoids one strong feature of those cars as takes the opportunity to make Honda’s debut at another kind of cars, this one very well-accepted worldwide. You can discover all about that by reading this article.

Kei cars became popular in Japan due to their particular needs. Their main characteristic is the very compact size, which leads to require smaller engines and ending at a cheaper final price. This kind of car emerged after the Second World War, when Japan was starting to reconstruct itself but its population still couldn’t afford many luxuries, such as a full-size car. The kei-cars’ first utility was related to providing simple and non-expensive transportation to people and companies but bringing the cars’ advantages in relation to motorcycles. Since that time the Japanese government gave tax privileges to those cars in exchange of respecting conditions such as engine and size limits – for instance, the first kei engines couldn’t be bigger than 150 cc. But the following years saw frequent increases of those limits in order to stimulate the automakers to invest more on them, and the results came gradually. Daihatsu, Honda, Suzuki and Subaru, among many others, developed better vehicles and started to estabilish a concrete market around those cars, which by that time started to gain at sophistication. This category survived the following years with ups and downs, but their cars received items such as turbo engines, automatic transmission and even full traction.

The latest upgrade received by the kei cars is exactly what N-One brings under its little hood, a 660 cc engine. Today they became much more an urban need than an emergency solution like decades ago, due to the fact that if Japan has already fully rebuilt itself, now it deals with an increasing number of people living at the same area than before. That’s what makes the kei cars attractive still in nowadays, because they now represent one compact way of transportation and without leaving the initial low-cost premise. However, if the Japanese are very used to see lots of those cars every day, they surely join the Western opinion that the kei cars aren’t any design-contest winners. But this doesn’t come as a complaint at this case because the prevailing feeling is admiration. Those cars always look like little boxes because they do their best to still offer the best internal space possible, which implies forgetting exterior volumes and reliefs that would take more space – those cars need to be small and offer a reasonable cabin, so everything else is compressed. N-One still can’t be acclaimed as some sort of sexy car, but it takes inspiration from the 1960s N360, one of the very first Honda kei cars. That’s why the new line is called N-Series: Honda not only releases a new hatchback as enters at the worldwide famous retro car trend, captained by Fiat 500, Mini Cooper and VW Beetle.

Besides the small size, N-One takes inspiration at the design, showing a nice reinterpretation of that car which used very small lights and the typical Japanese rearview mirrors of that time, fixed next to the front end. However, the new car has all the technology used by its brand in nowadays, and this is reflected specially at the interior, which boasts a big central touchscreen to control functions such as the sound system or some driving parameters. N-One’s 0.66 uses three cylinders with option of turbo, and can also bring full traction – according to the company, the most powerful can compete with an 1.3’s performance. It would be really nice for Honda to have their own car among the retro category, due to the increasing sales generated by those participants and the more modern ones, like Audi A1, Citroën DS3 and Opel Adam. However, the restriction of being a kei car is stronger than the stimulus of entering a worldwide prosper category: those cars follow standards only important in Japan. Offering a car that small would put N-One in drawback against more spacious and sophisticated rivals, whose public doesn’t mind paying more for it. That’s why the kei cars have never achieved success at the attempts of leaving their homeland, and why N-One probably won’t try to break this implicit rule. But the more optimistic car fans can always hope that Honda decides to reinterpretate a Western car to sell it at the rest of the world.

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Honda Fit Twist

Conciliar estratégias corporativas com as diferenças de preferências de cada mercado é um dos maiores desafios que as grandes marcas de carros enfrentam nos dias de hoje. As frequentes análises do comportamento de vendas que essa tarefa requer podem demandar investimentos significativos, mas quando realizados de forma correta quase sempre trazem vendas satisfatórias. A Honda faz sua aposta nessa estratégia ao apresentar no Salão do Automóvel seu primeiro modelo desenvolvido exclusivamente para o Brasil.

Muito já se falou sobre a impressionante ascensão dos aventureiros urbanos em nosso mercado. Essa tendência ganha destaque porque sua difusão se fez tanto como versões de modelos já existentes como motivando a chegada de carros totalmente novos, compondo um extenso clube com membros de Fiat Mille Way a Ford EcoSport. A receita inicial era partir de um carro urbano e dotá-lo de um leve potencial off-road, composto por suspensão elevada, apliques plásticos pelo exterior e peças como farois de longa distância, estribos laterais ou mesmo estepe preso na tampa traseira, para obter um ar de SUV sem se afastar dos custos reduzidos dos carros de rua. Mas o passar dos anos viu a preferência dos clientes rumar ainda mais apenas para o lado do design, que sempre foi um item muito bem tratado pelos membros deste grupo. A nova versão do Fit vem justamente reforçar essa nova leva de pseudo-aventureiros, que evitam investir em alterações mecânicas porque julgam que sua clientela busca apenas o estilo diferenciado das versões urbanas. Ela também permite ao pequeno Honda competir diretamente com Nissan Livina X-Gear e Fiat Idea Adventure, ainda que somente a primeira compartilhe o nível superficial das alterações – a minivan italiana incorpora aquelas peças extras já mencionadas e até o opcional do diferencial autoblocante.

Assim sendo, a versão do Fit que compartilha nome com a dança eternizada por Chubby Checker nos anos 1960 deixa de lado qualquer intenção de se enveredar pelas trilhas mais acidentadas em prol do seu padrão de dirigibilidade, que segundo a marca veria efeitos negativos ao usar pneus de uso misto ou suspensão mais alta. Em vez disso ele apostou em acessórios de muito bom gosto, como o estreito aplique de plástico que circunda a borda inferior do carro, lanternas cromadas, farois com máscara negra, rack de teto, belas rodas de liga leve de 16” e parachoques exclusivos: ambos garanham um protetor preto na parte inferior, que carrega os farois de milha na frente e os refletores de segurança atrás. Ainda não se sabem maiores informações sobre o interior do veículo, mas não se esperam mudanças profundas demais. O Fit Twist usará o já conhecido 1.5 16v, que gera potência de 116 cv e torque de 14,8 kgfm com etanol. Ele custará R$ 57.900 com câmbio manual e R$ 60.900 com automatizado CVT. Como o modelo foi lançado oficialmente no Salão do Automóvel, suas vendas devem começar em breve.

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