Honda’s biggest problem with hybrids and electrification is that they aren’t committed to the ethos of the original cars they are trying to emulate. The CR-Z should have been a successor to the CR-X, but it was too heavy to be any fun. The new NSX should have been a supercar for the price of a 911, but the new one is…

It turns out that the CRZ makes a great first car. It only has two seats, so my teenager won’t be driving around with a bunch of kids in the car. It looks sporty, but it’s all kinds of slow. It’s a Honda, so it should get her through college and beyond, with little more than routine maintenance. The hatch makes it…

A late and rather surprised arigato Andrew!

For a company that had the Insight to launch one of the first practical hybrids, I’m stunned at how Honda has stubbornly ignored what car buyers really want. They buy hybrids for MPG above all, not performance. The first gen Accord hybrid has a V6. The CRZ didn’t perform. The Civic hybrid could barely out-MPG a…

I still love the idea of the crz but it’s just bad at everything. The mpg or power doesn’t justify the hybrid (which in itself is an impressive amount of underperformance), and it was a two seater (in this country).

It’s just a less practical Fit that didn't exactly drive significantly better or get significantly better mileage. Honda really lost any direction after the original Insight, which is a shame. If there were any carmaker that was likely to give us a manual, fun to drive electrified car, it was Honda