Re*Move: Launches

Honda is more than just a car company. In last month’s Automobile Magazine, Jean Jennings summarizes the countless Honda products owned by the Automobile team, saying “You’ll see from the following list that most of us feel an affinity for things powered by Honda.” While most people know Honda as a car or a bike company, you’ll also find Honda behind robots, boats, power tools, ATVs, lawnmowers, generators… the list is endless.

Britain’s favourite motoring personality – Jeremy Clarkson - is fond of reminding people that in the past 13 years, there has not been a single known failure of the Honda VTEC unit. And as far as we know, the 2.0 motor in the outgoing S2000 still (9 years after it first went on sale) produces the highest specific output per litre of any normally-aspirated engine of a car on sale in the UK today. We in the world of Re*Move have a degree of Honda affinity too. Mark’s dad drives a Jazz, and two months ago I came within a whisker of buying a new Civic Type R – before an enforced and unexpected house move gobbled up the money instead.

So while Toyota is busy getting all the green plaudits for its all-conquering Prius, its Japanese competitor is busy trying to work out how it can wean people off VTECs and make hybrids an affordable reality for the masses. Tough one. Having arguably got there first with the original Insight, Honda’s been stung by the success of the Prius, and hit back with the look-a-like Insight. It’s a look-a-like that costs around £3000 less than its Japanese counterpart though – and although the mainstreem motoring press appear to have decided it drives poorly, our week with the car suggested it was certainly no worse than the outgoing Toyota equivalent.

However, Honda knows that if it really wants to take hybrid technology mainstream – and we'll come on to the fact that it really does – it needs to appeal to a much wider audience than those who drive the Prius/Insight shape purely for its “look at me – aren’t I green” smugness badge.

Honda announced earlier this week it planned to put the CR-Z hybrid sports coupe into production

So earlier this week, Honda announced its intention to build the CR-Z. Unveiled at the Tokyo motorshow in 2007, this diminutive white coupe with the gaping beak has been Honda’s vision of how to make the hybrid appeal to people who actually like cars, which it has shown at countless motor shows over the past few years. Now it's actually going to build it, next year. And it’s part of a wider strategy by the company to hybrid-ise its line up, making sure a much higher proportion of the cars it sells in future are propelled – in-part – by batteries. Prior to the announcement on the CR-Z being made public, we sat down with John Kingston – Honda UK’s Government affairs and environment manager to get the full low down on Honda’s plans. What he has to say makes for interesting watching:

While the hybrid car is currently looked on as the automotive equivalent of mogadon, to see Honda attempt to push it into a ‘sports car’ bracket will make for interesting times. While it uses essentially the same drive-train as the distinctly unsporty Insight, Honda promises that the CR-Z will be much a more entertaining, zestful experience – one which pays worthy tribute to the revered CR-X whose styling and conception it references. Yet it's unlikely it’ll rev to 9000 rpm, and give you that adrenalin rush (and forward momentum kick) as it passes 6k, as the Type R or S2000 do today. That leads many to be cynical that this company, so famed for its engines, can make a hybrid sports car work. But we remain hopeful. In a sign that Honda still has a firm eye on making cars that are fun to drive, Takanobu Ito became the company's new CEO and President last month. Unlike so many car companies today, he does not come from the purely financial or management side of the business - he’s a chassis designer.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 16th July 2009

Images: Difficult is worth doing ad - Joseph Simpson, CR-Z Norris Wong on flickr under creative commons license.

The new Jaguar XJ, Saatchi gallery, Chelsea, London - July 10th 2009

Sticking with our Callum brothers theme today, Jaguar chose Chelsea in central London as the place to launch its new XJ last week. This big cat is what Jaguar's design boss Ian Callum calls a return to the values of Jaguar during the William Lyons era - to "produce the most exciting cars in the world". Callum, impressive and passionate, described the launch of this new car as a "tipping point for the Jaguar brand - one Britain should be proud of".

Tipping points are tricky to pinpoint and if I was asked what was tipping right now, I'd say it was luxury car sales - off a cliff. But Jaguar is buoyant and claims modest recent sales growth, while other makers universally tanked.

But while the wealthy car buyer is feeling rather less flush, he or she now has something entirely new to angst about. Despite looking from assorted angles like a Maserati Quattroporte, an XF, a Lexus SC (ouch), a Citroen C6, Granada Scorpio, Hillman Avenger and a Morris Marina Coupe, the Jaguar XJ is a quite lovely thing. In a great BBC TV moment this April, writer Michael Smith's documentary "Me and My Car" featured a scene where Smith sank into the passenger seat of a vintage Jag saloon and said "I'd like to get pissed in this car". Clearly Callum was listening. "People are gonna have a good time in a Jaguar" is his boast. I'd get pissed in the back of this car any day of the week.

The car's got some neat, really focused technology, too - without getting silly. As the great Jean Jennings said to us recently, "If it doesn't make me drive better, make it go away." All of the dash instruments on the XJ (the bit in front of the driver with the speedo, etc) are a screen, with the dials all digitally rendered. In demos it looked fantastic and it's a flexible place where info like where to turn left and what music is playing appears. It's also the place where prompts appear for the voice command features. This is infinitely preferable to putting that stuff in the centre console, as Joe and I had to endure recently in the nervous-breakdown-inducing Ford Sync system.

There's other cool stuff, too. A huge 'dual angle' video screen in the centre dash which can display two different images at the same time, with each appearing clearly to driver and passenger. Which is, well, just so much fun.

The body is aluminium, so is as light as its smaller, steel sister, the XF. The 3.0 V6 diesel is claimed to do more than 40 miles per gallon, gets to 60 mph in 6 seconds and emits 184 grams of CO2. Which is pretty impressive.

Jag has also focused on making the hi-fi sound really good. While recognising you will probably bring your iPod along. But it has a hard disc that rips CDs uncompressed and has a Gracenote database.

But back to those looks, which have thrown the cat amongst the pigeons. Although Jaguar has been saying for months that the new XJ was radical, no one was totally prepared for this long, fast-back look, complete with blacked-out D pillar and a rear end that marks a complete departure for Jaguar design.

Never before has an aspect of a Jaguar's design caused so much kerfuffle...

There's an old adage which says never judge a car's design purely from photos; wait until you've seen it in the flesh, and even then - make sure you see it moving, on the road, and in traffic before you make a true call on the design. This is truly a design to which this applies. I sat at the launch breakfast on Friday morning riveted to the thing rotating in front of me, trying to decide whether it was beautiful. I've concluded that the XJ is quite a looker - with much less of the heavy, lumpiness around the rear three quarters than seems in the photos and with a rear haunch that does, as Callum claims, make it very coupe-like.

If you, too, fancy staring open mouthed at the thing revolving, you can watch this video I took. And below is a (car-nerd-level) outline by design director Ian Callum talking us through the design.

And if you still haven't made your mind up about whether that rump works or not, check out some of our detailed shots in this photoset (click anywhere on the photos to link through to the original flickr set):