Cars! Cars! Cars!

Honda Falls

How did Honda fall so far so fast? With the release of the photos of the Crosstour, one has to wonder who quit in the last few years since the original Acura TL was released.

Seriously, how many ugly vehicles does Honda (we're including Acura) make now?

• Accord
• Crosstour
• Pilot
• Insight
• Element (which we sorta like, but it's not a pretty thing to look at)
• Acura TL
• Acura RL
• Acura TSX

They don't make too many more vehicles that those... All we know is that it's time to bring back the NSX. Yeah, the one from 1991. That was damn near perfect.

Referenced articles

autoblog: Officially Official: This is your 2010 Honda Accord Crosstour

TL Hurts Acura

Everyone knows it's ugly. Everyone. Every. Single. Person. Knows. It's. Ugly. Check out this made-up overheard on the street:

Cars! Cars! Cars! representative: Hi, do you know...
Dude on street: The TL is ugly.
CCC: Really? What else?
Dude: And it will hurt sales.
CCC: Is this a secret?
Dude: No, everyone knows it.

See? There you have it. So far this year, TL sales are off about 35% and this updated beast ain't a-gonna help. We'll check in with TL sales in six months to see how it's doing, but it'll be worse.

Referenced articles
NY Times: Pace. Space. But Oh, That Face.

Cars! Cars! Cars! Parking Lot

When a writer begins to stray from the topic:
Today on Mother Proof: 2008 Audi A8 Reviewed. Hey, we're not throwing stones, we do it, too, but we expected more from Mother Proof. If you are dropping this kind of coin on a car, the kids ride with the nanny.

Aw, hell, damn, fart! Next-Gen Acura RL to get a V8 and RWD-biased SH-AWD. Is nothing sacred anymore? What made Acura special is that they didn't fall into the whole V8 movement. And it could have proved pretty dang smart as fuel begins its creep up to $5 by June '09. And this thing'll probably need premium. How the hell you gonna swing your double freakin' mocha latte?

Frakkin' yay! Lincoln likely to kill LT truck. Now to get Cadillac to drop the horrific EXT and we'll be on to something (sales are down 35% anyway... just drop it!)

Oh, as if this wasn't predicted a couple of years ago! (Ha! Get it? We called this sukka years ago when sales were even better than a paltry 2.25 a week or whatever the hell it is) Daimler Mulls Closing the Doors on Maybach. Why did the Maybach fail? Because it was brought over as a first-class passenger on the Queen Elizabeth II? No, despite the grand entrance, the car has no presence. So much so that decent design (again, no presence but a decent design) and moved it to Mercedes' S-Class. Boom! Maybach without the cos... Hell, S-Class is more than we can swing unless we get into Summer. Summer has presence.

Report: NSX Will Run On Enstienium!

Well what would you call it? Winding Road reports: Japan Report: Acura NSX Powertrain Taking Shape.

A supercar (500+hp) that gets over 23 mpg surely must run on some super exotic fuel. And, yes, we're aware that in normal cars 23 mpg is shite, but for a car in this class it's really something.

Think Honda can do it?

Now before you 'vetties get up in a tizzy, we're aware that the Corvette Z06 generates 505hp gets 26 mpg on the highway. It's very, very impressive. However, the Z06 is only rated for 16 in the city... still, pretty impressive. Go GM!

V-8?

Is Honda slapping its head, going, "I shoulda had a V-8?" Man, we're hoping not. Winding Road reports: Report: Honda Mulling Production V-8 For Acura. We've been proud of Honda for showing restraint and not following the bigger is better crowd, but we're first to admit that sales may have suffered because of it.

We hope for everyone's sake that if Honda does come out with a V-8 that it blows everyone away with it's prodigious amounts of power, awes us with its lack of emissions, and wows us with its fuel economy. Otherwise, it's more of the same and no one needs that.

Diesels Done Fer?

Man, the car world is so weird. Here we got Edmunds reporting: Honda to launch diesel Odyssey & Acura MDX in US meanwhile VeeDub's pulling 'em out: Autoblog reports: VW to drop several diesel models next year. It's pollutin' reason, not a demand reason. It's a shame, too, because diesels use less fuel. We hope VW can re-work the engines in order to meet the new emissions standards. So how is that Honda can bring in all these other diesels? They don't spew out the same crappola?