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The Honda CR-Z hybrid sports car will be launched next February, as the car maker accelerates its hybrid launch programme in a bid to reverse falling sales.

Honda's new chief executive Takanobu Ito, who took office last month, made the announcement in his first public appearance today.

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The Honda CR-Z is the company's sportiest hybrid model yet, with Honda giving it more power and pe...Read the full article

So now we have at least a partial story of why they pulled out of F1....who in here said it was "down to money"....total RUBBISH

......which I got slatted for saying at the time i.e. I said they did not pull out due to money or lack of it and got panned for it......

There was another set of aspects as well as....which I also referenced......and more information came to light on that also reasonable recently......."it was down to money indeed".....it was not down to money at all!

 

Fantastic news for a great looking car, as long as it doesnt cost too much. But please Honda, can we have a manual instead of that awful CVT from the insight.

I totally agree with what you commented on the appearance of the car and I'd like to find out that why such an established company insists on producing and employing equipment which has proved unsuccessful and inefficient. And they still expect to increase their market share as if they have produced foolproof cars with attractive design. I still miss 1992 made accords, integras and civics which had concurred consumers with robust builds and optimum designs. I couldn't fit myself into an accord for a test drive. My head kept rubbing the ceiling and I felt the person's knees sitting behind me all the way. Is producing smaller and less sturdy cars a progress?

I'm so glad they are going to build this. It looked great at Paris... I really liked its stance. A model of this type has been missing from Honda's stable for too long now. Who could forget the wonderful little CRV of the 80's and 90's. I was always a fan of those. I look forward to seeing the production model. Hopefully like the Civic concept v's production they will retain much of what makes the concept so impressive. Mazda are rumoured to be working on an MX2, I wonder if Toyota will ever give us an MR2 successor. Preferably in the spirit of the original rather than the later models. I wonder will Nissan ever give us something in the same vein, i.e. a production Urge.

North:

So now we have at least a partial story of why they pulled out of F1....who in here said it was "down to money"....total RUBBISH

......which I got slatted for saying at the time i.e. I said they did not pull out due to money or lack of it and got panned for it......

There was another set of aspects as well as....which I also referenced......and more information came to light on that also reasonable recently......."it was down to money indeed".....it was not down to money at all!

 

It is certainly not rubbish i think your looking for evidence to support your old reasoning. they left F1 because they didn't have enough money. this new information supports this even further, they didnt have enough money to run the F1 team and to employ staff to develop the hybrid projects. if they had enough money they could have done both simultaneously. which Ferrari, McLaren etc are able to do because they have enough cash to employ all the resources they require for their chosen goals. Honda pay out for the Japanese F1 as hosts of suzuka, they do this as they are desperate to retain some link to F1. As soon as they have the money again they will be back in F1, i think in only a matter of a few years. aslong as they havent made a mess of their investments that is.

Toyota had to save money the other way they kept the team but scrapped hosting the track at fuji.

 

 

beachland2;...the question was not money, the question was resource i.e. "they wanted to accelerate the hybrid program"...."they took engineers from the F1 program and placed them on this"......to train an engineer takes between eight years minimum (inc. degree) and up to twelve years (inc degree) and even longer depending on what they are doing.

Thus if you want to speed up your program you moneyto consider (true) but you also have people.....you cannot just magic engineers....we engineers take a long time to grow!......hence you now have two choices.....? recruit stake loads (if you can find them and wait to pay huge sums out i.e. much more than normal..sellers market and all) or cull the F1 program and transfer all the engineers across instantly solving your problem.

Honda could afford to run the team, no doubt.....£300million let's say.....that really is not that bigger deal and when you also consider that other people could have sponsored the car and thus reduced the that bill......thus I am NOT reading something into it to support my own beliefs.....fact is one of simple resource in terms of skills and people.......that was the choice...not money; its as clear as the nose on your face....hope that helps.

Excellent looking car. Lets hope its as light as a CRX and then it'll perform like a sports car as well as looking like one. 130 bhp isn't a lot these days, and I can't see this audience being willing to make as many compromises as an Insight or Prius customer.

 I've seen it in Paris (Mondial).

It's an interesting design.