Re:Honda will use GM’s self-driving technology, invests in C...
by ProfessorLayton on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @07:08PM
(#18135557)
I won't claim to know what their current philosophy is, but I do think that going their own way is in large part what made them notable to begin with. They were known as the quirky Japanese automaker that made fun-to-drive (for the $$) cars. They did things like:
- S2000: A powerful and lightweight naturally aspirated car with an insane redline of 9,000 rpm!
- VTEC was Honda's solution to keeping displacement down, without sacrificing power and efficiency, and what made their engines so buzzy.
- They were first to the hybrid game with the Insight (gen 1), beating Toyota's Prius to the market.
- Until the early 2000s they were putting double-wishbone suspensions in their econoboxes. This is no longer the case, to the disdain of car enthusiasts and modders.
You'll notice that they've stopped doing/stopped coming up with quirky innovations, leading them to become just another automaker.
I asked my friend last week if his new generator was a Honda, and he told me it was a Subaru -- which was basically just as good since Honda just contracts out to Subaru for building all their small engines, anyway.