Honda decides: I shoulda had a V-8!
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No major carmaker has weathered 2008 better than Honda,* and there’s little debate as to why: small, efficient cars like the Civic and the Fit. In fact, it’s been a point of pride at Honda that the company has never made a production engine larger than six cylinders.
That’s about to change. Honda officials have confirmed long-running rumors that the company is working on its first production V-8 engine, intended for use on its Acura RL flagship sedan. On top of that, the Japanese company is going to put a 10-cylinder monster into the unnamed car that will replace its NSX, due out in 2010.
Honda didn’t give a release date for the amped-up RL, but speculators put that at late 2010 as well. Putting a big motor in the RL makes sense on one level, since the current front-wheel drive model, with a 3.7-liter V-6, is out of step with the trend in luxury cars: rear-wheel drive with a V-8. That’s a bandwagon Hyundai jumped on this year with its 4.6-liter V-8 Genesis sedan, and one that competitors like Lexus (with three different V-8s in its sedans) have been riding for a while.
Honda’s CEO, Takeo Fukui, told reporters Monday that it was a matter of matching the competition. ‘I don’t think that the Acura RL 3.7-liter is sufficient. We can’t compete with other premium brands.’ Through September, sales of the Acura RL have declined 23% compared with last year, worse than Acura’s overall decline of 15%. That, in turn, is worse than the 13.8% decline for imported luxury cars in general.
Still, the idea that Honda is going to build the very kind of gasoline-sucking engine that has been such an albatross around much of the industry’s neck is a bit of a surprise....
... Honda assiduously avoided V-8s for years, even as the SUV boom swept the country, netting huge profit margins on the overpowered vehicles. While arch-rival Toyota began building supersized Tundra pickups with massive 5.7-liter V-8s in Texas, Honda sold its version of a pickup, the Ridgeline, with only a 3.5-liter V-6. Sure, Honda made racing V-8s for Formula 1 and other circuits, but nothing Joe the Plumber could buy.
Now, when consumers can’t get enough of subcompacts with engines that screech rather than roar, when Honda can’t build enough Fits and GM is making a new 1.4-liter four-banger, when Hummers and Durangos and yes, Ridgelines, sit unsold on dealership lots, the world’s largest engine maker decides to supersize?
-- Ken Bensinger
*Through September, Honda’s U.S. sales are down 1.1% compared with the same period in 2007, according to AutoData Corp. That’s better than any other automaker, with the exception of Subaru, up 3.8%. Subaru only has 1.3% of the U.S. market, however, compared to 9.7% for Honda.
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