HOT CARS: A new survey of the...

HOT CARS: A new survey of the cars Orange County likes to drive shows Honda at the top (D5), replacing Ford. . . . Overall, Japanese cars did well, a resurgence that Irvine auto executive Bob Tuttle says took place because “they are faster than domestic makers in redesigning their models.” One example: the essentially unchanged Ford Taurus dropped off the top 10 list. But Ford’s Thunderbird, beefed-up with a V-8 engine in ‘90, rose to eighth place from 10th.