Honda Motor Co. officially confirmed that all of its North American plants will resume normal production this coming December in the aftermath of an improvement in overall parts supply. The massive flooding that hit Thailand throughout the year heavily affected Honda’s production, forcing the Japanese carmaker - among other things - to temporarily shut down its assembly plant in the Thai province of Ayutthaya, a move that the led to a 4.7% loss of its global output.

Honda confirms that Thai floods continues to have some impact to its supplies, but a particular effort was made to re-establish the flow of components required by its plants in North America. The problem was mainly about electronic parts as Honda’s 6 auto assembly plants in the U.S. and Canada mostly use components produced locally. The production of new models Civic and CR-V can then go ahead as planned.

via | Reuters

....

0 comments

Following the news about the production cuts in North America, Honda will probably need to postpone the commercial debut of the new Civic as well because of the consequences of the recent Thai floods. Apparently, several suppliers of the Japanese carmaker based in Thailand have been heavily affected by the tragedy and will not be able to deliver the goods on time to Honda’s plant in Swindon, UK, where the new Civic will be assembled. The first models were supposed to be delivered in January, but logistic issues and delays will force Honda to postpone that to February, at least.

It is clearly a serious issue for the Japanese manufacturer as Civic and Jazz make up the core of its sales in Europe. In 2011 the current version of the Civic suffered a 30% sales decrease, and Honda was expecting to sell at least 100,000 units of the new version in 2012.

View the full 2012 Honda Civic photo gallery

....

0 comments

A huge official photo gallery of the new Honda Civic has been released by the Japanese carmaker. The new version of the Japanese compact hatchback boasts heavily modified aerodynamics and a number of subtle improvements, and will become available in Europe in early 2012 in its 5-door configuration only.

The first Civic line appeared in 1973, while the current incarnation debuted in 2006 (although it underwent a restyling in 2009), and this new version is basically a tweaked version of the latter, which was already a pretty radical improvement over its predecessor when it first came out. The most dramatic change - the one that really stands out a mile - is obviously the rear spoiler with built-in brake light spanning the rear window.

In Europe the car will use naturally aspirated 1.4 and 1.8 petrol engines (delivering 100 hp/127 Nm and 143 hp/174 Nm respectively) and a turbocharged 2.2 litre unit with output of 150 hp and 350 Nm. More aggressive engines are expected to join the fold at later time.

View the full 2012 Honda Civic official photo gallery

....

0 comments