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One might think, now that I have officially become OLD that I would tire of always being right but ya know what? Yeah no, not so much! Once again an honest to goodness 'real' auto news site has confirmed what the Honda Guys has been saying for quite a while now, albeit to a much smaller readership... This morning my friends over at Left Lane News had a nice lil write up about the coming Honda CrossTour, due here in October. As I have been saying, the CrossTour will be an Accord based SUV that will fit right between the CR-V and the Pilot. A near production version was shown in Vegas at the recent dealer meeting and I am smitten I must say, it bears a strong similarity to the new Acura ZDX from the rear but the front end is unmistakably Accord. I just know the folks at ToV have all the scoop but I know they cant say anything till the Honda boys give em the ole green light, curses, CURSES! I would have a pic to post but they wouldnt allow camera phones at the meeting... so just look at the ZDX and kinda squint, for now.

UPDATE: 5/29/09 11:27 am.
Well, it appears my curses were indeed recorded by the car gods as the folks over at the Temple of VTEC have magically acquired a real pic of the CrossTour! I just knew that they had more info... Honda Guy, right again! See the lil tid bit, along with some great pics, they posted here.

UPDATE to the UPDATE: 6/03/09
Car and Driver posted a huge scoop yesterday, there are spy pics of the upcoming Honda CrossTour!! LATE!! Honda Guy wins again!

 
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So yes, today the Honda Guy turned the big four oh! Nice, now I'm old. As if the age of 40 wasnt bad enough to deal with, remember the Honda Guy works in the car business, which is like living in dog years so I'm actually like 117!! The hours, stress and heartache of retail auto sales is I think the fifth biggest cause of premature aging and crabbiness, I read that somewhere... Well, Happy Birthday to me... now where did I set my beer...

 
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Ok no, do not hit anyone with your Honda, not ever... ever. That there is sarcastic humor, thats all, not instruction or permission! With the disclaimers out of the way on to my actual point, the latest version of the Honda Jazz (the Fit here in the states) was just named one of the all around safest vehicles in Europe, and the safest in the supermini class. Although extremely impressive, just another day for a company whos Acura line has THE safest vehicle in its class for every model they offer! My long time fans have heard/read me rave about things like the Advance Compatibility Engineering (ACE) for a long time as Honda has incorporated its 'Safety for Everyone' philosophy across its entire vehicle lineup. What I especially find amusing, yes in a sick and sarcastic way, is the Pedestrian Protection innovations Honda has pioneered, making it less hazardous for pedestrians when they may be struck with a moving auto, at least safer if its a Honda that hits them! Why am I feeling like I will be the only one finding this funny all of a sudden... Anyways, the Honda site has more info over here.

 
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Alright, alright... I'm finished pouting now. As everyone knows ole whats his name the Dancing With The Stars guy won yesterdays race, this after the darn feds dropped his tax evasion case that they were supposed to drop NEXT week so he would be too stressed to drive... but thats another story! no, that is not a picture of the winner btw, it is a picture of the 2nd place finisher Dan Wheldon and since this is Memorial Day and he is sponsored by the National Guard it worked better than a pic of the dancer guy! The race was chock full of drama with a wreck nearly every 10 minutes or so, but in the end the amazing driving Danica put forth did get her a podium finish in third, her best Indy finish yet! I, of course spent the rest of the day cursing the racing gods, at least Honda wins no matter whos driving! The only other acceptable winner would have been Dario, his wife Ashley makes it impossible to hate him, besides that he Italian! All the details and more about the dancing guy are here.

 
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You would think, this weekends annual Indianapolis 500 race would be the subject of this article, what with that headline right? Um, not so much! Kinda, but only by really reaching... no, this is not just another of my excuses to post a picture of Danica... ok, just shut it and read on! During the race broadcast tomorrow Go-Daddy webhosting company will be airing the most risque Danika commercial yet, see how I did tie in to the race afterall? You may or may not remember the 2008 ad she did for them that actually got pulled for being to 'suggestive' and became an Internet only spot. Well, this one is being touted as the be all end all of Danika commercials! See a short 'teaser' of the ad over at the Go-Daddy site here and be sure to tune in to the race tomorrow, for the racing of course...

 
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The fine folks over at the Temple of VTEC just gave us a lil preview of the upcoming Mid-Model changes for the Acura MDX and RDX models, you know, the 'other' Honda's! The link at the end of this takes you to the post, and they also have a real cool model release matrix posted here. ALways have been a huge fan of the Acura line, never could afford one though... Take a gander at both rederings here.

UPDATE: 5/22/2009 This morning the VTEC site is reporting that these pics are actually part of a video presentation exclusively for Acura dealers and they shouldnt have been posted yet so they removed them until a later release date. Fortunatly the Honda Guy hasnt been asked to remove them so, for the time being this is THE only plce to still see them! Can you say exclusive friends?!

 
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Well, I have been justified, and by none other than the CEO of Honda Takeo Fukui himself! No, he didnt actually say that the #1 Honda Guy was right, not exactly, but in spirit... What he actually said was that he believes this year we will see the bottom of this whole economic disaster/horrible car sales thing. You all know I have said that I believe we have turned onto the road to recovery and now you have solid reason to believe what the Honda Guy says! The article on the Reuters site, yes I read Reuters(!), goes on to say that Honda was the only Japanese auto company to stay in the black last year siting that overall quality (and decreased warranty costs as a result) as a big factor to profitability. Again, confirming what I have been tellin you all that Honda builds the best vehicles on the road! Theres a bunch more businessy blah blah blah stuff that I kinda just skimmed over, you can see the whole article here. Bottom line, the Honda Guys was right all along!

UPDATE 5/20/2009: Checking the auto sites this morning both my friends at the Temple of VTEC and the folks at Left Lane News reported on this story YESTERDAY!! Can you say LATE! I'm tellin ya, this site should be your fi

 
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The April sales numbers are in and guess what the two best selling vehicle were in the US? Ok, the headline spoiled it, yes the Honda Accord and Civic! At 29,212 for the Accord and 26,261 for the Civic, both lines out sold the entire line up from Nissan! While thats not to say all is wonderful again and the economy is fine, but at least I do think we have turned onto the long road to recovery. I have yet to get the official press release from Honda but expect it shortly, I would link the Auto News site but ya gotta be a subscriber, sorry. As soon as Honda posts it I will link you all to it though, I swear. Honda's number one, Honda's number one...

 
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After the heartbreak of seeing so many dealers closing it was such a joy to read about the wonderful thing that Ferrari is doing for the folks affected by the recent earthquake in Italy. Its even kinda related to the whole Chrysler thing, wait for it... On Tuesday in Maranello, Ferrari announced that the very last F430 built will be auctioned off and all the proceeds will go to assist the quake ravaged areas in the Abruzzo region. Thats awesome! I came across the info whilst on my daily dream session at the Ferrari site here, hey a guy CAN dream! The F430 will even receive a special signature paint scheme to commemorate the event along with the owner being able to taylor it further as its being built to his or her own tastes. How does this relate to Chrysler you ask? Well, the parent company of Ferrari is FIAT, the same company that represents salvation, financial and otherwise, to the Chrysler Group and who will partner with Chrysler at the exit from their bankrupcy... Yes, the Italions will indeed save the world!

 
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Yesterday many auto related sites were breaking the news that due to the Chrysler bankruptcy as many as 800 dealers would be losing their franchises. Early this morning the Wall Street Journal got hold of the actual court docs and released the list of 789 dealers that will be darkened soon. Skimming down the list I saw many Cal dealers including; Carson Chrysler/Jeep, Jeep of Ventura, Valley Dodge, Urban Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge and Star Chrysler/Jeep right here in Glendale just to name a few. Having been at a dealer that closed myself I know how much it sucks. There are a lot of good car guys already out of work and now more will be pounding the pavement looking for a new home, not because they arent good salespeople but because its incredibly difficult to get folks to buy some of the crap that the Chrysler group has been throwing at the public the last few years. Believe me I do know how tough it is to sell a Caliber! Now I'm bummed, I'll have to scour the Internet to find something good to post! Good lucks to all that will be out of work very soon.