Honda CR-Z - video emerges

Continuing Tarmac's coverage of the Honda CR-Z, we felt it necessary to bring you the video that recently emerged from Honda about their pursuit of driving pleasure in the small hybrid.

Some interesting points to note - Honda have apparently bought a MINI, a Volkswagen Scirocco and a Lotus Elise (coincidentally, all of which appear in Tarmac's top ten of the past ten years...) with which to benchmark the sporty CR-Z. They have also apparently brought prototypes to Europe throughout the development process in order to ensure the car handles well on a variety of surfaces.

(Video: Honda, via Carscoop)

Honda CR-Z finally revealed in full

Having been the subject of brochure leaks and other sneak previews for many months now, Honda's hybrid CR-Z has finally been officially unveiled at the Detroit motor show.

The production car, though less dramatic than the concept, still looks great and remains remarkably close to the original design. Sharing styling cues with both the first and second-generation Insight hybrids and the first two generations of CRX, Honda claims that the car will be great fun to drive despite its modest power output of 122bhp and 128lb/ft of torque (at a low 1000-1500rpm). All this is provided by a 1.5 litre VTEC four-cylinder with Honda's IMA (Integrated Motor Assist) hybrid system.

The 60mph from rest benchmark comes up in just under ten seconds - not a figure that will set the world alight, but enough in a compact and lightweight hatch to have some fun, especially on UK roads. Honda's intentions for a great drive are spoken loudly by their decision to offer a six-speed manual transmission as well as the CVT typical of normal hybrids, and the CVT itself offers a paddle-shift mode. As with many modern cars with "sporting" intentions, the CR-Z offers a three-mode drive system with normal, sport and economy settings.

Economy on America's EPA cycle is estimated (in UK gallons) at 43mpg city and 46mpg highway for the CVT model and 37mpg/44mpg for the manual transmission, though this is of course determined by whether you choose to drive it like a hot hatch or like a hybrid...

The CR-Z is expected to go on sale in the Summer. If there's one car that Tarmac test drives this year, the CR-Z will be it! (Yes, those promised drives will start happening eventually...)

(All images: AutoBlog)

Past, present and future in advert form

If you've been watching prime-time TV recently you might well have noticed two particular car adverts that stand out from the usual dross (VW and Honda adverts excepted, as they're usually excellent). These adverts come from Renault and BMW, and both run along a similar theme - that cars are more than simply just transport - they're objects that have changed our lives for the better and continue to do so.

How do you do that without sounding too cheesy? Get respected actors Patrick Stewart and Ewan McGregor (for BMW and Renault respectively) to do the voiceovers, give them an uplifting soundtrack ("Somewhere only we know" by Keane in Renault's case) and place as much emphasis on your past cars as you do on the ones you want to sell today.

Car adverts are an awkward business. Volkswagen usually seem to manage, with German and now international firm Doyle Dane Bernbach having handled most of their advertising since the original Beetle ads in the 1950s. Some of Honda's adverts in the past decade have been excellent - Cog and Choir stand out in particular, and Impossible Dream, which was possibly of some inspiration to Renault and BMW with their recent efforts.

The approach taken by Renault and BMW is refreshing. Of course, it might not be to all tastes, but both adverts seem to take a step back from the self-indulgent and glitzy unreality of normal car adverts and make both companies seem that little bit more down-to-earth.

Tommy Kaira hybrids

Japanese car tuning and manufacturing firm Tommy Kaira have now turned their attention to hybrids, it seems, in a break from their normal line of hot Nissans. In contrast to the wild GT-Rs, Skylines and Z-cars that usually benefit from Tommy Kaira's body and engine upgrades, the Toyota Prius 3 and Honda Insight might seem a little tame, but the big wheels, beefy exhausts and squat stance used rather suits the shape of each car - especially the Insight.

Of course, one has to question the motive for performance tuning on hybrids. When manufacturers have spent so long perfecting aerodynamic shapes in wind tunnels and choosing low-rolling resistance wheels and tyres, it seems nonsensical to take several steps back by increasing drag and resistance with kits like these.

You also have to wonder who'd actually buy the kits. I certainly can't see them being popular with the Ecomodding crowd, and many car "enthusiasts" seem to take a dim view of hybrids, expecting they'll spell doom and gloom for performance motoring, so there doesn't seem to be an obvious market there earlier.

But of course, the main market is in Tommy Kaira's native Japan, where customers aren't beyond tuning tiny Kei cars, let alone relatively powerful hybrids. Perhaps there, where aerodynamics have little effect in inner-city traffic, the draw of a tuned hybrid is much greater.

And of course, a belated happy New Year to all Tarmac's readers. Best wishes for 2010!

(Images: Tommy Kaira)

Most frugal car in the real world? Autocar finds out with a race...

Manufacturers make big claims about their fuel economy figures. Occasionally, even these claims can be bettered, as Toyota's now closed blog for the iQ managed back in January, extracting 72mpg when Toyota themselves only claimed 65mpg. Often though, real-world driving prevents us from extracting the optimum economy from our cars.

Autocar's test then perhaps sheds a little more relevance on achieving high miles to the gallon. Armed with a Ford Fiesta Econetic, a Vauxhall Corsa Ecoflex, an Insight, a Prius, a BMW 116d and a Smart ForTwo CDi, they each hit the track at Bruntingthorpe with a single litre of fuel and a driver trying to achieve as many miles in the hour as possible. By working to distance rather than outright economy, it avoided the whole race becoming a slow eco-trundle.

The most efficient at the end of the hour? Ford's Fiesta Econetic. It achieved almost sixty miles at the hands of Matt Prior, equivalent - unsurprisingly - to roughly 60mpg. A little way short of Ford's 76mpg combined figure perhaps, but much more representative of what drivers can expect in their daily grind, and a long way from shabby.

The other cars in the test all managed to average around 55mpg, including the diminutive Smart despite being driven pedal-to-the-metal until it spluttered to a halt after 53 minutes.

The full story can be found in the 30th September issue of Autocar, out now. Alternatively, you can watch the video:

(Picture credits: Tarmac)

80mpg from diesel-powered first-gen Insight

Yes, you read that correctly. AutoBlogGreen has released news that a company called Red Light Racing has installed Volkswagen's 1.2 litre, 3-cylinder Pumpe Düse TDI in a first-generation Honda Insight and the net result is 80mpg in US gallons - a staggering 96mpg imperial.

The engine has been taken from Volkswagen's Lupo 3L, a model that was only available in mainland Europe and itself made 94mpg imperial, equivalent to 3 litres/100km. The Lupo however was solely diesel-powered - and Red Light Racing state that they haven't even hooked up the Insight's hybrid motor to the diesel unit yet and once they do there could be another 15-20% improvement.

The Lupo 3L was highly modified from the standard Lupo TDI - like the Insight, it used aluminium in much of its construction, and also in common with the Insight it used low rolling-resistance tyres and a stop-start function to save fuel when stopped in traffic. The engine produces 61bhp and makes 140Nm of torque, which is 9bhp less than the Insight's 1.0 litre petrol IMA unit but a useful 27Nm more torque. Coincidentally, both Lupo 3L and Insight weigh in the region of 850kg, so the engine seems ideal for use in the Insight, though according to Red Light Racing the installation naturally wasn't too straightforward.

Diesel clatter aside, the new engine should provide very pleasant driving characteristics too. The final quote goes to Red Light Racing, clearly a company after Tarmac's heart: "The main idea was to take existing hardware, hack it, and make a vehicle that could be produced by major manufacturers or individuals that would deliver tremendous fuel economy without a tremendous leap in technology. I believe we succeeded."

(Image credits: AutoBlogGreen and Wikipedia)

Rhymes with "scrap"

A while back I wrote about the RAC's suggestion that cars over 18 years old should be scrapped. I was a bit worried about this, as a body such as the RAC is respected enough that even the government might listen to it on occasion. Since then I haven't heard anything further on that particular plan, but what you might well have noticed in the UK more recently is the government's plan to offer £2000 towards a brand new car if you're trading in one more than 10 years old. The ten year old car will then be scrapped - as naturally, it's going to be more polluting than something brand new. In theory.

As I pointed out in my last story, the figure that the government always goes on is the CO2 figure. A useful figure, undoubtably, and we all want to do our bit to reduce CO2. But then it's not really a relevant figure for judging anything, because it's more or less directly correlated to fuel consumption, a figure that we've been using as a yardstick for years. And lets not forget, we already get taxed according to how much fuel we use in a very natural way - the more fuel we put in our cars, the more we pay in tax. The current taxation based on CO2 is basically a second fuel tax, only less fairly applied as it's indiscriminate as to how much a car is used. It's perhaps unfair for a Ferrari owner who does 1000 miles a year to pay a vast amount on road tax, when someone in a "green" Prius might do 20,000 miles a year and pay nothing under the current rules.

Anyway, I digress - I should be talking about the new scrappage scheme. On the face of it, all appears well. You trade in your ten year old banger, and the government and the manufacturer each give you £1000 towards your new car.

Anyone else spotted the deliberate mistake yet? If you're driving around in a £2000 "banger", what is the likelihood you're financially in a position to buy a brand new car, even with a couple of grand lining your pockets? The cheapest new car on sale in the UK at the moment is the Perodua Kelisa which starts at about £4600. Incredible value undoubtably but very possibly worse than virtually any ten year old car worth about £2000. I recently drove an 11 year old Honda Civic 1.5 VTEC, which uses lean burn technology to achieve a very respectable 44mpg on the combined cycle, and still offers good performance, unquestionable reliability and a large dealer network, yet second hand costs around a grand. Even if you were then loony enough to want to trade this in for a Kelisa, you'd still have to find an extra £2600 from somewhere. So you'd then take out a loan, which is exactly what put us in the economic mess we're currently facing in the first place.

Would you trade Civic for Kenari? Are you reading this from a padded cell? (Perodua image: Parker's)

And remember, that's if you wanted the very cheapest new car on sale. Unless you've been saving like a magpie for the last five years and are vaguely financially secure (and yet somehow still manage to have a 10+ year old car instead of a newish one anyway), then I really can't see how the cashback offer is going to benefit many people. The gulf is even greater if you want to trade that ten year old BMW compact for a shiny new 1-series (even with the additional £1260 BMW are offering on a 116i Sport), or even a rusty old Clio for a brand new airconditioned one that's safer than houses. Manufacturer participation is optional, and some have declined to take part reasoning that it will offer neither themselves nor their potential customers any benefit.

I only hope the sceme will be useful to those who really can benefit from it before the whole thing is declared a massive failure and pulled. Hopefully in the meantime it won't take too many of the good decade-old cars off the road like the Civic above, because for some of us, those are the cars we can actually afford.

If you do want to read more about the scrappage scheme, there's a useful FAQ here: http://www.ukscrappage.co.uk/

NEC Motorcycle Show 2008

After visiting the British Motor Show earlier this year, an opportunity to pop along to the Motorcycle Show at the NEC wasn't to be missed. What was new in the world of motorcycling?

Bike shows are quite a departure from car shows. The crowds walking the halls are altogether more knowledgeable and tend to be enthusiastic about the subject, wheras car shows appeal more to the "day out" people who aren't necessarily car enthusiasts but go to the motor show each year with their kids for something to do. As such, the bike show is less publicised and a bit more "rough and ready" when you're there, with smaller stands, fewer manufacturers and less of a wow factor. For this reason, it's always good to have some interesting concepts or significant releases to make people feel like their day stalking the halls has been worthwhile.


All the main manufacturers had their full range on display. Kawasaki attracted the crowds to their new Ninja and a selection of their racing bikes with an array of attractive ladies in tight-fitting clothes, and Ducati attracted the crowds by painting their bikes bright red and by generally having a desirable line-up of bikes. Of particular note was the Desmosedici, which though not winning a MotoGP riders' title this year is still a gorgeous and brutally fast bike in road trim. If you don't need to travel quite so quickly, the latest version of Ducati's stalwart, the Monster, was on display, and for those who like to provide their own power, you can choose from a suspiciously expensive-looking mountain bike or racing bike which probably retail for the same price as the Monster.

There were other Italian marques at the show, notably Benelli with their striking Tornado sports bike, and for younger riders (or the young at heart) Cagiva was showing their new-to-the-UK Mito SP525, which contrary to the name is an updated version of their popular Mito 125. The diminutive machine remains a two stroke, and takes styling cues from the Desmosedici. With Aprilia missing, the Mito was holding it's own amongst a sea of 125cc four-strokes.

Of said four-strokes, Yamaha were displaying their YZF-R125 which had been introduced at the show last year. They're already starting to appear on the roads in increasing numbers, which suggests that even in credit-crunch Britain people can't resist the hottest little bike on the market. In desirability, Honda's CBR125 just can't compete any more, though it does still offer an attractive proposition for smaller riders, especially with the disappearance of the CG125. The evergreen CG has been quietly replaced with the CBF125, both more modern and larger, and as such Honda's cheapest 125cc bike no longer appeals to this reporter. It's a pity the CG wasn't able to continue in the range with modifications to bring it within EURO-3 emissions regulations, but the new CBF is still a worthy beginner bike. It costs less than £2,000, it's not over-complicated, it's clean, and capable of significantly more than 100mpg.

Much more appealing in Honda's line-up is the Zoomer. In a sea of noisy, badly-ridden, plastic-covered mopeds, the four-stroke Zoomer stands out a mile with its quiet engine, fat tyres and tube-frame chassis. That you don't see many on the roads is probably testament to the £2,000+ price tag, which gets you a perfectly respectable 125, but there isn't a 125 commuter or 50cc scooter in existance that's as cool as the Zoomer. Yamaha does get close with their retro-styled Giggle, which is available this year in olive/white and blue/white combinations.

Honda had their futuristic DN-01 at ground level this year to try out for size, and the styling still appeals, though I did hear other show-goers expressing their disapproval. Honda also had their genuinely futuristic V4 concept on display, which is more a clue towards future styling than anything else given that the wheels were seamless with the bodywork. Honda have a survey on their site to gauge opinion on the study.

As for the rest of the show, little stood out. Royal Enfield had a good stand, with several Bullet Electra and Classic models. It's a range that really appeals for the more sedate aspects of motorcycling. The bikes are cheap, economical and have what could be described as adequate performance, allowing you to enjoy the open road without necessarily aiming for apexes and travelling at great speed. Custom bikes seemed to be popular this year, and they appeal for similar reasons, as well as some impressive engineering and paint jobs. KTM, Triumph, Harley Davidson and Eagle all had some interesting bikes, Eagle in particular drawing the crowds with some enormous cruisers and custom specials.

As I mentioned earlier, shows that lack the wow factor really need something else to make you feel like your day, and your £17 plus £8 for parking, has been worthwhile. The 2008 NEC Bike Show was a good day out, but compared to the impressive venue and £10 of the British Motor Show earlier this year, there is still a long way to go.

More photographs below. All photographs ©Tarmac 2008

£1500, fun and 30mpg plus... what would you buy?

It's a good question, isn't it? Particularly if, like me, you happen to have that budget, and those requirements from a car. £1500 gets you a surprising amount these days, anything from tidy superminis, MPVs and third-hand family cars to classic roadsters, hot hatches and sports saloons. Some will make great runarounds or first cars and others fun weekend toys.

But, if you're like me (young, skint, and like a bit of fun from your car now and then) you might find your choice rather more limited. Sure, you can find plenty of old hot hatches at this price, but unfortunately many have been ragged to within an inch of their lives by now, and insurance is still very expensive even with a few years no-claims behind you. Such is the plight of the young driver.

However, hope is in store. There are still choices out there, if you look hard enough, that will provide you with fun and reliable motoring, but importantly, not emptying your wallet come renewal time or at the pumps. With fuel prices as they are, easily doing more than 30mpg is virtually essential nowadays. Below is a selection of cars that meet the above criteria. What would you buy?

BMW 316i/318i (E30)

The E30 3-series is slowly becoming a collectors' item. Partly due to it being an important model for the marque, and partly to ensure the survival of original cars before they're all snapped up by the tuning brigade. The 316i and 318i aren't the fastest, but they are both cheap to run and the £1500 budget will get a model in very nice condition. A bit of rear-wheel drive fun to start the list.

Honda CRX ESi (3rd gen)

Having seen the success of Mazda's MX5, Honda decided to make their own sports car based on the Civic. It wasn't as light and loony as the model that preceded it, but it has it's own character and roof-out fun. The ESi has roughly 120bhp, does almost 40mpg and is much cheaper to insure than the screaming VTi.

Honda HR-V

A choice from way out at left-field here. You might not have expected to see a small 4x4 here - after all, they're not known for their great fuel economy or fun. Yet Honda were singing from a different hymn book with the HR-V - not only does it do at least 33mpg, but it's also supposed to be good fun to throw about.

Mazda MX-3 V6

Mazda's coupe has managed to avoid the general public's consciousness thus far (thanks to more popular choices like Ford's Puma and Renualt's Megane Coupe), making it a great second-hand choice with low prices. The V6 engine sings yet manages mid-thirties mpg, and the cars seem generally well built and reliable.

Mazda MX-5 mk1

Another small Mazda, but one you've heard of this time. £1500 is remarkably little to buy a classic, but it's achievable with the MX5, and it's going to buy you a whole bundle of affordable fun. Ignore the hairdresser jibes - anyone who's driven one will tell you it's impossible to have perfect coiffure after five minutes with the hood down...

Porsche 924

You what? A Porsche for how much? It was always designed to be affordable and now you can buy one for pocket money. It isn't, as you might have heard, equipped with a van engine - it was an Audi engine that was tuned for use in the 924 and detuned for use in a VW van. Owners report 30mpg, and £1500 should get a nice one.

Saab 900 T16

Turbo lag and torque steer. Right, now the stereotypes are out of the way, we can appreciate the car's unusual styling, great seats, bucketfulls of character and great performance. Not only that, but many insurers consider it a classic now, so you might be able to benefit from cheap classic insurance.

Toyota MR2 mk1

Rumor has it that the MR2 project was initially developed with Lotus, but Mazda took the project on fully when Lotus had financial issues and abandoned their share. So if you squint a bit, you're looking at an 80s Lotus Elise. Maybe. Either way, it's a brilliant drivers car which does mid-30s mpg. You may have to look hard for one untainted by rust, however.

Toyota Paseo

Even less known than the Mazda MX-3, and arguably not as special, but with 40mpg easily achievable it has it's own merit. And of course, being a Toyota, it'll last for ever, and ever, and ever. It enjoys a very low insurance group as well, and should be fun, if not up to Ford Puma levels.

Volkswagen Bora Tdi

Although a small saloon seems a bit incongruous next to small sports cars, coupes and hatches - especially a diesel one - the Bora represents brilliant value for money. It's cheaper than the equivalent Golf both to buy and insure, yet shares the same great engines and build. The diesels get an easy 50mpg and can be tuned very easily for much more power and torque.

Volkswagen Golf GTI mk1

My final suggestion is, undoubtably, a classic. If you want to spend £1500 on one, do it now because they're unlikely to stay at that price as they become more scarce and more popular for restoration. Manages 35mpg and faster to 60mph than the standard mk4 Golf GTI. Cheap to insure on classic insurance, too.

An eclectic mix then, and perhaps a bit more interesting than your average hot hatch, yet likely to provide many miles of reliable, economical and fun motoring. If you're lucky, you may even find a little practicality to add to the mix. £1500 really does get you a lot of car.