The price is wrong

Honda has (finally?) launched a fully electric vehicle for the North American market: the Honda Prologue. As expected, the Prologue is a mid-size SUV thing - the most popular type of vehicle in the States - designed to haul people and stuff. The layman would not know that this all-electric Honda is co-developed with General Motors. Not quite a re-badge, but it’s definitely a GM car with Honda window dressing on top.

Not that in it of itself is a bad thing. What Toyota has done with the Supra - essentially a re-styled BMW Z4 roadster - seems to have worked (and continues to work) just fine. I see plenty of Supras on the road, driven by guys who look a bit too young to be able to afford a $60,000 sports car.

The main problem I see with the Honda Prologue is that it is too expensive. The poverty FWD trim level starts at $48,795. For the AWD trim with some bells and whistles that most people would want, you’re looking at well into the $50,000 mark. Worse: as of writing, the Honda Prologue does not quality for the Federal EV tax credit ($7,500). I would bet only the true die-hard Honda fans would buy one of these over a Tesla Model Y (low $40,000s after tax incentives). That, or Honda will have to heavily discount the Prologue.

The Model Y has another advantage: buyers don’t have to beg some asshole at a dealership to take their money.

To be competitive, I think the Honda Prologue needs to start the high $30,000s. Because that’s what a gas engine equivalent - the Honda Pilot - starts at. Honda can’t charge an EV premium for what is a mass-market product, because that would simply drive buyers towards Tesla. Ford found out about this with its electric Mach E SUV. The problem is that Honda - GM, really - cannot build the Prologue cheap enough to sell in the $30,000s. Meanwhile, Tesla can produce Model 3 sedans and sell profitably in the high $30,000s all day long. It’s a competitive advantage that’s evident in the sheer amount of Model 3s and Model Ys we see on the road.

The first legacy automaker to market with an all-electric mid-size SUV selling in the $30,000s will be the one to take a chunk out of Tesla.

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Minecraft.

Additional dealer markup

During Thanksgiving I met up with my cousin who I’ve not seen for a quite some time. Turns out he recently traded in his long-serving 2006 Toyota Corolla for a brand-new Toyota Sienna. The move makes perfect sense: he’s got a young kid now, and loading-unloading the car seat is just that much more convenient in a van than a tiny sedan. Besides, the improvement in vehicle safety has been magnitudes over the decade plus. I too would want the best and safest for my baby nephew.

Being that we are still amidst the great supply chain shortage in terms of new cars, I naturally asked my cousin if he paid over MSRP for the Sienna. Turns out he paid about $3,000 in ADM, plus the color blue he bought was not really his first option. I guess you absolutely cannot be picky in this market, especially the sought-after Toyota hybrid products (gas is still super expensive, after all). You agree with the dealer on the price, and then you wait until it’s your turn to get the latest shipment off the boat. For a particular color the wait can be months.

With high inflation, high interest rates, and a seemingly looming recession (tech companies have announced significant layoffs in droves), the current feeling is that the new vehicle shortage vis a vis demand will come back down to earth sometime next year. I hope the prognosticators are correct because the timing would be perfect for me. As I’ve written before, I am looking to buy the latest Honda Civic Type R. The car has just been released to the public earlier this month, so I’m waiting out the initial rush of folks who are willing to fork over the $10,000 or so dealer markups.

I’m looking to make the move sometime in the spring of next year. The hope is that serendipitously the market conditions would become favorable enough that I can buy a Type R with minimum to zero markups. In the meantime I’ll be scouring the forums for all the information pertaining to the FL5.

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Big wave, don’t avoid it.

Type R or bust!

Two days later, I am still buzzing over the newly-announced Honda Civic Type R.

The hottest version of the 11th-generation Honda Civic looks absolutely fantastic. It resolves everything that was wrong with the previous generation Type R. The gaudy body cladding and fake vents are gone. The new Type R is way more subtle, with just hints of aggression. The wheels are 19-inch items now, instead of overly large 20-inch units on the last car. Even the prerequisite “big wing” at the back is now colored in black, blending in nicely with the rear windscreen. It's as if legendary Honda tuner Spoon did the styling on the new car. If you know, you know.

Fitting, then, that the new Civic Type R will be made in Japan. The Swindon plant in the UK - production home of the previous Type R - is no more. As illogical as it may be, a Japanese-made Civic Type R is immediately more attractive than one made elsewhere. Just as I would be less inclined to buy a BMW that isn't manufactured in Germany. I'm sure the forthcoming BMW M2 is completely fine being hecho en Mexico. But I'm extra glad my own BMW M2 was built in the fatherland.

Back to the new Civic Type R: I desperately want one. With the era of internal-combustion engines seemingly at the end of life, the performance cars of today are likely to be the last of its breed. This is the time to buy what you can and keep it forever. As an enthusiast that grew up on Japanese cars, I've had thoughts about getting back into a proper J-VIN vehicle. The Toyota GR86 has been so resoundingly well-received that the soft goal is to buy one to keep - soon as I finish paying off the M2. It seems the Civic Type R has entered the chat. And it's talking a very loud game.

It'll be a tough decision. Logic would follow the front-wheel-drive Type R, since the M2 is rear-wheel drive. However, the GR86 might be the last pure, affordable real-wheel-drive sports car, and there's something to be said about that. Bottom line is: I am not selling the BMW - the Japanese car will be an addition. I consider my F87-generation M2 Competition to also be the last of its kind. The upcoming M2 is heavier, uglier, and uninteresting.

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Photo credit: Honda

The Civic Type R has 20-inch wheels!?

One my biggest pet-peeves when it comes to modern automobiles is the needlessly enormous wheels that comes standard in cars, performance-oriented or otherwise. Why in the world does the new Honda Civic Type-R require 20-inch wheels? The car’s 235/30R/20 tires are practically rubber-bands, and surely the wheels themselves would explode at the first moment it passes over a modern city pothole.  

I’m old enough to remember 18-inch wheels were the gold-standard in performance cars, whilst any wheel sized 20 and above where the domain of automobiles frequently purveyed by rap stars and sports figures. I understand completely that having a thin-sidewall tires mean less flex and sharper turn-in, but automaker’s have got to balance that with the realities of contemporary road conditions, otherwise the car’s ride would be horrendous. A Ferrari road-car that seldom sees the road? Sure, give it the biggest wheel with the skinniest tire as you please, but not in a mass-produced hot-hatch like the aforementioned Civic Type R. 

If my ND Miata can offer the most sports-car purity this side of the wallet to a Porsche Cayman, all the while running on positively tiny 16-inch wheels shod in 195/50R16 spec tires, then there’s simple no excuse for other brands. 

Except there is, and I found it when I saw a base Jaguar F-Pace SUV running on base-model 18-inch wheels: it looked horrendously tiny. The reason automakers put unnecessarily large wheels on cars is the design dictates it! Engineering probably had no choice but to comply with design dictum even though deep down I’m sure engineers know how absurd it is. Colin Chapman would. 

I eagerly await someone to put some aftermarket RAYS wheels in 18-inch sizing on the Civic Type R. My guess it’d save many kilograms of weight (stock wheels are nearly 30 pounds each), but from a visual standpoint, likely lopsided and top-heavy. Blame the designers.