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Keep in mind when Honda meant one thing? When the badge didn’t simply talk about “sensible household transport” however screamed candy guarantees of VTEC kicking in at 6,000 rpm? When you can purchase a two-door coupe that wouldn’t break the financial institution however would completely break your neck with its acceleration? These days are scarce, like guide transmissions themselves. I just lately got here throughout a journalist reacting to a TikTok from a Honda proprietor who bravely admitted that Honda could also be dying, and I would like in; I received’t be so impartial and good about it.
As TikTok fanatic @.vellojello just lately identified in a video that’s received Honda followers nodding like dashboard bobbleheads, the corporate that when constructed legends just like the NSX, S2000, and Civic Si has basically turned its again on the very individuals who made it cool. “Why did Honda abandon us? They don’t actually appear to care about fanatics anymore,” Vell noticed, and actually, the person’s not fallacious. He’s as proper as a wonderfully timed downshift.
The Nice Honda Sellout
@.vellojello Honda is dying #vellerton #vell #vellojello
♬ authentic sound – VELL
Let’s be brutally sincere right here: Honda has traded its soul for SUV gross sales, and it’s the automotive equal of your favourite underground band signing to a significant label and instantly releasing a Christmas album. Positive, the CR-V and HR-V are promoting like hotcakes at a Sunday brunch, however when’s the final time anybody received genuinely excited a few Honda Passport? When’s the final time somebody’s pulse quickened on the sight of a Pilot in a parking zone?
The writing was on the wall when Honda killed the Prelude in 2001 and the S2000 in 2009. They’ve since teased bringing again the Prelude, however early whispers recommend it’ll arrive as a hybrid or — God assist us — absolutely electrical. That’s like bringing again the Beatles with a drum machine and Auto-Tune. I really like you, T-Ache, however that’s not the supposed use.
Even the brand new Integra, which was imagined to return to kind, arrived with out a two-door possibility and with out the naturally aspirated VTEC magic that made the unique a legend. As Vell famous: “We’ve by no means gotten a two-door variant, and we by no means will.”
The Numbers Don’t Lie (However They Don’t Inform the Entire Story)
Honda apologists will level to the gross sales figures and crow about success. Honda reported gross sales of 1,271,000 autos within the U.S. through the nine-month interval, a 13.3% year-over-year enhance, based on their assertion. Have a look at these hybrid gross sales data! Have a look at that CR-V dominance!
However right here’s the factor: these numbers are hiding a rot on the core. Globally, Honda bought about 4.1 million cars in its 2024 fiscal yr, which is about 11.4 % decrease than the earlier yr. And when one in all your most iconic fashions, the Accord, noticed gross sales drop 17.8% with Honda lowering manufacturing “on goal”, you’ve received to surprise if the corporate is slowly consuming itself from the within out.
Extra damning nonetheless: Honda is eradicating the Kind R from its European line-up in 2026 on account of “stricter emissions requirements.” After we consider emissions requirements strangling the automobile trade, we frequently consider muscle vehicles getting focused in 1970, however efficiency vehicles are nonetheless getting crushed up within the again alley to at the present time. However we will’t say Honda is with out blame: when your efficiency flagship can’t meet rules, perhaps it’s time to ask whether or not you’re constructing the proper vehicles anymore.
The Fanatic Exodus
Right here’s the place Honda’s bean counters are making a deadly miscalculation. They suppose fanatics are only a “loud minority” who don’t matter to the underside line. However fanatics are the model evangelists, those who satisfied their family and friends to purchase Hondas within the first place. They’re the influencers earlier than Instagram existed, those who constructed Honda’s status for reliability and enjoyable by word-of-mouth and weekend autocross occasions.
While you abandon the individuals who genuinely love your model, you’re not simply dropping clients — you’re dropping your cultural relevance. Youngsters in the present day aren’t dreaming about proudly owning a Honda Passport after they develop up. They’re not hanging Honda posters on their bed room partitions or modding their HR-Vs of their mother and father’ driveways.
Honda used to construct vehicles that made individuals really feel one thing. The unique Civic Si with its screaming naturally aspirated engine. The S2000, with its 9,000 rpm redline, gave the impression of a Method 1 automobile having an argument. The NSX that proved you didn’t want Italian badges to construct a supercar. These vehicles had an aura. They’d spirit. They’d life.
The Equipment-ification of Honda
Now Honda builds home equipment. Glorious home equipment, positive: dependable, environment friendly, sensible home equipment that can begin each morning and sip gasoline like a well mannered visitor at afternoon tea. However home equipment nonetheless. The trendy Honda lineup reads like an inventory of family requirements: the Fridge-V, the Dishwasher-V, the Washing Machine Pilot.
And right here’s the kicker: this technique is already exhibiting cracks. Honda moved away from VTEC variable valve timing to turbocharging in 2015, leaving Honda purists in despair. When your core know-how turns into a casualty of effectivity, you’re not innovating — you’re capitulating. And it’s arduous to face up for you once you don’t even care about your self. I’d really feel actually embarrassed telling individuals to exit and purchase a Honda now. Yeah, go purchase from a carmaker that hates you.
The hybrid push isn’t essentially the issue. Electrification can be thrilling; simply have a look at what Porsche did with the Taycan or what BMW achieved with the i4 M50. The issue is Honda’s method: make it environment friendly first, fear about soul later. Or extra precisely, don’t fear in regards to the soul in any respect.
The Dying Spiral Begins
Right here’s the brutal reality: Honda’s present technique is unsustainable, and the cracks are already exhibiting. Whereas they rejoice modest U.S. features, Honda noticed solely a 0.2% enhance in comparison with opponents like Mazda’s 13.0% progress. That’s not progress: that’s treading water whereas others swim laps round you.
The corporate that when constructed probably the most beloved sports activities vehicles on the earth is now so risk-averse that they’d most likely focus-group a paper airplane earlier than constructing it. They’ve confused enjoying it protected with enjoying it sensible, and within the automotive world, protected is simply one other phrase for forgettable.
Younger consumers aren’t forming emotional connections with Honda anymore. They’re shopping for Toyotas as a result of they’re extra dependable, Mazdas as a result of they’re extra fashionable, or Hyundais as a result of they’re extra feature-packed. Honda has develop into the automotive equal of shopping for a salad at a pizza joint. Belief me, these salads have all of the fundamentals however they’re wilted and plain and make being wholesome really feel like a punishment.
The Highway Again (If They Can Discover It)
Honda might nonetheless flip this automobile round, however it might require remembering what made them nice within the first place. Take a U-turn and construct vehicles that make individuals smile. Carry again naturally aspirated engines that sing as a substitute of whisper. Create inexpensive sports activities vehicles that common individuals can truly purchase and modify.
The Civic Kind R proves they nonetheless bear in mind how you can construct a correct fanatic automobile after they wish to. However one halo automobile surrounded by a sea of beige SUVs isn’t sufficient. They should pepper their lineup with inexpensive enjoyable: a religious successor to the CRX, a correct two-door Integra, perhaps even a contemporary tackle the Del Sol.
As a substitute, they’re doubling down on hybrid every thing and electrical goals whereas their opponents eat their lunch. Toyota builds the GR86 and Supra. Mazda has the MX-5 Miata. Hyundai created the Veloster N and Elantra N. Even Nissan, for all its company struggles, nonetheless builds the Z automobile.
Honda builds… very nice minivans and crossovers.
As Vell put it completely: “These companies need cash. We fanatics don’t generate them sufficient income.” However right here’s what Honda’s executives don’t perceive: fanatics generate one thing much more invaluable than instant income: they generate ardour, tradition, and long-term model loyalty.
With out that zeal, Honda isn’t a automobile firm anymore. It’s simply one other equipment producer that occurs to make issues with wheels. And in a world the place your washer can hook up with Wi-Fi, even home equipment want persona to outlive.
Honda constructed its status by being totally different, by caring about driving pleasure in inexpensive packages. Now they’re indistinguishable from the gang, promoting competent however forgettable transportation to individuals who see vehicles as mandatory evils.
That’s not a enterprise technique. That’s a slow-motion company suicide, disguised as quarterly earnings progress.
The VTEC may not kick in anymore, however Honda’s decline definitely has.
