Trident Honda News

Honda Racing team star Matt Neal has thrust himself right back into the title fight for this season's Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship after a win and a third place finish at Knockhill in Scotland on Sunday.

Neal has moved into second place in the standings after the rounds in Fife and is optimistic of reaching the title summit in the remaining six rounds of this season's competition, which continues at Donington Park on 18th and 19th September. Neal carried a full load of success ballast to notch a fourth place finish in race one. He then took his fourth victory of the year in race two before he battled to third place in the final event of the weekend. It meant he outscored all his rivals over the three events and has edged closer to the top of the chase for the coveted crown.

A hybrid version of Honda's much-loved Jazz will make its world debut at the Paris Motor Show in September, bringing lower emissions and improved fuel economy to the practical supermini.

The introduction of Honda's petrol-electric IMA system to the Jazz, makes the car the world's first B-segment hybrid.

The Honda CR-Z has been rated one of Europe's safest cars, achieving a maximum 5-stars in the latest independent crash testing results from Euro NCAP.

Euro NCAP's rating scheme focuses on the vehicle's overall safety performance which gives consumers an easy to understand single score. The system considers occupant protection in frontal, side, pole and rear impacts, child protection, pedestrian protection and the availability of driver aids.

Independent research published today by Which? shows that in just two years of operation, automotive consumer champion Motor Codes is already making significant progress in raising service and repair standards in UK garages.

The research highlights that Motor Codes garages performed significantly better than non-Code subscribed service centres, spotting almost 20% more faults in tests set out by the consumer watchdog.

The most reliable cars sold in the UK are made by Japanese brands, according to the latest Warranty Direct and What Car? survey.

For the fifth year Honda topped the annual car reliability study, with just 7 per cent requiring repairs in a 12 month period.

The Government has announced that the vehicle scrappage scheme has been extended to the end of March 2010; previously the scheme was to end at the end of February. The vehicle scrappage scheme gives £2000 against a qualifying part-exchange towards a new car.

Britain's 'greenest' car is the Honda Insight with the 'least green' car being the 8.0 litre Dodge SRT-10, according to the Environmental Transport Association (ETA). It calculates that a year's driving in the Dodge emits the same amount of carbon dioxide emissions as is absorbed by 322 mature trees - the equivalent of an acre of oak forest. The ETA examined over 1,300 models of car currently on sale in Britain and compared their power, emissions, fuel efficiency and the amount of noise they produce to create a definitive guide to buying the 'greenest' vehicle.

It is with great sadness that we have to say goodbye to our General Parts Manager, Ian Essex, after nearly 30 years of loyal service. One of the bedrocks of Trident Honda, Ian will be sorely missed by all, but we wish him every happiness for his new life in France.

Au revoir Ian!!

The biggest vehicle reliability survey in the country has named the Honda Civic as the most reliable car. The survey, which quizzed the country's largest fleet operators who between them run more than a million vehicles, saw the Civic take top position from its nearest rival the BMW 3 Series.

Honda and BMW were the only two carmakers on the leaderboard, which revealed that Honda made three of the top five most reliable cars and BMW the remaining two.

The first British-built Honda jazz has rolled off the production line in Swindon.

European production of the Jazz has shifted from Japan to the UK as Honda aims to produce particular models in the continent where they are most popular. More than 70,000 Jazz cars are sold in Europe each year.

David Hodgetts, Director of Honda of the UK Manufacturing in Swindon, said: