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:
With the Government's scrappage scheme pushing more small cars onto the road, insurance specialist Warranty Direct has revealed the Honda Jazz as one of the most reliable Superminis on the road.
According to data compiled from Warranty Direct's 50,000 UK policies on 4-7 year old cars, only one in 10 of the diminutive Jazz models will break down in the average year.
Official pictures have been released of the Honda CR-Z concept, the first hybrid with seriously sporting pretensions.
Honda is set to unveil it at this year's Tokyo motor show in late October and, despite the 'concept' tag, Honda sources say that it's nine-tenths production ready and will be in UK showrooms by the summer of 2010.
Honda is testing reaction to a future rival for the Ford S-Max with a new hybrid concept called the Honda Skydeck.
The sleek MPV is likely to replace the FR-V for Europe, although it has a more conventional three rows of seats instead of the previous car's two benches. The car's proportions are only slightly smaller than those of the Ford, and it is substantially larger than the FR-V in all but width.
The government is to extend its car scrappage scheme, in an announcement made by Lord Mandelson. He said the scheme, which started in May and gives consumers £2,000 off a new car if they trade in one at least 10 years old, was running out of money.
We cannot do everything but that does not mean doing nothing
Our managing director Richard Roberts today announced the appointment of James Roberts to the board of directors:
I am very pleased to announce that James Roberts, our Group Used Car Buyer, has been promoted to the role of Director - Used Car Operations with immediate effect. This is in recognition of the role played by James in a vital part of our business.
Please visit our Management Team page for more details.
Official pictures have been released of the new Honda CR-V, which will go on sale in January 2010.
The car will be available with Honda's 2.2-litre i-DTEC engine, which was launched in the Accord last year, for the first time. It produces 148bhp and 258lb ft of torque. It can also be mated to either a manual gearbox or a new, five-speed automatic unit.
The Honda Insight has been rated one of the UK's safest cars, setting the benchmark for hybrid cars, according to the new independent crash testing results from Euro NCAP.
The Insight is in good company, with the Jazz, Civic and Accord all awarded the maximum five star rating since the introduction of the new rating scheme.
Honda could be set to launch an all-electric city car at the Tokyo motor show in October, according to reports in Japan.
Honda has long favoured hydrogen fuel-cell technology over all-electric cars, but it could be forced into adopting electric technology due to the slow set-up and huge cost of hydrogen networks around the world.