Vancouver

Honda Halts Production of Sports Coupe
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Filed at 1:25 p.m. ET

MARYSVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Honda will stop making the Acura CL sports coupe, its first car fully designed and produced in the United States, because of slumping sales.

The Acura CL, introduced in 1996, is made only in this central Ohio city. Production will end this summer.

Overall production levels and employment, which is now at 5,800 workers, won't be affected, the Japanese automaker said on Monday.

Honda spokesman Ron Lietzke said production of Accord sedans, Accord coupes or Acura TL sedans will be increased. Honda has been making about 1,000 Acura CLs a month at the plant, which represents 2 percent of total production.

The Acura CL, redesigned for the 2001 model year, started strong, but sales dropped in recent years, Acura spokesman Mike Spencer said. Sales fell 36 percent to 12,072 last year.

Sales this year were off 36 percent through the end of April, despite the fact that Honda offered a new Type-S CL for 2003 with a six-speed manual transmission that enthusiasts requested.

Honda didn't believe it was worth the cost to redevelop the CL to make it more popular, Spencer said.

``It's a very fickle market, and it's too high a penalty to pay in development costs for the sales volume,'' he said.

Acura has no plans to make another sports coupe, Spencer said.

Acura, Honda's upscale division, also produces the MDX sport-utility vehicle, RSX sports coupe and RL luxury sedan.

DTECH-RX

Looks like Acura needs to come into the 21st century and make a REAR WHEEL DRIVE sports coupe. Why is that so hard for them to figure out??? Who wants an overweight 260 HP (Acura CL Type-S) FWD that looks homely and has only average handling? Shave some weight, make the car RWD, 6speed, AND 260HP and then they might have something.

Ya think??? :p

pelucidor

Completely agree - Honda can make stunning cars (S2000, NSX, Integra-R etc) but choose blandness over passion 99% of the time. Although their focus on FWD and small 4 or 6 cylinder engines has done well for them so far, I think the world is changing - even GM and Chrylser are moving back to RWD family cars.

All other Japanese/European manufacturers have RWD or AWD sedan/coupe vehicle choices once you hit $30k except Honda/Acura (e.g. IS300 & GS300, G35, MB C240, BMW 325i, Audi A4 quattro, Passat W8 etc). Acura should be ashamed that their 2004 model RL flagship luxury sedan is a $46k FWD car with a 3.5 V6 producing 225hp and mated to a 4 speed auto. This is meant to compete with the Lexus GS430/LS430, MB E-class or BMW 5 series? Might as well get a V6 Accord EX (more power, 5 speed auto etc) and save $22k. BTW I own an Acura and love (some) Hondas...

babylou

Because I am a driving enthusiast I detest FWD cars and souless cars (most Hondas). Everyone is saying that Honda needs to make RWD and sportier cars, etc. Honda is one of the few companies this year that is still experiencing sales growth in North America. They are also unbelievable profitable. Mazda wishes their yearly profit equaled Honda for a two month period. Moral of the story; Honda cars may suck for the enthusiast but they kick *** for the 90% of the potential customers and the investor. Honda works for the investor, not for the enthusiast. The enthusiast market is not very proftable.

Puppy1

I currently own my 5th consecutive Honda/Acura product. They have all been outstanding cars. I put 300k on my CRXsi and now have 292k on my Vigor GS. 1 1/2 years ago I was all set to buy either an RSX Type-S or a TL Type-S. Then the CL came out. I didn't even consider it for a second. Boring!.

My only complaint was that all 4 seater "practical" Honda/Acura cars (not the S2000 and NSX) were boring!

While weighing the pluses and minuses of each I found out about the RX8. It would give me the practicality of the 4 door TL, and the driving pleasure exceeding that of the RSX. All packaged in one damm good looking car. Then I found this forum. I haven't looked back.

Hondas are great cars. Just because I want to seat 4 people in my car why does Honda insist that it must be front drive and have little personality? The entire rebirth of Nissan/Inifiniti is all because of injecting ground breaking looks and muscle to back the looks up in to their entire product line. I hope Honda/Acura has taken notice. The CL failed because it was still BORING, not because it wasn't an excellent car.

Hercules

I give Honda credit for this much... while most of their cars are FWDers, they handle with the best FWD cars on the market.

Also, they are able to reduce manufacturing costs by sticking to the FWD layout in their cars and thus take home some more money. It's business sense.

Mazda I think knows, that they can't compete with Honda directly in the mass-market against the Accord and Civics. But they can make cars that people have a BLAST driving and that's where they will make their money.

Here's a nice tidbit of information... in a Honda plant in the US, it takes about 8 seconds to produce a car. A Ford made in Detroit takes 53 seconds. (this is due a lot to unions too, that destroy American car companies but that's another discussion).

And you wonder why they're not changin? They got a good thing going!

Vancouver

It must take longer than 8 seconds, or even 53 seconds. Do you mean hours?

zoom44

no a a complete, ready to go to the dealer, car rolls of the assembly line every 8 seconds as opposed to 1 every 53 seconds for the average Ford.

Vancouver

Maybe the Ford drivers drive more slowly?

zoom44

that and if union rules say you get a break now that means now! even if the car is half off the assembly line

Wing

Ummm, it doesn't take 8 seconds to PRODUCE a car. LOL, it takes more than 8 seconds to think about producing a car, sheesh it takes more than 8 seconds to put 1 wheel nut on!

After they start building the cars are 8 seconds apart maybe rolling out. What is the difference between that and 53 secs? Doesn't really tell you much, except maybe they start the second car later at the ford plant