It's true, Hondas are Boring

17-January-2012

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The last place you’d expect to hear Hondas are a bit boring is from Honda itself.

Yet according to the Sydney Morning Herald, that’s exactly what happened at the Tokyo Motor Show, held in late November 2011.

Honda’s creative director of styling design development Yoshinori Asahi admitted the models produced by the car manufacturer in the last three years were focused more on “efficient” design rather than “visual excitement” and that it will be at least another three or so years before the company finds its new groove.

"Frankly speaking we think that in the past few years the cars have been a bit boring," Asahi said. "Please wait for two or three years and then we will be more exciting."

The futuristic Honda car trio unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show offered just a taste of the so-called excitement to come from the Japanese automaker. On show was the Honda EV-Ster - a compact, open-top sports model, the AC-X - a large sleek sedan, and the Honda Micro Commuter Concept – an environmentally-friendly car that will feature an electric powertrain and looks like R2D2’s long-lost cousin. Rather than fitting these models with steering wheels, Honda has gone for twin-lever steering joysticks that fold away when the car is in auto-mode. Ikea could learn a thing or two about space saving from these guys!

"It's not that we are going to completely eliminate the steering wheel, but we are aggressively trying to come up with a new proposal," Mr Asahi said, giving the concept of ‘re-inventing the wheel’ a whole new life.