F1 woes harmful to brand image??

[Pickle77]

It saddens me that, having invested squillions in a return to F1, the Honda brand image is compromised by the 'disappointing' performance of the McLaren Honda.
Surely, when the commentator says that 'the McLaren is not only slow, it's unreliable', Honda's general reputation must take a knock.

[Deerfoot]

I'm guessing the demographic of Honda buyers will not give a toot about Honda's F1 woes, indeed many will be unaware of their involvement in the sport.

Anyway, the reliability surveys of road cars still rate them so I can't see them suffering much.

I agree it doesn't look great though.

[Sheepshanks]

Deerfoot said:

I'm guessing the demographic of Honda buyers will not give a toot about Honda's F1 woes, indeed many will be unaware of their involvement in the sport.

If that was true then it would make their investment in F1 somewhat pointless.

I don't make any connection between this sort of thing and the real world, but there was someone on here recently saying they chose their car based on the manufacturers motorsport heritage.

[Deerfoot]

Sheepshanks said:

If that was true then it would make their investment in F1 somewhat pointless.

I'd say it is somewhat pointless. I've never really understood the hype surrounding motorsport heritage, the old phrase of 'win on Sunday, sell on Monday' must be largely fictional for the majority of customers where cost is king.

Did people really buy a diesel Megane on the back of Renault's F1 success?

[Sheepshanks]

Gaz. said:

It can't do as much harm as their salesmen.

Or Honda UK's strategies of shutting down the smaller, long established dealers that people loved and kept going back to, and having cars which are stupidly expensive.

[rb26]

Sheepshanks said:

Or Honda UK's strategies of shutting down the smaller, long established dealers that people loved and kept going back to, and having cars which are stupidly expensive.

• This*

Driving past 2 mills in Cheshire is depressing to say the least. I have so many memories as a child going into the dealer when my mum was servicing her CR-V (which she still has after 11 years and its never skipped a beat, apart from a dead battery which was due to lack of use) and sitting in the EP3 Type-R's they had in, as well as looking at the few NSX NA2's they had.

Nothing Honda builds currently interests me, at all. Even the new Civic Type-R and NSX aren't getting the juices flowing, which is sad as I like the companies history. I hope Honda go back to making overly engineering cars of yesteryear instead of the crap they make today.

[Thunder18]

Gaz. said:

It can't do as much harm as their salesmen.

I was called two years ago by a main dealer who asked me if I was happy with my S2000 and would I be looking for a new car soon? Why yes I said, I'd like a Rio Yellow S2k with a hard top and that I'd be prepared to wait months for it to come into the network stock and my budget was unlimited.

I have been spammed to kingdom come for Civics, CRVs, Accords and Jazzs, every three days for two years. Not one S2000, never mind a yellow one.

Parts & Service depts are brilliant, best I've ever encountered in the motoring world but the salesmen are clearly no better than estate agents.

Mclaren had the best engine on the grid last year and they were no-where then either, 2013 with the proven championship winning Mercedes V8 engine was dire too, they also flushed a double championship down the toilet in 2012 too, the big question is that would a non F1 fan know this?

One thing that goes in Honda's favour is that Mclaren haven't knifed them in the back like Horner has to Renault.

Have you got your deposit ready? These patent images were leaked online yesterday....


F1, on the dyno, the Honda PU is on par or thereabouts with Mercedes, they just can't get the package right in the car, it's the electrical stuff that's not coming together, hence why the engine is thirsty, the mgu-k is not assisting enough, when they get that right, it'll be a leapfrog in performance...

[mikey77]

Well, over many decades I've bought Hondas, partly influenced by the motor sport heritage. And - this is absolutely true - just recently I have been seriously considering a Honda hybrid. Not now though. Who wants to be laughed at?

[Chippo1]

I really do no think many people look at reliability studies before buying car , not in depth in any case . Other wise why would any one buy an Audi one of the most unreliable cars in the market place in current times .

[havoc]

Gaz. said:

Parts & Service depts are brilliant, best I've ever encountered in the motoring world but the salesmen are clearly no better than estate agents.

One thing that goes in Honda's favour is that Mclaren haven't knifed them in the back like Horner has to Renault.

1) Agreed. Although HUK parts pricing is an utter joke...when you can consistently import from USA / Japan, including freight and duty, and still undercut 'headline' part prices by 25-50%, you know that HUK are taking the proverbial...

2) True. Renault power units have never been top-of-the-tree*, but the RB chassis was always good enough to put them on the front of the grid and disguise this. Now the chassis isn't enough, RB are bhing and moaning loads. Unlike Ferrari, who over the last 12 months have (finally) rolled up their sleeves and delivered...


* Not since the last turbo days (maybe the V10s...not convinced though), anyway...

[robinbanksuk]

Imo honda is slowly dying . The reliability is no longer what is use to be. And The cars are overpriced for what they now are. The honda FN we have now has had 3 faults from new! One is the dash clock display ( a problem that common?) The last honda we had (honda aerodeck 2000) was epic it just kept going and going, nothing would go wrong!

[havoc]

robinbanksuk said:

And The cars are overpriced for what they now are.

Possibly right there - saw a new Civic Tourer diesel in the local dealers with a sticker price of nigh-on £30k...

...which given we'd just taken delivery of a (lease of course) Golf-R for the missus which before options (and it's fairly loaded already...we only added a reversing camera and met paint), sort of didn't make sense - 2x the bhp, 4wd, better suspension, nicer interior...really didn't understand the Honda pricing...

[Sheepshanks]

havoc said:

robinbanksuk said:

And The cars are overpriced for what they now are.

Possibly right there - saw a new Civic Tourer diesel in the local dealers with a sticker price of nigh-on £30k...

I know it's not going to be most PHer's cup of tea, but my missus is very happy with her Jazz to the extent that when we came to change it she didn't even want to look at anything else - which suits me, made the job easy.

However she could do with something a little big bigger so has been quite eagerly awaiting the jacked-up version, HR-V. Local dealer sent us a "VIP Invite" to a showroom event with the HR-V filling the cover, and the new Jazz on the inside.

Imagine her dismay to find neither of the car shown will be on show, and won't be for a couple of months. Apparently the showroom event is just a standard sale type of thing. They couldn't have pissed her off more if they tried!

And to top it all, it seems HR-V in a decent spec is £25K. WTF!