MiraiZ

Yup, it finally happened man! Honda has announced that they will end the production of the Honda Civic Type R, the last car in the the Type R lineage, this summer. Honda sited that this is due to poor sales of cars with relatively poor gas mileage.


Translated article:



On April 15th, we learned that the production of the Civic Type R, the sports version of the Honda Civic 4 door sedan, will come to an end. This is due to poor sales due to poor gas mileage and in addition to the difficulty of controlling emissions. This will also be officially announced on the 19th.



The "Type R" brand has been the symbol of Honda's sports car image, and has had a solid following by its fans. Models such the Integra and NSX have been configured to be "Type Rs", however the Civic Type R is only model currently available on the domestic market that retains the Type R brand.

There were plans to import the Civic Type R Euro, which is the 3 door hatch back version produced in the U.K., however if the plans fall through, this could mean the end of the existence of Type R brand within the Japanese Domestic Market.

The Civic Type R was originally produced in 1997, for sports minded fans who can appreciate a high performance sports car.

http://www.47news.jp/CN/201004/CN2010041501001042.html
(original article in Japanese)

Updated Article as of April 19th

　
April 19th -Honda has officially announced that the production of the Civic Type R (4 door sedan) will end at the end of August of this year, due to poor sales and the inability to meet tough emission standards. The current model was introduced in 2007, and produced at the Suzuka factory in Mie prefecture.

This will begin Honda's shift towards producing sports models that are also aimed to be environmentally friendly, such as the CR-Z hybrid sports car, which began sales February of this year.

It was also announced that Honda will begin limited domestic sales of the U.K. produced 3 door variant model this fall. Honda's marketing division was quoted as saying "We will continue to produce sports cars, so that users can enjoy the experience of driving. That will remain our policy."

Original article in Japanese:
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/economy/bus...1707012-n1.htm

Dogginator

*Pours one out.*

Honda seeks to become Toyota.

98ITR747

Honda is a business and obviously they are adjusting their business to the demands of the consumer. It is an interesting FACT that Honda has never made a profit on ANY Type R model. They were an advertising expense. A theoretical "what if" scenario that actually came to reality. Limited production race cars under $50k (with the exception of the NSX) They were an extravagance.

Ultimately, they have been perhaps the most successful line up of touring race cars ever produced. The Integra Type R in particular is the only car that has won every single Speedvision World Challenge Series 6 years in a row (Realtime Acura).. one win for every year of production until it's cancellation.

Another very interesting FACT is that a lot of the world's exotic cars are all designed by the same group of people. For instance Ken Okuyama who worked on the NSX also worked on the Ferrari Enzo, the C5 Corvette (which is why the C6 and the facelift NSX are so similar in styling) and many numerous other cars. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Okuyama

The engineer for the entire Type R line up was Shigeru Uehara who worked directly with Ken Okuyama to design the NSX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigeru_Uehara
It is arguable that when Shigeru Uehara retired the Type R line up retired with him and that now finally the last of the vehicles in production has been canceled, the legendary era is over.

The famous F1 driver Alex Zanardi also had some input in the design of the NSX which is why there is a special Zanardi edition NSX named after him.

Finally, if it weren't for the NSX there would be no Mclaren F1 or at least it would NOT be in the form it took shape in. The creator of the F1 greatly credits Honda's NSX for being it's primary influence. It's also worth mentioning that the NSX forced Ferrari to innovate for their 360 model which subsequently influenced the current 430.

It is for these reasons that, in the future any R labeled vehicle and certain S2k's like the CR, all NSX, and other influenced model lines will be the collectors cars of the future. It put directly the lineage of racing design in the hands of the everyday Joe. It was an epic experiment really.

While we should be sad that it is the end of an era, we should also be glad that we were given the opportunity to own and enjoy these awesome, limited production, vehicles. This really has been history in the making.

Dave-ROR

Pretty much. The CTR is a car I would have bought if it made it to the US. I don't like Si's enough to buy one, and nothing else they sell is worth buying now that they've made the TSX so damn ugly.

Sad.

Although, if/whent he FT-86 comes out Toyota will have a real shot of actually having a car worth buying again.. will Honda have anything by that point? Doesn't look like it...

98ITR747

Toyota's credibility is shot to hell. They will be lucky to avoid bankruptcy after all the class action lawsuits. I wouldn't expect anything from them.

Tootsie7944

It's ashame to see an era of such awesome cars come to an end, but I fear performance cars in general will be coming to a close in the next 5 years with gas, emissions, politics, etc.

Personally, now that I boosted my Type R, I feel like there is nothing that can even compare to it. It's fast, reliable, gets 30 mpgs, light weight, brakes insane, and can corner like it's on rails.

Just the fact that the Type R's came with reinforced welds, more structural supports, and pretty good brakes sets it apart from the get go.

Dogginator

Were the other Type R pedigree as modified for the structure?

Todd00

In the later cars, such as the DC5 and beyond, the structure did not need to be modified for the Type R versions.

Only the EK and DC2 had reinforced shells for the R package. I am not sure about the late 90's Accord Type R.

BlueIntegraBoy

iTrader: (5)

I need to go home and drive my R. One more week!

MiraiZ

hmm...I've got to question some of your facts here.

First of all, Honda/Acura did make a profit on both the Civic and the Integra Type R models. That's why they were around as long as they were. Do you honestly believe that Honda would keep a car that loses money every time one is sold for 10 years? You gotta remember that the DC2 and EK9's were based on pre-existing models, hence production costs were only slightly more than the non-R's. I agree that The Type R's were not as profitable as the non-R model, but that's only because they were not as main stream and regularly sold as the non-R model (although it was once said that at it peak, one in every four Civics sold in Japan was a Type R). Also the production and R&D costs of the Civic and Integra Type R (the earlier versions) were higher than the non-R models hence, they turn back less of a profit margin...but they did make a profit, and were profitable none-the-less.

The NSX-R however is a different story. The R&D and production cost did exceed the sales cost hence Honda made no profit on them. The NSX-R was a completely different animal compared to it non-R counterpart, and was made to outperform some of its European competitors. This was done to really show what Honda could do with its technology at a time when Honda was making a lot of money and didn't care about making a profit. As a matter of fact, they took a loss for every one sold. Therefore there were only sold in Japan in limited numbers.

As for the Alex Zanardi edition (or the Type S-Zero in Japan) this was not named after Zanardi because he helped design or create the NSX, it was named after him because he was the 2 time CART champion in 96 and 97 (not F1 -Zanardi was never successful or famous for F1), ending a very poor performance streak for Honda engines in the American open wheel sports circle. He was seen as the guy who gave Honda the recognition it was desperately seeking in the American auto racing circle, hence they named the car after him.

Ayrton Senna was actually the guy who supplied technical knowledge to the Honda engineers when creating the NSX back in the mid to late 80's.

Additionally, saying that the McLaren F1 GTR was influenced by the NSX is an overstatement. In actuality, the designer wanted the McLaren to have the same user friendliness and drive-ability as the NSX, and even considered using a Honda engine, but ultimately Honda refused to make a V10 or V12 engine that they were asking for, and wound up opting for a more powerful engine made by BMW. And if you've ever seen the interior of the F1, you'll know that there is nothing user friendly or "close to the NSX" about the McLaren F1, hence if the F1's design was based on the NSX, it was done extremely loosely, as the two cars neither resemble each other, or share the same ride quality.

Finally, there was nothing historical about the creation of the Type R series. It was a money making venture on the part of Honda that proved not to be so profitable in this day and age, so it was scrapped. Its the sign of the times, nothing more, nothing less. Japanese car designs will ALWAYS reflect the state of the Japanese economy. Right now, the economy sucks, so we will be seeing nothing but cheap econoboxes for a while. But as soon as the economy picks up again, I can almost guarantee the return of the Type R....hopefully it will be a good comeback and Honda return to its true Type R lineage rather than creating more highly electronically governed crap boxes that they've been creating in recent years.

MiraiZ

This is because unlike the DC2, the Type R version of the DC5 was created before the non-R version. Unfortunately, this left no room for improvement and the DC5R remained soft and too refined. The DC2 feels stripped and raw because they had a point of comparison to work with. They wanted the car to be much more raw and racier than it's Si-R counterpart, hence they always had a frame of reference to work with, whereas the DC5 didn't.

Todd00

Pretty much nails it.

And they had better get some decent interior/exterior designers for the next refresh.

Dave-ROR

Subaru is also involved, at worst it might just sell under the Subaru name only. Hell it's mostly a subaru anyways, just without AWD crap

get RIGHT

The end of an Era.

Tyrant_007

iTrader: (1)

Sad news.

Gironamo

Sad...

PaulMc

iTrader: (1)

All the Type R brand cars after 2000 ('01 for USDM) were lame anyway. The DC2 and EK9 were by far the best Type-R cars ever made. The DC5 and EP3 were poor excuses for Type-R's. It almost seems like Honda stopped improving the cars as time went on. I've seen comparisions between the '96 Spec JDM ITR and the newer CTR and nothing stands out like it should being it's 15 years later then when the '96 Spec debuted. Time went on, and the car's never really changed, sure the body and type of motor did, but it was still a 200hp give or take, FWD car. I still wonder why the USDM Integra Type-R came with an LSD trans from 97-01 then when the DC2 discontinued in '02 and the RSX-S debuted, it was a weeker model, no LSD trans, but a 6th gear? Makes no sense why Honda decided to add a 6th gear to the RSX-S and didn't make LSD an option. I'm sure that contributed to the fall in sales for people who were still learning about the DC2 ITR and just liked the DC5 model better for it's looks, and decided NOT to purchase it because it was newer, but not as good as the previous model from 97-01.

Indeed this is bad news, so now what? The Type-R series from Honda existed for 15 years. This will probably just bring up the value of our cars in the future being we have a chassis and a brand that is no longer produced and was limited in production when on the market. I'm heading out now to drive my TYPE-R!!

Todd00

The DC2R was said to have lost money in North America with every one sold. As for other parts of the world, probably not.

REDTMNT

Well said ^

98ITR747

Miraiz, I stand corrected. You're right on all points. Oh and I knew it was Senna I just got him mixed up with Zanardi.

Dave-ROR

I agree on the DC5 and EP3.. but not mentioning the NSX-R? I'd love to have an NSX-R, but wouldn't want a normal NSX generally speaking.

BlueIntegraBoy

iTrader: (5)

You suck.

I will have that glory next week when I get home.

1GreyTeg

Sux.

MiraiZ

Sorry for being **** on facts, but here is a quick fact check:

The first R was the 1992 NSX-R made in 1992 (production year). However if you want to include all production Type R's ever made, you can argue that the very first Type R ever made was in 1987. It was the Honda DJ1R, followed by the Honda DJ1RR (see below). These were race ready 50cc sports scooter that were often used for one-make scooter races. The US got a watered down version of the DJ1 called the Honda Elite 50s (in 1987), which were less sportier looking, but ironically a lot faster than its Japanese counterpart, which I had and still own to this day.

So technically, the R brand has been around for at least 23 years.

Hondaru

Definitely a bummer, but something that was expected. NSX, gone. S2000, gone. RSX, gone. Prelude, gone. Honda no longer has a stand-alone model targeted at the sports enthusiast. Everyone is right; Honda has moved to cars that sell, a lot. Even if the Type-R's made money, they sure didn't make as much money per unit (factoring in engineering, development, etc) as the Civics, Accords, CR-Vs, Fits, Odysseys and Pilots. I'm not saying it doesn't make sense; the future is in the insights, CR-Zs and Clarities, not in a group of individually numbered, limited production "fan boy" cars (I always hated that term, I prefer enthusiast, but the point still stands).

At the end of the day Honda no longer cares about developing a car for the enthusiast audience, again from a business perspective I cannot blame them, but it still saddens me. I'm always happier when I get out of my Integra than my Impreza, but when I look to upgrade the Impreza with a new daily driver, I'm sure as hell not stopping at my local Honda/Acura dealership along the way...