LAST year Honda seemed to be in a terrible place.
Lack of new product, factory layoffs while Jaguar Land Rover were recruiting, a corporate sales team without clear direction…
…it wasn’t good.
But fortunately that has changed.
And much of it surrounds the company’s new 1.6 litre diesel engine. And the fact that corporate sales now has some real direction following the appointment of Lee Wheeler to head up the function (see my blog Lee Wheeler takes on Honda corporate sales role – permanently).
Let’s start with the 1.6 diesel. I tried it earlier this year in the Civic – unfortunately, as you can see, in a period when snow was the norm. But the chances I did get to drive it convinced me this is a significant new unit.
Official fuel economy is 78.5mpg – I was showing 60+ on the computer. So it’s seriously economical.
It’s also good on company car tax. With CO2 emissions of 94g/km it has a company car tax band of just 13% for this current tax year.