I clipped the following from a website posting. Boy, how times have changed. Import guys giving "high praise" to a Mustang.
I=92m writing in response to last week=92s column on Honda and Toyota, and to tell you where you can find a new group of fans. Some of your fans can be found on the car talk section of
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the largest s2000 forum on the web, and they seem to be with you on the Honda mojo issue. Honda should take notice when some of the most die-hard Honda guys agree with you when you say Honda has lost its mojo. When I first joined the forum 4 years ago, many people would suggest Honda cars when I forum member would post a question on new car selection. We would suggest Civic and Accord daily drivers, the original TSX (with 6 speed manual of course) for affordable luxury sedans, and the forum still had some stalwart fans of the NSX. Not anymore. Many forum members suggest a Boxster or Cayman when a person asks which car they should get to replace their S2000. Several forum members expressed high praise for the new 2011 Mustang. A lot of us traded up to Corvettes. That=92s right, more than a few of the VTEC addicts of the world have moved on to American V8s. I don=92t think we wanted it this way. We wanted Honda to continue to evolve the S2000 and the NSX in the same way Porsche kept plugging away at the 911 and Chevy kept refining the Corvette. Keep the basic formula the same, and then keep on making it better. We would have kept buying them. How many Porsche owners are on 911 number 4. Instead, both sports cars are gone, and the only Hondas I would recommend to a friend are the Fit (but I=92d also tell the friend to test drive a Mazda 2 or Fiesta) and the Odyssey.
The solution for Honda should be obvious. Make the next Civic in both Sedan and Hatchback. Make an Si and a Type R version that can give a Mazdaspeed 3 and a WRX a run for the money on a racetrack or autocross course. Make an S2000 successor that offers the same Porsche level performance at 2/3rds of the price. Then in a few years, make a spec racer series for both, get a couple of national autocross championships, and make a good race engine or two. After that=92s all done, a reasonably competitive Accord should be second nature. They don=92t have much time though. I hear Hyundai or Kia may have a roadster in the pipeline, and the current civic isn=92t getting any younger. In fact, I bet Hyundai is only one Genesis refresh away from getting real respectability from enthusiasts. Meanwhile, I continue to keep my S2000 in good shape while I glance at Autotrader=92s used Boxster prices.
Patrick