The Great Recession is forcing even healthy automakers to rethink their plans.
It appears that carmaker is taking a whole new direction than previously planned. According to AutoWeek, Honda's CEO said that it will be constructing less expensive, more fuel-efficient vehicles. The move is said to have been made because of the rising cost of oil, steel and aluminum.
Pundits expect the Japanese automaker will be using its Civic platform on more vehicles and thus making it necessary to make major changes to vehicles already in development. So how profound are these changes? Well, Honda engineers have been tasked to make the Civic smaller, lighter, and more fuel efficient than originally designed. Honda had announced that it will be killing the V-8 and rear-wheel-drive programs.
There's obviously a price with this new direction. The changes in the Civic will be costly and cause significant delays in the introduction of new products. The delay could have a major effect on vehicles that share the Civic architecture including the CR-V and the Element. Thus, don't be surprised if new offerings will be sparse from Honda over the next few years.