Honda Gets its Mojo Back: Consumer Reports Puts 2013 Accord on Top of its Class

Despite the (in)famous 2012 Civic episode, there seems to be no bad feelings between Honda and Consumer Reports (CR). The publication may have dropped the 2012 Civic from its recommended list pressuring for a quick redesign, but Honda can relax as far as its U.S. market best-seller is concerned.

In fact, it may even smile as CR has put the 2013 Accord at the top of its class in four-cylinder guise while it notes that the V6 version is “challenging the Toyota Camry for the top spot” in its ratings.

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2013 North American Car and Truck of the Year Finalists: Which Ones Do You Think Will Win?

Last year, Ford, with its Focus, was the sole U.S. manufacturer included in the final list for the North American Car and Truck of the Year award and it finished in third place, behind the VW Passat and the winner, Hyundai’s Elantra.

Even more surprising was the truck class where the Range Rover Evoque beat the Honda CR-V and the BMW X3. Where is this world coming to if U.S. manufacturers can’t build an SUV or truck to make an impression in their own market?

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If You're Going to Anger Your Lady, You Better Hide Your Car or Else….

Reminds us not piss off any Brazilian woman. Dozens of bystanders on a street in Vila Olímpia, an upper-class neighborhood in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, were treated to a spectacle earlier this week when a young woman lashed out her anger on her boyfriend's or according to some other accounts, husband's black Honda Accord.

The woman used anything she could get her angry hands on, from keys to bricks, to cause as much damage as she could on the Japanese sedan.

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2014 Honda Accord Plug-in Hybrid with 115MPGe Rating Priced from $39,780*

We've already seen the new Accord but at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Honda announced that the frugal, Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) variant of the series will be available for retail sale and lease beginning January 15 in the states of California and New York, with an MSRP of $39,780, excluding a $790 destination (*) fee.

Whether or not it's worth paying close to double or about $18,000 more than the base $21,680 2013 Accord with a 185hp four-cylinder engine, or even a $10,000 premium over a fully equipped EX-L with Navigation, is something that buyers should seriously take into consideration.

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C&D Puts the VW Passat Against Newcomers Ford Fusion, Honda Accord and Nissan Altima

It's the most popular passenger car segment in the U.S.A. with well over 1 million annual sales and four representatives in 2011's list of the 10 bestselling models overall, including the Toyota Camry that finished 3rd behind the Ford F-Series and Chevy Silverado trucks, followed by the Nissan Altima (4th overall), Ford Fusion (6th) and Honda Accord (9th).

We are talking of course about the mid-size category, which is the subject of Car & Driver's (C&D) magazine latest comparison test.

The publication took its previous winner, the North American market VW Passat (not to be confused with the Passat sold in other regions) that beat the Toyota Camry and Hyundai Sonata, and compared it against three newcomers, the 2013 versions of the Ford Fusion (to be sold in Europe as the new Mondeo), Honda Accord and Nissan Altima.

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2013 Honda Accord Coupe and Sedan Take the Stage at the SEMA Show

Honda says it is "reaching out to the enthusiast community" with two new concepts of the 2013 Accord that were built by independent vehicle tuners and which are on display at this week's SEMA Show in Las Vegas.

The most impressive of the two models is the 2013 Accord Coupe "Grand Touring" developed by Bisimoto Engineering, which upgraded the stock car's 3.5-liter V6 with a supercharger system and a boatload of other goods to lift output to 401-horses.

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The Sales Network: Facebook’s New Features Help Carmakers Shift More Cars

Initially, Facebook was available only to Harvard students, then to other Ivy League institutions, companies like Apple and Microsoft and as of September 26, 2006, everyone in the world who has a valid email address and is at least 13 years old.

As of last month, the social network has over one billion active users worldwide. California-based web analytics company Quantcast reports that in May 2011, it had 138.9 million monthly unique visitors in the U.S.; that’s close to 45 percent of the country’s population.

A billion users, half of them accessing the social media through their mobile devices, which means that they can be reached at all times: it’s a marketing team's wettest dream.

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