Is it me....or did anyone else see a reduced presence by Honda at SEMA?

At previous SEMA shows, there were literally dozens of tuned Hondas. Honda absolutely dominated that aspect of the show in previous years. Has Honda lost it's place as KING of the tuner crowd?

And who is ready to take their place?
Ford has been pushing the Focus hard...both in house and with the aftermarket.

DC's Neon is a respectable piece.

Is GM coming in too little, too late with Saturn and the J-car?

 

It seems now they are never the 1st with just about everything.

 

Anyone else that was at SEMA can back this up?

I didn't go to SEMA, but GM's and Ford's push looks like it worked in gathering alot more notice...

 

Even Steeda, Saleen, and Sean Hyland (sp?) have all jumped on the focus. I'm sure many more stang tuners will jump on the bandwagon as well. There's talk of a cosworth turbo version being offered alongside the SVT version. Ford is also offering parts for the focus through "Ford Raciong Performance Parts" and we all remember the 305hp FR200 focus. FR200 parts are slowly finding their way into the Ford racing catelog.

DC is pushing the SRT-4 real hard and has made it a real performance threat to cars like the WRX and Automatic Lt-1 f-bods along with automatic GT's. All for a 19k sticker which makes it one of the best performance buys there is today.

GM. I don't really see a majority of the so called "tuner" generation being real serious about a Saturn and the new cavy and Sunfire's styling really turns many people off. There's ugly and then there's real ugly.

Honda seems to be losing that part of the market. No body even bothers hopping up the new civics. Honda has made it harder to work on the engines and their suspension aren't as good as the previous generations. They increased displacement on the SI this year but gained nothing in terms HP and little in terms of Tq. Hanging around the honda forums, it seems as if many of the guys and girls there aren't too fond of the current generations civics styling. So honda is losing touch. They killed the Lude, and have priced the s2k and NSX out of most people's reaches. I just don't see enough RSX's in the streets so i guess they aren't selling too well.

My 2 cents.

 

Chevy really needs to do a great job on the next Delta based Cavalier.

They've got to be able to play with the big dogs...without excuses.

Maybe bring back the Z24 ( or maybe not). But at any rate...give it a supercharged 220hp Ecotec, develop a 6 speed transaxle that can handle it, 17' wheels, big brakes and great suspension for $19K.

 

I think Honda has just about dropped out of the performance market. Do they think that the current "Civic Si" hatchback is an improvent over the dear departed Civic Si coupe? How about the Acura RSX, which hardly compares with the 1993 Integra?

In case anyone hasn't noticed, Honda has been going downhill since the late 1980s in terms of design. If you ask me, the 1986-1988 Honda Accord was one best looking cars they ever put out. The same goes for the first version of the Civic coupe. Maybe all those nifty VTEC engines just obscured the truth.

Of Honda's recent efforts, the only one that gives me hope is the Accord V6 coupe - 240hp, 6-speed. There again, maybe it's just a Monte Carlo translated into Japanese.

 

Ford & Chrysler seem to be the next wave in enthusiast cars. It almost seemed that Chrysler showed off a version of every car they had, and between PTs Neons, & Escorts, there didn't seem to be much else.

I think the Cavalier cars are late to the party (they're only going to be around a couple more years at the most!). GM should have pushed Saturn the way it's doing now back in the mid 90s!.

Well, at least GM's trucks we well represented.

 

http://autoweek.com/cat_content.mv?p..._code=07319051

 

To compare the '57 Chevy to a Honda Civic is the insult of insults.

It is very encouraging to see that the market for domestic tuning is increasing even though the 4 bangers aren't my thing. The whole compact craze started because of the individuality possible with them....now that everyone has a Honda it makes sense that there would be a backlash.

 

OK, that was just 1 of the stupidest things I've ever read. There isn't and never will be a way to compare the 2 cars.

 

I've also been noticing alot more larger "tuned" cars on the street.

Cars like Toyota Solara and Accord coupe. Maybe former Civic owners have graduated to these cars.