Honda Motor Southern Africa broadening the appeal of the Mobilio

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• New CVT gearbox adds further convenience and efficiency


• Space and versatility remain key attributes


• Full 6-seater interior offers space and high comfort levels


• Value-added pricing still ensures high degree of affordability

Only 6 months after introducing the sleek, stylish and affordable Mobilio to the South African market, Honda Motor Southern Africa is broadening the appeal of the attractive, full-featured MPV with the introduction of a third model, equipped with a Continuously Variable Transmission.

Based on the Mobilio Comfort, the CVT version retains the same, spacious 6-seater interior and comprehensive features list as its manual-gearbox siblings, while adding the convenience and efficiency that Honda’;s CVT is renowned for.

The CVT can be operated like a fully automatic gearbox, which will allow the transmission to always find the optimum combination of power, response and economy. Alternatively, drivers can opt for a sequential manual mode.

The Mobilio Comfort CVT is powered by the same, zippy 1,5-litre petrol engine as the manual-gearbox versions. The advanced 4-cylinder, 16-valve power unit is fitted with Honda’;s i-VTEC intelligent variable valve timing system, and has a maximum power output of 88 kW at 6 600 r/min, linked to a torque peak of 145 Nm at 4 600 r/min.

The CVT-equipped Mobilio offers brisk dynamics, with a 0-100 km/h acceleration time of 11,3 sec, and a maximum speed of 140 km/h. At just 6,0 litres/100 km for the combined cycle, the CVT version is also the most economical member of the Mobilio line-up.

Inside, the MPV’;s comfortable seats, generous head and legroom for all 3 rows of seats, and plenty of luggage space ensure a feeling of luxury and privacy. Despite its comparatively compact footprint, the Mobilio offers sedan-like space, but with the benefit of 3 seating rows.

The 60:40 split second seat row has a slide and recline function that allows the space to be optimised depending on preference and requirement. With a large door aperture and the second row’;s one-motion fold-down function, access to the rear seating is easy and convenient.

The third seat row is split 50:50 with a reclining function, and offers ample legroom. Both seat rows can be folded flat and tumbled forward to maximise cargo space. Even with all seats in place, the Mobilio will swallow a full 223 litres of cargo, which increases to 521 litres with the third row seat folded down.

Honda’;s Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body construction means that new Mobilio provides peace-of-mind safety by managing collision forces, while active and passive safety equipment includes dual front airbags, head restraints, front inertia reel seatbelts with pre-tensioners and load limiters, and ABS brakes with electronic brake force distribution.

“The CVT model adds a further string to the Mobilio’;s bow, and should add further momentum to the demand for this attractive, modern and versatile 6-seater,” says Graham Eagle, operations director at Honda Motor Southern Africa. “It brings further convenience, even greater efficiency and real ease of use to the Mobilio line-up.”

Pricing

Honda Mobilio 1.5 Trend MT               R184 400

Honda Mobilio 1.5 Comfort MT            R203 900

Honda Mobilio 1.5 Comfort CVT           R219 990

All 3 Mobilio models are backed by Honda’;s 3-year/100 000 km warranty, as well as a one-year AA Roadside Assistance package. The Comfort models also benefit from a 2-year/30 000 km service plan.  Services are at 15 000 km intervals.

For more info on buying a vehicle also view:

Vehicle Finance, Car Insurance and Road Safety

Buying and Selling a Vehicle – Informed decisions and the Vehicle Retailer

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Honda Motor Southern Africa broadening the appeal of the Mobilio

Statement by Honda Motor Southern Africa Safety Recall – Driver’s Airbag

Further to the Takata airbag recall earlier this year, Honda will as a precautionary measure, recall a small number of potentially affected 2004 Jazz and 2012 – 2014 Brio vehicles, in order to replace the driver’;s SRS airbag module.

In certain vehicles, the driver’;s SRS airbag may deploy with excessive pressure during an accident which could result in the rupture of the airbag inflator canister. Should this happen, the possibility exists that small fragments might enter the passenger compartment potentially causing injury. Honda Motor Southern Africa has no reported injuries or incidents related to this recall.

A small number of Hondas in South Africa are potentially affected with 481 Jazz 2004 model year and 536 Brio 2012 to 2014 model year.

As a precautionary measure, owners of affected vehicles will be contacted by Honda Motor Southern Africa requesting them to make an appointment with their Honda dealer for replacement of the airbag module. Recall repairs will begin within the second week of December.

Should customers have any queries regarding this recall, they may access the Honda website at www.honda.co.za, email recall@honda.co.za or contact 031 000 0473 to verify if their vehicle is affected.

Statement by Honda Motor Southern Africa Safety Recall – Driver’s Airbag

Statement by Honda Motor Southern Africa Safety Recall – Driver’s Airbag

Further to the Takata airbag recall earlier this year, Honda will as a precautionary measure, recall a small number of potentially affected 2004 Jazz and 2012 – 2014 Brio vehicles, in order to replace the driver’;s SRS airbag module.

In certain vehicles, the driver’;s SRS airbag may deploy with excessive pressure during an accident which could result in the rupture of the airbag inflator canister. Should this happen, the possibility exists that small fragments might enter the passenger compartment potentially causing injury. Honda Motor Southern Africa has no reported injuries or incidents related to this recall.

A small number of Hondas in South Africa are potentially affected with 481 Jazz 2004 model year and 536 Brio 2012 to 2014 model year.

As a precautionary measure, owners of affected vehicles will be contacted by Honda Motor Southern Africa requesting them to make an appointment with their Honda dealer for replacement of the airbag module. Recall repairs will begin within the second week of December.

Should customers have any queries regarding this recall, they may access the Honda website at www.honda.co.za, email recall@honda.co.za or contact 031 000 0473 to verify if their vehicle is affected.

Statement by Honda Motor Southern Africa Safety Recall – Driver’s Airbag

24 Hours of LeMons Southern California: The Winners!

In a strange turn of events for LeMons staffers, whose tips are normally so brilliant, Sunday morning’s crank-Le Mans-start off competitors did not go particularly smoothly. The race pitted the 2 crank-startable cars in the field against each other (Group Tinworm’s Humber Super Snipe and Michael “Spank” Spangler’s Renault 10/Dacia 1100)—done in classic Le Mans style, the 2 drivers were essential to run to their automobiles, cranks in hand, begin the engines, and drive off.

Not 4 feet into the contest, Tinworm captain Alan Frisbie received a healthy forearm shiver from Spank, which right away sent Frisbie to the pavement.

The silver lining for Frisbie, who broke the fall primarily with his left thumb, was that he wasn’t impaled via the neck by a Humber Super Snipe hand crank on the way down.

And really, any day exactly where that does not occur is a great one particular.

Elsewhere, the Judge-Phil-significantly less Penalty Box (His Honor Judge Phil had to return to the Bay Area for family members causes) was filled with a team of replacement enforcers.

Very effectively-thought-out backup systems are an integral element of the LeMons organization—when Judge Phil stepped away, a crack team of experienced lawmen seamlessly took more than. The group, which included Evil Genius Racing owner John Pagel, auto bloggers Jason Torchinsky and Tim Odell, and anorexia survivor Shawn Rodgers, quickly applied their own flavor of LeMons justice.

When a driver of the Mad Taxi RX7 was possibly behaving too aggressively on track, Torchinsky pulled him aside for a spa treatment—so as not also be also cruel, he provided cost-free components for a relaxing facial.

At the checkered flag, it was Cerveza Racing cruising to however another Class A and general win, the Super Troopers scoring the Class B honors, and the Pinewood Dirtbags Chevy Luv posting an unlikely come-from-behind win in Class C.

Well, possibly it wasn’t all that unlikely for the Dirtbags, as element of their path to glory involved overtaking the K-Car and one particular of the worst Porsche 914s to ever appear on a road course. Still, for a truck that has such a high probability of bursting into flames at any second (the identically ready sister truck to the winning entry certainly did suddenly burst into flames midway by way of the Saturday session).

Class B was only element of the story for the Super Troopers, whose event-long dedication to their theme earned the group its first Organizers’ Decision trophy.

Saturday’s street-automobile-into-race-automobile engine swap proved to be a lasting repair, as the OMShenanigans BMW 7-series completed the event with a blown oil cooler hose as the only hiccup in the repair. Given that this technique involved putting the street automobile on the trailer and driving the race automobile a number of hundred miles back home soon after the race, the team was also rewarded with a Heroic Repair trophy.

The grand prize in all of LeMons, the Index of Effluency, came down to a heated battle between the extremely same 2 entries in the ill-fated hand-crank Le Mans commence challenge: the Humber of Group Tinworm and Spank’s Idioti Curse o Masina Pentru Idioti.

Amazingly, the pair finished right subsequent to 1 yet another in the final standings at P72 and P73, with the Humber nipping the Renault by just 2 laps.

Eventually, Spank’s inspired use of farm animals to full his theme wound up getting the distinction, and the Renault group went residence with the IoE trophy.

To avoid sending Humber captain Alan home with only a bruised (or dislocated, or whatever) thumb to show for his work, he was awarded Much better Luck Subsequent Time honors.

When 2 vehicles that have no organization getting anyplace close to a road course handle mid-pack benefits in a grueling hot-climate endurance race, it’s very good sport to scan the vehicles that lost to such ridiculous entries. In no specific order: Porsche 944, BMW E30, BMW E36, Mazda RX7, Audi A4, Mazda Miata, VW GTI, Acura Integra, Mustang, Camaro. So, while the uninitiated might look at Cerveza’s dominance and conclude that a BMW is the ticket to LeMons glory, it’s equally or probably far more most likely that you’ll bring a completely sweet Bimmer that winds up staring at a set of Super Snipe taillights when the checkered flag falls. And that’s not even mentioning the vehicle that went by means of tech filled with chickens.

24 Hours of LeMons Southern California: The Winners!

LeMons Southern California Day 1: Nearly Every Vehicle Broken, BMW 5-series Ahead of Scattered Survivors

With the high Saturday temperature for Buttonwillow barely reaching 98 degrees F, LeMons racers reveled in climate roughly 400% cooler than the prior year’s sweat-fest.

Regardless of the chilly weather, mechanical attrition was higher: A random spot verify at the 5-hour mark revealed that almost fifty percent of the 120-auto entry list was paddock-bound.

For some teams, even though, being hella blow’d-ass up was merely a temporary situation. Take, for instance, the OMShenanigans BMW 735i. The racing gods, evidently not impressed with the basic excellence of the team’s choice to road-race a frickin’ BMW 735i, cursed them with a blown engine just a few hours in.

No worries, said the group: This other dude on our group brought his 735i street automobile, and we can just take the motor out of that!

Even ignoring the short-term logistics troubles (such as, “how does that dude whose car that is that we ripped that motor out of get residence?”), tearing apart a perfectly good street car to aid your LeMons heap get back on track is, basically, just a remarkably bad notion. Undaunted, the OMShenanigans crew swapped the motor out in surprisingly short order, and hustled the large Bimmer back on track.

In the battles for class trophies, Cerveza Racing discovered itself in familiar position atop each the Class A and All round standings at the finish of day a single. This result came despite getting hit with 4 BS laps on Friday (“Jay doesn’t enjoy us any longer,” one Cerveza pilot glumly stated)—that disadvantage was gone faster than the contents of the Free Flowmasters Bin at the National Mustang Convention.

n Class B, the Super Troop Mercury Zephyr hung on to a couple-lap lead more than the Chevy Aveo of Red Hot Chili Poopers.

Although net mouth-breathers may possibly ponder why the LeMons Supreme Court put a V8 Fox-chassis Ford in Class B, the Judges clearly recognized the classing leeway offered to teams with stupid cop outfits and a homemade stuffed bear.

Also, they’re nevertheless barely beating a Chevy Aveo. And also, the Fox-chassis Ford kinda sucks.

Class C offered some midday excitement when it was found that the Hella Shitty Subaru-powered VW Beetle was 1. Leading Class C, and 2. Was supposed to be in Class A. When the Beetle was correctly classed (“I knew that must have been a clerical error,” stated Hella Shitty captain Philipp von Weitershausen), the question became, Who the Fudge is Major the Ideal Class in LeMons? A swift scan of the standings revealed that auto 122 had inherited the lead, but which vehicle was that? Right after attempting unsuccessfully to spot the car from trackside, LeMons staff began back toward the paddock to check the registration paperwork. Then, a spectator new to LeMons casually remarked, “Oh, the 122 is the automobile with the massive letter K on the roof.”

No wonder the employees couldn’t find it—it’s about the furthest point from anyone’s mind to appear for the &^%$ @! K-Car when attempting to discover a class leader. Naturally, in the waning minutes of the Saturday session, the K-Vehicle discovered itself in its organic habitat—in the paddock, with the hood up, surrounded by a bevy of befuddled individuals—and the utterly atrocious Porsche 914 of La Honda Bandits Racing took over the top spot in Class C.

Will the 914 take property a class win? Tune in later to locate out! (Or, if you do not want to, we can go ahead and say, uh, most likely not.)

LeMons Southern California Day 1: Nearly Every Vehicle Broken, BMW 5-series Ahead of Scattered Survivors