If you take a look at Share (above), page 2 you will see the cars of 'helicraz' in Singapore and 'itsmad' in the UK. There are noticeable differences from the American versions.

Note the way that the trunk lid and lower front fender are designed to meet local market lighting requirements. The way that they fit means that the rest of the body panels are unchanged.

Other changes to look for are: fog lights as standard, 3 spoke leather covered steering wheel, VSA switch to the right of the driver, chrome finisher on the exhaust, chrome stripe on door rubbing strip, disc brakes on rear wheels, different color range, heated front seats - switch by hand brake, central rear armrest and drinks holder.

However there is no auto trunk lid release, no maintenance reminder (oil change at 1 year or 12.5 k miles), no gas cap warning, no daylight running lights, no navigator option (but leather option instead).

I guess that Honda corporate and Suzuka ask country managers " what do you want us to build to please your market, and with whom do you wish to compete and at what price"? HCHII is for the world market as we know and this post I hope illustrates that point. I guess that demand is far outstripping supply and that is why people in different markets are being frustrated by long waits for delivery.

 

Oh for sure. I don't think Honda have just decided to **** off UK customers. They do have to retool for the car. The trip computer will need adjusting so that it uses UK gallons instead of US gallons etc. etc.

Basically there is one factory producing vehicles for everywhere and interrupting production of vehicles for a large market like the US in order to run off a thousand vehicles suitable for the UK is bound to get the Honda bean counters thinking.

I can accept all that. The problem I have is when Honda suddenly tells it's UK dealers that the deliveries expected in August will not happen and that they are resetting the clock to November. From talking to my dealer they are no more sure of November than they were of August.

My view is that Honda should either stick to the delivery dates it promises or just withdraw the vehicle from sale. I can accept that buying a foreign built speciality car will involve waiting but getting bumped by another country (which is basically what this amounts to) is galling and from a customer service perspective innappropriate.

Just to clarify what I mean. My order was sent to Honda and accepted and my name was put down for an expected August delivery. Honda have not said that I have been pushed off that list. They just said that those vehicles will now not arrive in the UK until November. If then.

 

I agree it must also be hellish for the dealers and the salesmen getting called every day by irate would-be owners. Of course as well as the UK driving on the left side of the road so does Singapore and Japan to name but a few.

I suspect that there may be different assembly lines for the LHD and RHD models. Are the body panels made in the US I wonder and shipped back in the empty car delivery vessels? The Civic Sedan is not manafactured in Europe where there is quite a different Civic see www.honda.co.uk

Honda's problem is that it has a huge hit on its hands that it probably didn't foresee a couple of years ago (rocketing gas prices etc.,). Honda's latest financial results in July stressed that it is having a problem making enough small cars to satisfy demand.

Andruec: Don't give up hope it is well worth the wait as you will have realised on joining this forum!

 

I believe they also have a standard six-disc CD changer in non-North American markets!

 

The pommy bastards!

 

They do apparently but we have fewer choices. We can either have leather, or no leather. One thing I'm still hoping for is a slight change to the way auto-stop works. It'd be nice if they made the restarting dependant on not being in neutral and/or not having the handbrake on. Most drivers here use the handbrake when stationary and keeping your foot on the foot pedal is frowned on as bad practice. Unsafe and unhelpful to the driver behind :-/

 

Excuse my ignorance... why would keeping your foot on the brake be unsafe to the driver behind? Unless you're on a steep uphill, and letting go of the foot brake causes you to roll backward (theoretically not possible in the HCHII, since it has a hill holder feature), I don't know what would be unsafe. Seeing the brake lights on should actually be a safety advantage (when the lights go out, you know the driver ahead is moving).

In every situation I can think of, having brake lights on when brakes are applied is a good thing. For example, you come up over a hill and see cars at an intersection. None of the tail lights are on. In America, you know the cars are moving through the intersection at speed. In Europe, the cars are either moving through the intersection at speed OR they're all stopped at the intersection waiting for a slow pedestrian to finish crossing. If you have to make quick decisions, I'd rather have the brake light feedback to tell me if the cars are stopped or moving.

Unless the cars in Europe have the brake lights illuminated when you apply the hand brake, I can't see how this is anything but unsafe!

 

Don't fret.... we win some, we loose some...

Yes, my car does come with a factory installed in-dash 6-disc MP3 changer, and some of the want-to-haves that are not included in the US version. However, I do not have the fancy nav system, side curtain airbags, cruise control, 3 point seat belt on center rear passenger, LATCH for child car seats, remote control trunk release, front passenger airbag off switch, etc etc

The list goes on.

I guess Honda needs to meets the local laws too.. many of the items are there to make the car legally usable in that country.

 

It bothers me slightly that any driver would have to ask why holding a vehicle for long periods of time solely on the footbrake is dangerous but in the interests of education ( ):

Holding a vehicle stationary solely on the footbrake is unsafe because it requires continuous pressure from the driver. All of the following (and probably many more) can result in that pressure being removed and the vehicle lurching forward:

* Shunt from behind knocks foot off pedal
* Muscle spasm/fatigue
* Driver falls asleep or dies or is abducted by aliens.
* Driver is moving around (perhaps searching the back seat for something) and foot comes off pedal.
* Driver forgets they are supposed to be holding the pedal down.

By contrast once you have applied the handbrake the car is not going to move anywhere unless it's a manual (dunno about CVT as it doesn't have a torque converter), in gear and the accelerator pedal is being pressed very hard. Or if you are hit really hard from behind.

For these reasons drivers in the UK are taught to always apply the handbrake when stationary for long enough to do so. Sadly a small number of people don't bother which is typical I suppose. Personally I've never understood why anyone would want to keep pressing a pedal down with their foot when they can just pull a lever (worth noting that all UK cars have a hand operated lever usually behind the gear stick) and rest their foot on the floor for a minute.

I did notice when driving a car in California last year that putting the car in neutral switched off the daylight running lights. That gives me hope that Honda will change autostart behaviour for the UK market.

 

Which country is that? The UK Hybrids have all the air bags you mentioned, the cruise control and remote boot release (in fact on the car I drove I couldn't work out how to open the boot from outside, lol). The only thing we seem to be missing is the sat. nav.

Edit:Oh and the car itself (see I'm starting to laugh about it now )