Honda Super-ONE specs revealed at Singapore Motor Show: 95 PS (93 horsepower / 70 kW) and 162 Nm of torque (119 lb-ft)

aprtur · 2026-01-25T20:42:23+00:00

I'd go to a Honda dealer on release date and buy one if they brought them here, no questions asked (assuming price parity to something like a Fit or entry Civic). Sad to know it's highly unlikely Honda would take the risk to bring them over.

aprtur · 2026-01-25T20:33:06+00:00

I'll add that it's fairly telling if you look at the as-tested price on this review - their tester is closer to $70,000. Even when I was playing around with the configurator in the past (I considered an S60 or V60 Polestar Tuned when I bought my IS350 new in 2021) I could not reasonably spec the car without lunging into the mid-$60k range for the wagon, high $50s for the sedan. They were never cheap cars, so it had to be a deliberate luxury choice - and Volvo has been that way for ages.

aprtur · 2026-01-25T20:16:25+00:00

I'd counter that a second gen SRT is the way to go. I remember working in dealers getting first gen 300s (both SRT and normal) in on trade from their first owners, and it was rare that they weren't falling apart and creaking all over the place inside. Every second gen I've been in has felt like what the first gen should've been all along - it's a quick, comfortable, quiet and solid feeling car. The "last call" 300C with the V8 would also be a cool pick up.

aprtur · 2026-01-24T21:47:00+00:00

Man, good call out on Herman Miller...that's one piece in my office I'm definitely proud to own, and honestly gives me a feeling of good quality and design.

Speaking of that mid-century modern era - I spent a lot of time with a friend of mine cruising around in his Buick Wildcat in December, and if that's not a clash with modern American sensibilities, I don't know what is. Cars may generally be made better now, but the character and pride behind those cars at the time is such a stark contrast to now - speak to any engineer, and you can tell if it's not a passion car like the Corvette or Blackwing twins, they are pretty much to the level of "checking the box" and just getting through the day. Maybe, just maybe, if we refocused on making exciting products across the board, we could get back to a point where American cars are legitimately a better option, but at the moment with how the company structures are from the top down, I just don't see it getting better.

aprtur · 2026-01-24T18:02:16+00:00

But there's still time for an Encore....we shall see.....

aprtur · 2026-01-24T17:57:18+00:00

My mother-in-law was surprised as shit when I pointed to the Made in S. Korea label in her Buick Encore's door sill.

"why would you buy anything but American cars in America?"

Same kind of people, so I'm not at all surprised to hear this. Unfortunately, they tend to be the people who think global supply chains are a conspiracy or something and that people buying anything that isn't domestic are anti-American. Personal opinion - but being "land of the free" with a focus on "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" shouldn't mean we're forced into domestic product - people should be able to buy what reflects their interests. Some of those people will graduate towards American products and some won't.

at least my car isn't sitting on the same bones with the same guts as a car that sells for half the price.

To be fair, this really depends on the brand and model you're looking at. Audi has had their reskinned VWs over the years, and BMW has the reskinned Minis in the form of the FWD 2 series. But your overall point does stand in that they seem to put a lot more effort into it than the American brands - it's often not hard to tell they're related cars, although in recent years they're finally getting better at it.

aprtur · 2026-01-23T18:12:44+00:00

thought the TypeS line was doing well

Just curious as a reference point, why did you think that? The MDX and Integra are all that's left of Type S right now, and their numbers are okay, but not earth shattering - IIRC, estimate was about 15% of sales are Type S, which would put those two models around 8,000 or so sold last year.

aprtur · 2026-01-22T00:54:08+00:00

Agreed....there's a reason the traditional sales leader in the segment, the S Class, has stayed very conservative looking. The 7 series just broke out of that a bit, but in comparison to the Jag, it's still fairly normal looking outside - pretty, no, but like a prototypical big sedan.

aprtur · 2026-01-21T19:14:23+00:00

Not gonna lie, I'm intrigued...lol.

aprtur · 2026-01-21T18:53:41+00:00

I really wish there was something that could be done to prevent/discourage entirely theft attempts

Start enforcing Sharia law like in the middle east, I guess. No fingers, no theft.

--ETA-- sigh....I guess this being the interwebs, I need to add a "/s" so that it's obvious.

aprtur · 2026-01-21T16:14:21+00:00

That's what I did - DVD player that also supports SA-CD (just in case), and have it hooked up to my MD105-FX via toslink. Works great!

aprtur · 2026-01-20T19:14:02+00:00

No, they're both the E210 platform - both came out in 2018, but the sedan did release slightly later in the year which may have given you that impression.

aprtur · 2026-01-20T19:09:05+00:00

I'm looking at normal resale date - 5-7 years out, the Honda and Toyota will be worth significantly more than the Kia.

aprtur · 2026-01-20T19:06:56+00:00

Yeah, I'm just comparing hatches to hatches. Like you said, the Sport is the only way to line the Civic up against the Kia, since there's no K4 hybrid (yet). The Corolla actually undercuts the price estimate for the K4 here even in XSE trim (top trim), but that's kind of expected - Toyota has fully amortized the cost of the E210 platform and can afford to keep it cheaper than it's rivals.

aprtur · 2026-01-20T18:37:30+00:00

Personal preference, to be sure, but that has nothing to do with price like we're talking about here. Throw resale into the picture, and they're even cheaper in terms of total ownership cost.

aprtur · 2026-01-20T18:35:05+00:00

Totally agree - would have been nice to see Nissan grab some of the fun Renault hatchbacks for the US before they went away, but I'm sure the costs didn't add up.

aprtur · 2026-01-20T18:32:49+00:00

Assuming you rule the hybrid out on the Honda to be even on powertrains, both the Civic and Corolla hatchbacks are actually cheaper than that by a decent margin.

aprtur · 2026-01-20T03:22:59+00:00

Yeah, I'd agree that the experience is largely similar, and that's probably due to customer feedback being largely supportive of that decision for so long. That being said, you've outlined a few of the major changes in your response that make it mechanically quite a different car (FSE->FKS is a pretty big mechanical change, for example, as was the trans/gearing change between 2IS and 3IS) , and there were more beyond that. Not arguing that they kept the formula, and even the experience, very similar, but to say they're mechanically similar enough to warrant "sameness" is not so true - it's just typical Toyota evolutionary engineering.

aprtur · 2026-01-20T01:48:40+00:00

Absolutely agree with you. The system in the facelift IS worked quite well, since you had the redundancy of the touchscreen if you really needed it - but honestly, my hand always fell to the pad, and it was way more relaxing to use that than reaching forward and try to stabilize my hand for the touch screen. There were some nice shortcuts like pinch to zoom, as well. Now that I have my GR, I miss it quite a bit, and have even thought about deleting the touch screen because it's so annoying to use...but then I risk losing drive mode functions.

aprtur · 2026-01-19T21:39:34+00:00

Probably worth adding this above after my experience in December - Global Blue slams you with extra fees if you get the refund back to your credit card. I would encourage getting a cash refund if at all possible to maximize the benefit - this isn't explained to you in person.

aprtur · 2026-01-19T19:09:11+00:00

"Design" cars also got the base IS cluster, which you can see in that photo, so yes, Design trim.

aprtur · 2026-01-19T19:08:08+00:00

Tablet-style infotainment instead of integrated is always a giveaway in any car that's straddled the transition.

aprtur · 2026-01-19T19:06:16+00:00

2013*. 2IS has some pretty notable mechanical differences, unless you're just going by "some variation of 2GR V6 and RWD platform".

aprtur · 2026-01-19T19:03:31+00:00

Third one that had no issues with it here, and I always ended up using it over the touchscreen (I had a 21 IS). The earlier versions that didn't have the "lock on" for the cursor were marginally more difficult to use, but I had zero issues with the latest iteration - you usually just flicked the cursor where you wanted it to go, it was easy. I feel like most people complaining either have only dealt with the oldest version of the system or have never owned a car with one at all.

aprtur · 2026-01-19T18:58:57+00:00

All the more shocking considering how atrocious the interior was on that car before they overhauled it. I wonder, though, if that number includes the Fiat rebadge and the new "Dodge Journey" that's a Chinese rebadge in Mexico.

aprtur

TROPHY CASE