I've always said that Honda is an engine manufacturer that makes cars. Whereas with a company like Ford, they are a car manufacturer that makes engines.

 

Precicely. Which is why Honda engines are, I think, even more reliable than even Toyota (they had some issues with poor oil circulation and sludge buildup on some V6s in the 1990's..... when was there ever an issue with any Honda engine ever?).

And adapting the priciples of engine design into car building is a much better approach than the other way around. Consider everything that must be considered when desiging an engine - any engine, from scratch (everything from temperatures of metals to rotational forces to stoiciometric principles of volume), and apply them to sheetmetal and fabric..... quite a resilient vehicle, eh?

Whereas, a manufacturer such as Ford which really knows how to stamp those fenders at 52/minute, and apply that same attitude to engine design, it's a wonder those vulcan V6s can run at all!

 

honda is a company of engineers - they will go the extra mile and they back up what they say with a quality product...ford on the other hand is a company of accountants where they will make a car unsafe to make a few extra bucks...instead of making the cars better they just advertise that they are - ford wins one competition and they declare they've won the war

 

what materials does honda use that toyota doesnt?>>>

Honda uses more hard plastics in the interiors (especially the 7th gen) and Toyotas fit and finish tends to be a step ahead of Honda. Just my personal observation. As for as engineering, I have to say Honda has really come a long way in the last 10 years. Several months back a friend of mine came home with a 1992 Camry XLE, and I was truly impressed with it! Theater style lighting, lighted exterior door locks, fabric headliner, etc. and the car was roomy, smooth and very quiet riding. I still had my 96 Accord back then, and when I got back in it after driving the 92 Camry... I started realizing just how dated the Accord was.

On the flip side...I favored the 7th gen Accord to the current Camry, and am now on my 4th Honda. However, I still believe Lexus is the leader in luxury cars.

Mechanically, I will always favor Honda 4 bangers. IMO, they are the king of the 4-cylinder engine, and no one builds them better or more reliable than Honda.

Toyota does make a fine V8 engine, and I've never heard much in the way of problems with Toyota's automatic transmissions save for a software problem w/ the 02-03 Camry/ES300s which didn't cause any failures (That I'm aware of) only delayed downshifts during full throttle.

 

Well, let's not sound like TOV drones. Off the top of my head, there's the engine fire problem with 2002-03 CR-Vs.

Not to say Honda doesn't make excellent engines. They are, by their own admission, an engine company. But I think that comparisons between Toyota and Honda need to recognize how both companies approach carmaking differently. Toyota may not approach engine technology as aggressively as Honda, but is definately ahead of Honda in other areas (ie- passenger comfort, interior design, quality control, etc...)

 

Although Honda approaches making their vehicles differently (engine first then body) IMO they still make cars that are family friendly, and a car that isn't all that bad in passenger comfort, interior design, quality control, exterior design, etc. IMO Toyota seems to lean more on the Mercedes-Benz side (luxury,quietness, smoothness, etc.) while Honda tends to lean more on the BMW side (engine wise, sport/luxury, sleekness, driver-car connection,etc.), although both Honda and Toyota both share these qualities, they just surpass eachother in different areas, they both have their ups and downs. And while I was doing my homework before I purchased a vehicle, I found out that the 4 cyl. Toyota engines were sludging up with oil. I just hope that the 2008 Honda Accord gives us a great balance between luxury and performance, I'm sure Honda won't disappoint us.

 

Just out of curiosity, how many of you have seen the next generation Toyota Camry? And, how many of you are thinking of getting one?

 

I know I sounded a bit biased on that one. However, if I'm not mistaken, the cause of those fires had something to do with the location of the oil filter being right on top of the cat converter or exhaust header, right?

 

Actually at this point of time Toyota engines have surpassed Honda's, and not so much because Toyota has better engineers, but because Honda failed to make any progress in the last 6-7 years and it's beginning to catch up with them. The new RL and TL are only at the beginning of their cycle, but once the new ES comes out its gonna beat both of them in the performance department, and luxury wise the ES was always ahead.

I predict very slow acura sales in the future unless the TSX gets the turbo 2.3 engine, TL gets upped to current RL engine tuned to 300 sae HP, and the RL gets an optional 4.5 v8 pushing close to 400 hp. And SH-AWD should be made optional across the entire line-up.

 

honda failed to make progress in the last 6-7 years? ok.