Honda Pulls Crap From Ass- Proclaims It To Smell Like Roses

LINK HERE

The company that makes Canada's most popular car is so unhappy with the new federal rebate scheme to promote fuel-efficient vehicles that it is offering buyers its own sweetener to lure them to its dealerships.

Honda Canada Inc. said yesterday it would offer an incentive of $1,000 to customers who purchase or lease a new 2007 Honda Fit subcompact or a 2006 or 2007 Civic with manual transmission. Both cars are excluded from Transport Canada's list of vehicles qualifying for federal rebates under the Harper government's so-called "ecoAuto" program.

For the Americans, and probably a large percentage of Canadians that read this blog- the Canadian government has just introduced rebates for vehicles that use less than 6.5 l/100km of fuel. The rebates amount to between $1000-$2000 depending on how much better, and yes, trucks are involved too (the limit is 8.3 l/100km).

The Honda Fit gets 6.6 l/100km as its rating. Exactly 0.1 away from the standard. Does Honda go and tweak the gearing just a tad to get under 6.5? No chance in hell. Instead, they sat and pouted like a 4 year old toddler who hasn't been given their pudding cup after dinner, and proclaimed the 6.5 figure to be arbitrary (it is, but that's not the point)- of course, the Toyota Yaris manages just fine.

And now, they're so giving and holy as to provide a $1000 incentive for buyers of the Fit to protect their market share. But are making it seem like it's for environmental purposes. The best part of the article is that Chris Travell is quoted as saying the program 'favors' Toyota- no, it favors vehicles that fall under 6.5 l/100km. It's that simple. But that's the media for you- they sure do love Honda up here in Canada.

What a spin huh?

Some People Have Apparently Failed Their Plagiarism Courses In University

I refer you today to the oddly named 'GM Inside News' website- a site that I used to frequent myself until about 2 months ago or so. Oddly named because most of the time it has nothing to do with GM, is populated by outsiders, and as today's little morsel of information proves, has no 'news' per se. For those that don't know, I left that site of my own accord, and have since swept it from the vast expanse of my mind. In the meantime, all mentions of The Mags Report have been deemed against the rules at GM Inside News, as though the site administrators were Gestapo quelling the French resistance. So all has been good... until a little birdie told me about a new thread started by one of the 'news' contributors (read: makes shit up and/or copies it and pretends it's exclusive).

The link of the day is-

http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49268

What's that link you ask? And I quote...

For the 2008 model-year only the Cadillac CTS and Cadillac STS will utilize the new direct-injected V6. It has been speculated that Cadillac would be the only GM division to use it until a new, larger-displacement High-Feature V6 is ready for exclusive-use at Cadillac. The 3.6L is said to be capable of being bored to up to 4.0L, which is likely what GM will do for Cadillac.

It turns out that Cadillac is getting exclusive-rights to the new V6 for just one model year.

Sounds awful familiar don't it? Oh wait, that's right, THE MAGS REPORT had that very news all the way back on March 31st.

http://themagsreport.blogspot.com/2007/03/40-hf-engine-coming-to-cadillac.html

An internal source is indicating that Cadillac and GM are couching a bit on the upcoming 2008 CTS. Everyone knows that the base engine will be the current 3.6 motor making 255 horsepower. Likewise, Cadillac and GM have announced that the uplevel motor will be the same engine with direct injection making about 300 HP. What hasn't been unveiled yet is that Cadillac will be receiving an exclusive High Feature variant with a 4.0 litre displacement for model year 2009, slotting above the 3.6 DI engine. It will make about 350 horsepower and will be a placeholder until the Ultra V8 can be slotted into the CTS as it moves upmarket to battle the BMW 5 Series.

So apparently the douchebags at GMI feel free to plagiarize articles and take credit for news that isn't their own. Is anyone really surprised? Second rate website, second rate contributors, second rate administration, and new to the party, second rate plagiarism- all hallmarks of GMI. What might be most amusing is that I posted a commentary about the plagiarism on the site, but the mods saw fit to remove it. They need to protect their asses after all, right?

MF