Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Mechanic
It's simple. if they refuse to change their philosophy, at least for the North American market, they risk becoming irrelevant. The Koreans are going to kick their behinds back across the Pacific ocean if they are stupid enough to maintain their present course.
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I think this is likely true, and a result of Honda's high MPG game being dictated (crippled) by their hybrid strategy: they simply can't have a non-hybrid model beating the fuel economy of a hybrid, even though it's technically not difficult to do.
Note: the new HF will have the same highway MPG as the previous year's Civic hybrid (they boosted the 2012 hybrid's hwy MPG by 4 to keep it ahead of the non-hybrid).
Hyundai, however, offers its most efficient drivetrain configuration in all variants of the Elantra. IE - you can get it in the "base" car. Hyundai has no hybrid model holding them back from doing this.
In Canada, at least, they're really marketing the fuel economy of the "new 49 MPG Elantra" (49
Imperial mpg).