Honda has officially revealed the 2016 CR-Z in Japan. The hybrid CR-Z was originally introduced in 2010 as a spiritual successor to the beloved CR-X, but it never caught on as well as its predecessor, and yet it soldiers on with this latest facelift.
Honda has revealed some new models that they plan to release in the near future at the 2013 Tokyo Auto Salon. Ironically, one of the “concept” cars to be displayed includes a Honda S2000 with a daft body kit, which originally stopped production in 2008.
The re-incarnation of the Honda CR-Z hasn’t impressed performance enthusiasts neither has it won favour with environmentalists, even after being a hybrid.
So here comes another visual treat for the hardcore Honda fanboys from Mugen, Honda’s racing arm. And this time it isn’t a boring Accord or a Civic sedan, but a more purposeful CR-Z hybrid coupe, Mugen’s version being dubbed the CR-Z Mugen.
Harking back to the Honda Civic CR-X from the late 1980s, the all-new 2011 Honda CR-Z “sport hybrid coupe” has made its U.S. production debut at the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
The Honda CR-X of the 1980s was a Civic-based hatchback-liftback-coupe combo that catapulted Honda’s status among compact sports cars, even if it was rather humble on the spec sheet. Honda has already announced the revival of the car as the CR-Z hybrid, with a concept version already shown at recent auto shows. The brochure for the production version has been leaked.
Highly-anticipated by the Honda community, the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show in October will mark the debut of the Honda CR-Z hybrid concept again, except this time it is a near-production version. The sporty-but-slow CR-Z, slated for Japanese production early next year, is a revival of the Honda CR-X from the 1980s. Based on the Civic of that time, with a puny engine and decent suspension, it became somewhat popular among budget-minded car enthusiasts. The new CR-Z is expected to be exclusively hybrid.