Honda CFO: "To Put It Bluntly, We're In A Really Tough Spot," How Close Is SERIOUS Trouble?

You know, Honda's really in a bad spot. And you know it's a bad when the chief financial officer says so himself.

I mean, usually C-level executives try to paint the company in the best possible light so the markets don't cremate the stock. Not the case here.

We saw a trail of tears coming when Honda started putting out pretty horrific designs. And we weren't the only ones as buyers started shedding in the US market from Acura, to be more specific.

Then there was the devastating Japanese earthquake, which rocked the country from coast to coast.

Now the latest is the floods happening in Thailand.

With that said, how much MORE pain can Honda take before it gets back on track?

At least we know one thing, its designs may be turning back around since we've seen images of the 2012 CR-V and believe it or not, it doesn't look awkward or ugly!


...Among Japanese automakers, Honda has been hit the hardest by both disasters this year, recovering slowly from the supply disruption in northeast Japan and suffering direct damage at its Thai car factory in the Ayutthaya industrial estate...

...Even before the floods, the dearth of cars had sunk Honda's sales in the United States, its biggest market, ranking it below Nissan Motor Co in the last three months.

"To put it bluntly, we're in a really tough spot," said Fumihiko Ike, Honda's chief financial officer. "We're in a much more difficult position because our car factory is inundated...

[Source: The Huffington Post]


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knowitall1985 - 11/5/2011 7:16:43 PM

+1 Boost

The world is coming to an end.

Joe_Limon - 11/6/2011 12:44:12 PM

-2 Boost

I am not afraid of radiation. Our bodies can handle a certain level of prolonged exposure to radiation since the cellular damage occurs slower then our bodies can fix it. This level is thousands if not hundreds of thousands of times higher then the levels deemed "dangerous" by our most sensitive testing equipment.

Joe_Limon - 11/6/2011 6:12:08 PM

-2 Boost

I'd drive one just to prove you wrong. People are over cautious in terms of radiation because you can't sense it but it can kill you. Did you know that coal fired power plants actually emit more radiation to local communities then nuclear ones? This is how overly cautious and clueless people are!

Joe_Limon - 11/8/2011 10:46:25 AM

-1 Boost

When you say raised, do you mean raised the bar and reduced the tolerance? Or do you mean lowering the bar and raising the acceptable limit?

I'd say dropping everything and moving to the other side of the planet just to prove a point is being a much larger barrier then the radiation.

Joe_Limon - 11/9/2011 1:04:06 PM

+1 Boost

Not really, it would be like me telling you that the safety limit road speed signs has been increased. Depending on how you take it, that could mean that the speed limit has been raised or lowered.

Regardless its simply poor grammar on your behalf and not an issue with understanding fundementals.

Joe_Limon - 11/9/2011 1:19:26 PM

+1 Boost

*of road speed signs*

quizz - 11/6/2011 1:12:14 AM

+2 Boost

S2000 = good times

MorePower - 11/6/2011 2:54:56 AM

+1 Boost

A great car for sure, but the lack of a sports car option, from either Honda or Acura, has hurt them.

MorePower - 11/6/2011 2:51:21 AM

+2 Boost

The Accord use to sit in the sweet spot of aggressive conservative styling. Honda made a poor decision in giving the Accord such a bland design. Nissan's focus on aggressive styling and great driving dynamics have helped them move past Honda.

gkearns56 - 11/6/2011 7:16:01 AM

+1 Boost

When the new model design began a few years ago with the TL's bird beak, that when people starting to ask "who is designing these vehicles". I owned a 2004 and 2006 Acura TL. Very nice looking vehicles. Why do they have to grow every car or try to make make such sweeping stlye changes, that they fall flat on their faces. Honda then took that "bird-beak" design and applied it to the rest of their Acura lineup. Sales and number's don't lie. Many observant bloggers stated the ovbious back then; if they go ahead with the bird beak many honda owners may not buy into th ebeak look. I didn't and I may not ever go back.

PUGPROUD - 11/6/2011 8:10:53 AM

-1 Boost

There is more to this story. The beginning of Honda's decline began with the death of its founder...not an uncommon story in the corporate world. Professional managers in the majority of cases lack the passion, drive, pride, sense of purpose and backbone that founders have. They have different agendas...usually one that is directed to make them rich versus sustain a once proud company.

stone - 11/6/2011 9:28:39 AM

-2 Boost

Honda stopped producing a desirable product and the market punished them for it. Note that I DID NOT say that Honda produced bad products they just tried to push the market in a direction it did not want to go. I can see it starting way back with the Ridgeline and a host of other products since then. Acura is the same, the 3G TL was among the best looking & best selling entry level luxury sedans ever. Honda and Acura owe their demise to whomever runs their respective design departments, they built ugly shit and the people did not come........

stone - 11/6/2011 6:48:51 PM

+3 Boost

make your shit ugly so the competition will go copy someone else? WTF kind of logic is that?!? I can't even begin to address it. Honda built it's reputation on quality, good looking designs. Not the most luxurious, not the best performers, but a great combination of both at a decent price. My sister owns a 2011 Accord and the rampant cost cutting is evident throughout the interior, add to that the fugly exterior (although she loves hers) and you have a recipe for declining market share, plain and simple and don't get me started on the "beak" that killed Acura. The simplest explanation is generally the correct one...

Fijian - 11/6/2011 7:23:58 PM

-4 Boost

They copied from BMW and that was ok.(For example the previous Civic was copied from the 3 series) When you get copied it hurts.In our culture there is a saying "When you get shafted it hurts more than when someone else gets shafted". Payback is a mother #%*@*!

CarCrazedinCali - 11/6/2011 7:25:20 PM

-2 Boost

Consumer Reports slamming the Civic isn't helping much either, and it doesn't even have the bird beak... If their demise is from their founder passing away, then I pray for Apple...

acronis - 11/6/2011 8:15:43 PM

-3 Boost

I agree that the earth quake and flooding aside, Honda bares some responsibility for their own declining sales. They used to be a company that was considered almost bullet proof in design, engineering and marketing their cars.

Once they shifted their focus to building air planes and robots rather than what they were good at look what at has happened?

truckman - 11/7/2011 1:38:47 AM

+1 Boost

I have full confidence that Honda will fully recover, I would wait to buy the stocks when they tank.

truckman - 11/7/2011 1:38:47 AM

+1 Boost

I have full confidence that Honda will fully recover, I would wait to buy the stocks when they tank.

quizz - 11/7/2011 2:05:11 PM

-1 Boost

Your confidence is misplaced. You can't have confidence in a faceless company - you have confidence in the leadership. Sadly, Honda has lacked leadership recently (as Apple lacked leadership after Jobs left the first time); unless you believe in Honda's leadership (are you familiar with who's really running the company?), there is no reason to believe Honda will not disappear entirely without some government intervention or emergency venture capital savior. See Saab, Land Rover, Chrysler, etc.

IhavearedS2000 - 11/7/2011 8:02:19 AM

+2 Boost

The only thing Honda is guilty of to explain its current situation is that it didn't spread and diversify its supplier base.

Sure the new Civic sucks, but if they were in stock they'd still sell, it's been dumbed down FOR the masses - why do you think Toyota can sell an old and crappy Corolla?

quizz - 11/7/2011 2:09:20 PM

0 Boost

I believe Honda's reason for its current decline runs much deeper than that; it's a structural problem: why have designs been so uninspired? what happened to iconic and exciting models like the S2000 or Del Sol (Mazda still makes the Miata)? Even Hyundai is being adventurous with their sporty variations of the Genesis/Tiburon.

It's obvious that Honda lacks passion and it's on cruise control, with upper management taking the path of least resistance in all decisions relating to creativity and innovation.

truckman - 11/7/2011 4:15:34 PM

+3 Boost

I think the new Civic is still good, it has the best real world fuel economy numbers, that says a lot more than the EPA, and isn't it still a top safety pick, and the engines are still impressive even though they haven't adopted the new technology with the direct fuel injection.

truckman - 11/8/2011 1:48:58 PM

+1 Boost

1911, you may be on to something here? but how about the F-150's 3.5 ecoboost, it is very efficient and powerful, maybe this is an exception?

IhavearedS2000 - 11/7/2011 5:13:33 PM

+4 Boost

@ quizz: Rumors of Honda's death are greatly exaggerated...yes Honda doesn't have anything real for the car enthusiast but that's not why Honda is currently in a bind - it's all supplier based problems resulting from the natural disasters...if they had the product it would sell.

@ truckman: The Civic is a good car...but is it a good Civic? What I mean by that is did it raise the bar as it usual does after a model makeover? No - despite the competitive numbers using older tech.

Joe_Limon - 11/8/2011 10:48:38 AM

-2 Boost

Because Honda hasn't innovated with their civic in quite a while? Meanwhile all the other major automakers are releasing substantial innovations on an on and off basis?

truckman - 11/8/2011 1:53:39 PM

+1 Boost

I must agree with what you are stating here, well said, you are right it raised the bar in 2006 and hasn't improved much since, although it took a long time for the competition to catch up, and I think the Civic is still up there with the pack, but its not the top dog any more, I was hoping for some more improvement too.