Yep. You said everything. The bean counters took over. There's no more passion which is sad. They were about hardcore, pure track cars at one point. There's nothing I'd buy from Honda or Acura today.

Toyota was indeed lacking performance, but then you look up and they were shooting out the IS-F, LFA, 86. Supra is the only thing missing. They are doing much better at making fun cars. I imagine the GS-F will be coming soon too.

Honda is asleep at the wheel. Their luxury cars are getting beat down something fierce, there's no more cheap fun cars they make, and the NSX will be lame (hell it'll be built in Ohio, nuff said)

Frankly I could care less about the IS-F (overpriced and not as good as either the C63 or the M3, plus the RS4 at least offered AWD) or the LFA (uber expensive and ultra-rare) since realistically I'm not going to find myself owning one anytime soon. Yes, the 86 is fun, and definitely one of the best enthusiast cars they have put out. No question. But before that, no one was home.

But the point I was trying to make was that two unlikely companies who hadn't really made anything amazing on their own (at least something that most people could afford) combined efforts and made something pretty cool. Honda's kind of like that (as their S2000 died out, but the Civic Si was a little fun with the K20 but the K24 kind of killed it) but Mitsubishi had the AWD handling game right in the Evo, whereas Subaru's AWD handling game was good but always lagging behind. I'm just saying a joint effort between them might have been interesting since Mitsubishi sucked as a company but the Evo is pretty good, since the 86 ended up being more than the sum of its parts and far more entertaining than anything either company had come up with in recent years.

I've always wondered what a coupe with RWD and the S-AYC from the Evo could do. Maybe that with an NA Honda motor and a higher end version with the 4B11 (or some turbocharged motor) also with S-AYC, maybe even the whole S-AWC too. It's wishful thinking, but it would've been interesting for them to go after the same niche, or to even chase one down that the 86 isn't likely to go into (since there aren't any confirmations of a higher-output model slated for release, and AWD isn't a possibility right now).

I wonder what a Nissan/Honda/Mitsu/Subaru/Toyota car baby would be?

:P

[In Ace Ventura voice] I thought you'd never ask! [Inhales deeply]

But seriously... I don't know why Honda never even thought about reaching out to Mitsubishi just to strike back. Obviously it's easier for Toyota and Subaru (since Toyota owns something like 10% of Subaru), but it was still an odd pairing at first.

86/FR-S/BRZ competitor: K20 motor with 6-speed manual, RWD and Mitsu's S-AYC rear LSD (badged as a Honda)
Imaginary BRZ STI competitor: 4B11 motor with 6-speed dual clutch, RWD and Mitsu's S-AYC rear LSD (badged as a Mitsubishi to make servicing easier, maybe also Honda)
And then maybe a variant of that with the full S-AWC to make it more interesting. (badged as a Mitsubishi)

Honda has been building cars in Ohio for over 30 years. Not to mention the giant R&D facility (you know, the one with direct on property access to the giant test track facility TRC... one of the attractions is a 7 mile long 5 lane wide oval track) LITERALLY down the street from where the car will be produced. With respect to this point, I'm 100% certain you have no idea what you're talking about.

I want something like the s2000 to come back

I used to be a big fan of Honda, I grew up driving my moms 92 Prelude Si and owned a couple first gen Acura TSX's. I haven't been a fan of much of their stuff lately but I do like the 13 Civic Si and Accord Sport with manual, check out this review of the Accord.
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...rm-test-review

Interestingly enough, as time goes on their cars have gotten worse and worse. The 90's were great, 2000's were eh, and 2010's have been bad. With respect to this point, I'm 100% positive you have no idea what you're talking about. LOL, R&D... what a joke.

Ironically, I was speaking to some in-house service techs and some people who work at independently-owned shops. They say the cars built in Japan are typically much more reliable by a big margin than their counterparts built stateside.

you wot m8?

This is true for the most part on all the big Japanese brands, most Infiniti's and Lexus models are built in Japan and the Honda/Acura's built in japan were much higher quality.

I'm still not sure what you and everyone else is missing here: HONDA HAS BUILT CARS HERE FOR THE PAST 30 YEARS. The majority of their production mix available in NA is built in NA. Honda / Acura is the most American made car (parts %, build location) you can buy period.
Those 90's cars, yep, many of them built in Ohio. I think you're confusing the "biege plague" with a lack of quality. And sure, their cars have suffered from model bloat just like everyone else. Styling is also subjective, but I conceed that the Acura blade didn't do much for me, although they have toned it down some.
And I still think it's rediculous when people call them out for not having sports cars anymore for a couple of reasons:
(1A) The economy fell apart. Priorities change when you are worried about keeping the lights on. Remember the V10 AWD NSX? No? I do (hint: it was well on its way)... but they killed that when it became apparent in a crushed economy that selling a hyper car may not be the best thing.

(1B) Faulting them for making an econimc depression based Civic? So when the market completely falls apart in about a month, and all the forecasts say "we're f*cked", you want them to sell a nicer but more expensive civic? Can you tell me about the used car market around this time? Here's a refresher: prices started going up because people were buying those instead of new cars. Can you blame Honda for trying to pander to an audience that's broke?

(2) No sports cars. Can't really argue this, but Subaru and Toyota do? So subaru has the WRX/STi which are realistically trim levels on the same car. Past that they have?? Not to mention we couldn't even get a weak-sauce version until 2002? And Toyota: Supra has been dead, Celica has been dead... MR2 has been dead... IS-F is expensive... LFA is out of touch for most people And now between them have the 86 Clones.... OMG THEY BUILD SO MANY SPORTS CARS I NEED MORE FINGERS TO COUNT WITH!

(3) Wanna talk quality? So the clones *deep breath* have rattles and buzzes and broken DI tips and the engine/trac light -o- doom and the thump / bump drivetrain with flywheel rattle and crickets and on and on and on.... and I see your other car is an EVO? Fast, sure, but the car that came from Mitsu with one generation basically in need of a new clutch when new and the other having a horrific around town auto??

TL/DR - no, I stand by my comment that you have no idea what you are talking about with regards to cars built in Ohio.

That's what I hated the most in my 2011 FA5. I would have been so much more happier if they did an optional reflash to eliminate it. I think I'm in the minority but I liked my 2005 EP3 so much more than my 2011 FA5.