The prize was given to mark Honda Cars inclusion in the BTCC as if becoming champions wasn’t enough publicity. The team drivers Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden will be competing in the 2011 BTCC to try and make it two in a row after Honda’s success this year. To further promote Honda Cars involvement in the sport they are releasing a Type R replica of the winning BTCC car which can be ordered through Honda show rooms. The production of this replica will be strictly limited so it’s on a first come first serve basis.

Anyone interested in the replica, would though have more chance of securing one than Jim Morgan had of owning his original as there were more than 24,000 people included in the draw which he won. As part of his prize he was taken to Mugen’s base in Northampton where he spoke face to face with the people who had built his prize by hand. There they showed him how they managed to squeeze more torque and make the car more agile than any other Type R manufactured.

With many people already huge fans of the sporty Type R this extra publicity is sure to boost sales of the car which is made in Honda’s Swindon factory. This is good news for its employees as well as the satellite firms which supply parts to the plant.

The petrol model was the first to be axed followed closely by the hybrid engine models which run on both petrol and electric. The car which has clocked up around 17,000,000 sales and rising only managed around 9000 over the last year in its home country. The highest ever sales of the Civic in Japan was way back in 1975 where at the height of their popularity Honda Cars managed to move 177,000 to new car buyers in Japan. That is an astonishing feat when you realise that car sales were suffering because of OPEC agreeing to raise oil prices ten percent early in the year and cars were already seen as a luxury there.

The move from the Civic in Japan has nothing to do with Honda cars becoming less popular. The Civic is just a casualty brought about because of the success of other cars from the Honda workshops. The CR-Z has recently won the accolade of Japan’s car of the year.  This signifies a shift in the taste of the Japanese consumer.

Whichever car the consumer prefers is obviously going to be where Honda concentrates most of its efforts and the fact that people in Japan are moving over to their new models means they are doing something right. The good news is that because of the success of the model over here both on the road and in motorsport we can be sure of the Civic on our road for a long time to come.

The second award came from a popular gadget magazine in the UK called ‘Stuff’. Their Eco Gadget of the year accolade has backed up the claims of Honda Cars which has stated the CR-Z is the green car that can move. The fact that the CR-Z is smaller and lighter than many of its competitor’s means that can really shift when the power button is used but it also ticks the boxes for the environmentally conscious.

What set it out from other ECO friendly models in its class was that it is an affordable option whereas in many cases you seem to be punished for doing the right thing. The under seventeen grand it almost seems wrong to have all the extras in a car that is both exciting to drive and efficient about the town as well as on the motorway.

Then finally when it seemed things couldn’t get any better the CR-Z was rated five stars by the Euro NCAP testers which is the highest achievable standard of car safety. This brought home the Honda Cars credentials as manufacturers of all round cars which are capable of being used for whatever purpose you required them. Whether you needed a family car or something sporty Honda at the moment is doing everything right.

Some Honda cars namely the Civic and Accord featured individually too in the most reliable cars to add to the award won by the manufacturer. The Accord came in second place and the Civic which is built in the UK came in ninth place, giving Honda two top ten places.

Honda has always done well when ranked in consumer reviews but the fact that this survey is totally independent is a major boost. The corporate side of the business is an incredibly important side to any car manufacturing organisation and the fact that Honda Cars has fought off lots of industry favourites is a massive step in to being accepted as one of Britain’s favourite brands.

For years the Honda badge has been synonymous with good build quality and comfort but to be recognised for their achievements is great news for jobs at their Swindon plant. With plaudits usually comes increased demand and sales of cars so in a period of economic downturn anything to improve confidence is welcomed. A massive eighty five percent of all Honda cars sold in the UK are made at the Swindon manufacturing facility.

Gaining the award should make the next twelve months a lot easier to meet performance the targets of the corporate dealer network as much of the fleet car industry is influenced by the FN50 awards. As new contracts are drawn up the top 50 Fleet owners that are surveyed in the FN50 report always look to the results as an unofficial buying guide.

Honda has got a jump start on their competitors by investing heavily in this new technology and pioneering with the production of the FCX Clarity. Most other car companies have been busy with making their way in to the electric powered car market that is almost at market. The problem those cars face is that the cars in production now are reliant on power sources that connected to the national grid in order to recharge.

The problem with that is you have to wait with your car for a suitable charge. If for instance you had an electric car that could drive from Lands End to John O’Groats, which is highly unlikely at this stage; you would then have to charge the battery up before you ventured back. That is the problem with electric cars the way they are being approached by most manufacturers.

Honda cars are though has something amazing in their FCX Clarity in that it can generate its own electricity. It still has an electrically powered motor for the wheels but instead of having to charge up, it converts oxygen from the air as it drives and combines it with Hydrogen from its fuel tank to produce the energy. The great thing is there is no waste of energy either as the car has its own batteries that charge from any excess energy and from the cars momentum when braking.

The Environmentally conscious car buyers have been raving about this product because the emissions produced are simply water. With no carbon emissions this is the step the consumers have been looking for. With Motoring the largest culprit for CO2 emissions in the modern world Honda cars latest development is welcomed by all.

Hydrogen is a lot more energy efficient than other fuels too with around a threefold improvement on the petrol engine. Compared to battery powered cars it also wins hands down and to fill the FCX Clarity’s tank takes around the time it takes to boil a kettle. The other good thing about this fuel is that whereas we are constantly worried about the world’s oil reserves being depleted, hydrogen is unlikely ever to run out. There is more Hydrogen on the earth than any other element.

The only problem with Honda Cars new wonder car is that at the moment there are no places to refuel it. While other countries are beginning to create hydrogen fuel pumps at certain points on their motorway system, in Britain hydrogen is not expected to be at pumps until 2012 and then only in a small number of places.