The Hondas we won't get in Oz

Honda Drives
Quick Spin(s)
Tochigi, Japan

Acura RLX,
Honda Jade,
Honda Civic 1.0-litre,
Honda S660,
Honda Clarity Fuel Cell

Almost without exception – the 'almost' being decided by the presence of the NSX sports car – the cars driven by motoring.com.au won't be sold in Australia. The 1.5-litre turbo engine powering the Jade wagon will arrive here though, under the bonnet of the next-generation Civic. And the 1.0-litre turbo engine in the Civic tested is a possible starter for the Jazz.

It was a one-size-fits-all event, with journalists from around the world – not just Australia – sampling cars they will never see on the roads of their own respective countries.

Acura RLX
A Legend in drag, the big Acura couples its 3.5-litre V6 with Honda's new 10-speed automatic transmission, which delivers improved performance and fuel efficiency for cars like the RLX, in Honda's 'V6 Class' of passenger cars.

We won't see the RLX, the Legend or the new-fangled automatic in Australia anytime soon, but it's worth a mention for what the RLX and the new transmission say about Honda's global brand and technology ambitions.

The RLX, around the billiard-table smooth track, proved extremely refined, as expected. The transmission shifted in a way best described as utterly seamless. Unlike smaller Hondas of yore, the RLX was content to loaf along and provide a relaxed drive, but it would lift its skirts and pick up the pace when required.

The power delivery was linear and NVH was extremely well damped. Staying on the low side of banked curves, the RLX was also a tidy handling car for such an imposing vehicle.

Honda Jade
This clean-looking wagon would sell in Australia's VFACTS small-car segment, if it ever went on sale here. That's an unlikely prospect, since it has been developed for the Chinese market specifically (although the car we drove was a Japanese-spec model in right-hand drive).

Powered by the 1.-5-litre turbo four-cylinder due to make its debut in the all-new Civic next year, the Jade driven featured a continuously variable transmission. At lower speeds the CVT wasn't immediately apparent, only declaring its true nature at speeds above 100km/h and with the right foot buried in the carpet. It was certainly quieter than some CVTs we've experienced in the past.

The engine is also reasonably quiet in the Jade, and was a hard worker, hauling around the heavier wagon body. It should be more than adequate in the Civic when the new model arrives. Honda claims the turbo engine offers the performance of a naturally-aspirated 1.8-litre four-cylinder.

From having sampled the engine in the Jade, I can accept that. Not only was the Jade reaching an indicated speed of 183km/h around the banking – with driver and two passengers on board – it still had some grunt in reserve. Honda limited all its test cars on the day to 180km/h. Even the NSX...

A word about the Jade, it's an attractive, well-packaged little car that showed no vices in the cornering department – in a very benign environment, admittedly. It's a six-seater, with two cinema-style seats in the second row, each with its own separate centre armrest. Well shaped and comfortable, the second-row seats also provide adult levels of accommodation.

All the seats in the second and third rows fold up and access to the third row from either side of the car is made easy by the individual second-row seats tumbling forward.

In short, it would make a great little wagon for many Aussie families who really don't see the need for a fully-fledged SUV. Unfortunately Honda Australia says it's ruled out for us.

Honda Civic 1.0-litre
Another hard-working engine, but this one, possibly a starter for Jazz down the track, needs constant reminders and supervision to give of its best.

Also coupled to a CVT, it delivered solid mid-range torque and power, but extracting performance sufficient to keep its distance ahead of the NSX charging up fast from behind required profligate application of the right foot. In fact the Civic was running at full throttle around most of the track – including the banked turns.

While it was relatively refined, its lack of performance would not commend it to anyone other than drivers who rarely step out of their comfort zone – any speed at or below 60km/h.

Honda S660
This tiny little sports car, with a three-cylinder engine mounted in the rear was good fun to drive, even on the undemanding Tochigi track.

There's a manual version available, but I was stuck with the CVT variant on offer. Even so, this variant meted out decent performance for such a small-displacement engine (just 700cm³). Being a 'kei-class' car means the S660 is limited by engine management software to just 135km/h top speed, which means that it could literally be flogged around the bends in the track at top speed, without the need to climb up on the banking at all.

In other words, the chassis is fairly capable, even if the drivetrain isn't. Fun as the S660 was to drive, and with a tight but comfortable and practical driving position, the two-seater did suffer significant scuttle shake, even on the unnaturally smooth test track.

All this is academic, however, because the S660 is another car we won't be seeing in Australia.

Honda Clarity Fuel Cell
The fuel cell concept that made its official public debut at the Tokyo show was rolled out for international media just a couple of days prior.

Unlike the other cars tested, the FCV Concept – as it was known at the time – went nowhere near the banked test track at Tochigi, its beat confined to a flat oval mapped out by witches hats and measuring probably less than a kilometre.

This car is bound for production and will go on sale in global markets – but not Australia – from around the second quarter of next year. Reminiscent of big Citroens from an earlier age in its styling, the Clarity Fuel Cell is arguably more style-forward than the FCX Clarity, which donated much of the new car's underpinnings and mechanicals, but not the new, more compact fuel cell stack.

The styling may seem overwrought from some angles, but the older car is now dated and wasn't particularly trend-setting when it was released.

Behind the wheel the Clarity feels much like any other large Honda sedan – say an Accord or a Legend, for instance. But moving off from a standing start under a light load, the Clarity runs off electric power direct from its battery to drive like a normal EV – like a Tesla Model S, but without that car's jaw-dropping performance.

Honda has ramped up performance in the Clarity however, with the electric motor now producing 130kW and 300Nm, which is a significant gain on the 100kW and 256Nm of the Clarity.

Unfortunately, the FCV is also heavier. The FCV feels a bit faster than the Clarity, my five-year old recollection of that car, but it really requires a stopwatch to be sure. Floor it in a straight line and the Clarity wakes up the fuel cell stack to draw extra power for the motor. In this mode, the motor is running off battery power and the fuel cell stack combined, but the fuel cell stack can also recharge the battery on the fly, when the FCV is not being hounded by the driver for faster acceleration.

According to Honda, the Clarity's fuel cell stack will produce 100kW to supply the 130kW electric motor. That means that the deficit has to come from the batteries, we presume, or you won't get full-strength acceleration.

Like the other cars on the day, the Clarity was an exciting glimpse of the future. We've become immune to the appeal of fuel cell vehicles since the arrival of the Tesla Model S – a car that has not only taken out the carsales.com.au Car of the Year award for 2015, but has proven that EVs need not be as impractical as we had been led to believe.

The Clarity (and Toyota's Mirai) may not be as far advanced as the Model S, in viability terms, but with a significant proportion of the world's automotive industry working on fuel cell vehicles, their time will likely come.