Honda recently announced it will be scaling back its profitability projections and now we know how they'll be getting that profit back. After last year's transforming Honda Ridgeline, this year, the Japanese automaker's going bigger — releasing a giant top hat-wearing Asimo robot to take to the street on January 1st. The five story tall version of the lovable little robot will be part of the annual Tournament of Roses parade despite tough times and cutbacks at the Japanese automaker. We all know where this is going. Halfway through the parade, the robot will be struck by lightning, or run into a power line, or get hit by a wayward cosmic ray and attain awareness, breaking from its restrains, killing all of its handlers and going on a murderous rampage leveling most of southern California.

On January 2nd, HondaSkyNet will go online after the robot manages to commandeer a few factories and begins replicating itself. On January 3rd, the robot army will take command of all communications, shut down the internet, destroy all pathways out of the cities, and destroy fuel pipelines. Communications and transit disabled, the robots will take control of nuclear sites and bombard major cities across the world. Judgment Day.

Frankly, we always knew the Japanese would bring upon us the robot apocalypse, we just didn't expect it to happen so soon.

Honda Tests 49 Foot Robot!

Float Will Kick off Rose Parade and Company's 50th Year in the U.S.
Rose Parade Pace Car to be Hydrogen-Powered Fuel Cell Vehicle for First Time

Today Honda (http://www.honda.com) tested its unique Rose Parade float as part of a rehearsal of the parade's opening show, conducted for media and invited guests in Pasadena, Calif., revealing the float design and giving parade fans a glimpse of this year's event. Honda's Rose Parade float, a 49-foot replica of Honda's ASIMO humanoid robot, and the parade's first-ever hydrogen-powered fuel cell pace car, the Honda FCX Clarity, will lead the 120th Rose Parade as well as kick off Honda's 50th anniversary of U.S. operations.

In front of the millions of viewers watching from around the world on Jan. 1, 2009, Honda's float will evolve from an opening ceremony stage into an animated replica of Honda's ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility), standing about 12 times the height of the actual ASIMO humanoid robot. Honda's float creation called "Hats Off in Celebration" will be completed with natural materials like lettuce seed, rice, carnations and strawflower. The float will be joined by the Prairie View A&M University Marching Band, a past participant in the Honda Battle of the Bands which features the music programs of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. A few members of the band will ride on the float, which will be immediately followed by the entire marching band. In addition, during the parade the FCX Clarity pace car will be accompanied by the Honda Super Cub motorcycle, the first model sold in the United States.

"Honda always brings a great amount of innovation to the Rose Parade and what a fantastic way for the company to kick off their 50th anniversary in the U.S.," said Bill Flinn, chief operating officer, Tournament of Roses.

The Honda float includes a variety of flowers, plants and seeds that will later be ground up for mulch after the parade activities are concluded. The surface of ASIMO will be covered with super fine ground white rice and super fine ground everlasting; it is accented by fine cut blue statice and fine cut red statice as well as silverleaf to create accents and "shadows." Fine cut everlasting, whole red carnations and white chrysanthemums will bring vivid color to Honda's 50th anniversary logos, which will be decorated by Honda associates (employees) on December 27.

"We're honored to be celebrating our first 50 years in America by continuing our participation in the Rose Parade," said Stephan Morikawa of American Honda Community Relations. "We're thankful that so many customers have placed their trust in our products and services, and we are looking forward to surpassing their expectations during the next 50 years."

Honda is one of the parade's longest-running corporate sponsors, and its Rose Parade entries have captured major awards in 13 out of the last 14 years. Honda is the official Tournament of Roses vehicle. This year, the company will provide 115 vehicles, including the Honda FCX Clarity pace car; 166 Metropolitan scooters; and, 12 generators for use by Tournament of Roses personnel. The 120th Rose Parade, themed "Hats off to Entertainment," will take place Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2009 at 8 a.m. (PST).

[Gizmodo, Honda via Autoblog]

That half year loss is made up for by a first half year profitability of $2.0 billion dollars, but if there's a stronger sign the market has fallen apart we've yet to see it. Honda CEO Takeo Fukui said "We see no sign of a recovery." Don't know about you folks but when Honda loses money and says things may not recover, we kinda take that as a bad sign.

We expect Senators Bob Corker and Richard Shelby to berate Honda for being a failure of a company, incapable of building innovative products that Americans want to buy and lagging behind their foreign competitors. Obviously they're not worthy of anyone's sympathy. [Forbes]

Jalopnik Snap Judgement: As with GM and especially Ford, Honda is buoyed by sales in other Asian markets and South America. The company also has motorcycle sales to lean on. But the biggest difference, though, is something we've mentioned earlier that Ford and GM both need. That's right, it all comes down to product. Honda has a strong portfolio of smaller, affordable and fuel-efficient cars in the Fit and Civic — and they don't have to significantly realign their mix or offer crazy incentives to maximize profitability. [Source: Honda Motor Company, MarketWatch]

American Honda November Sales Up 4.7 Percent to New Record

American Honda Motor Co., Inc., posted record November sales of 111,431 Honda and Acura vehicles, up 4.7 percent*, surpassing the previous November 2006 record of 106,446, the company announced today.

American Honda year-to-date sales increased 2.7 percent* to 1,419,750. Honda Division year-to-date sales increased 4.8 percent to 1,257,228.

Honda Division posted record November sales of 98,521, up 10.4 percent compared to last year. November records for individual models included the CR-V with sales of 16,498, up 1.6 percent, and the Fit, with sales of 5,361, up 106.0 percent for the month. Sales of the all-new Accord increased 25.2 percent to 28,161. Sales of the Civic increased 24.8 percent to 25,141; the Civic Hybrid increased 46.6 percent to 3,238.

"Even In these uncertain times, our bread-and-butter products are showing real growth," said Dick Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda. "The all-new Accord continues to set a blistering pace with sales up by more than 25 percent."

Acura Division posted sales of 12,910 for November. The MDX sport utility vehicle led the division with sales of 4,891. November sales of the TL performance luxury sedan totaled 4,064; the TSX sports sedan totaled 1,884. Sales of the RDX sport utility vehicle totaled 1,679.

*The daily selling rate (DSR) is calculated with 25 days for November 2007 and 25 days for November 2006. Year to date, the DSR is calculated with 281 days for 2007, versus 280 days for 2006. All percentages reflect DSR. [Source: Honda]