The Honda F1 team are desperately seeking a buyer after their Japanese parent company withdrew funding. This has been the case for a while now, yet prospective buyers have not materialised, possibly due to the hefty overheads that the Honda Team incur during the course of a season - 700 employees with an annual budget of 200 million pounds.

Honda remains optimistic that they will find a buyer in time for the first Grand Prix of the season, in Melbourne on March 29th, but realistically they are struggling even though their number one driver, Britain's Jenson Button, has already put his faith in Honda finding a buyer.

So if Honda pulls out of Formula 1 how will that affect the bread and butter of Honda: selling cars? Well, as we all know, that has already been affected due to the state of the global economy. Honda dealers have been hit hard, especially in the US - its biggest market - where Honda dealers recorded a drop in sales of 35 per cent from November to December 2008.

Honda has cut its production in Japan by 163,000 units for the fiscal year ahead but a more alarming statistic is the 200,000 plus Honda vehicles that have been cut from their US output. Pictures released in the global Press recently of mass convoys of brand new, straight from the factory cars in the US mounting up, unwanted and unloved, were a sad image of the economic slowdown.

So Honda dealers have been hit hard already and stories in the Press of Honda pulling out of F1 is not likely to influence prospective buyers of Honda cars, either from Honda dealers or private sale. A negative stigma will be attached to Honda, but it is only inevitable that there are to be casualties from the wreckage that is the global economic crash.

And let us take a quick glance at the positive things linked to the brand name of Honda. Starting with their revolutionary eco friendly hybrid car designs. In September 2008, Honda unveiled their latest hybrid, the Insight, which will become the world's cheapest hybrid car.

At a time where global warming is as much of an issue - or if it isn't in some people's minds, it should be - as the global economic downturn, Honda deserve credit for investing in such innovation. Recent figures from the Society of Motoring Manufacturers and Traders made for interesting reading. In Britain sales of environmentally friendly cars were increasing rapidly while demand for luxury vehicles is on the wane.
With the UK government increasing road tax in order to hit drivers of vehicles with high CO2 emissions in the pocket, sales of hybrid cars are set to increase. The Honda insight will be at least 3,000 pounds cheaper than the benchmark for hybrid vehicles, the Toyota Prius and Honda are forecasting 200,00 sales in the first year of production even in the current poor economic climate.

This may be an optimistic estimate, given that Honda have sold 280,00 hybrid vehicles in the past decade, but as people become increasingly aware of more cost effective, not to mention more eco friendly modes of motoring, they will endeavour to sound out cars that offer affordability and lower their carbon footprint.

Despite negative Press and a decrease in sales figures, Honda continue to be innovative which is no bad thing, even given the financial difficulties that they are facing.

Author: Shaun Parker

About the author:
Shaun Parker is a car expert with many years of experience in the car industry. Find out more about Honda at http://www.hondainchcape.co.uk

Article source: Free Automotive Articles.