► No Honda S660 sports car for UK
► K-car tot has no business case
► Too small for British roads
Ever come across the diminutive Honda S660 micro sports car? It’s a mid-engined Japanese-market kei-car in the vein of the 1990s Honda Beat and Suzuki Cappuccino.
Sadly, it’s a fun compact with no relevance to Great Britain, according to the managing director of Honda UK, David Hodgetts.
‘It’s simply too small for our market,’ he told CAR during the recent Geneva motor show. ‘Our research suggests that UK customers wouldn’t find enough space in the Honda S660 for it to be viable.’
A-Z of every new car at Geneva 2017.
The Honda S660: maximum Honda in minimum size
It’s a shame the S660 is destined to remain a Japanese-only oddity for now. Our interest was piqued when the car was first unveiled at the Tokyo motor show in 2013:
- Engine: 660cc three-cylinder turbo
- Power and torque: 63bhp @ 6000rpm, 77lb ft @ 2600rpm
- Transmission: Six-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
- Price: Around 1,980,000 yen or £14,000
To meet Japan’s stringent kei-car regulations, its tiny three-pot engine (borrowed from the Japanese N-Box model) is restricted to 660cc and the car’s footprint is tiny, at just 3.9m long and 1.4m wide.
‘This is a classic kei-car – it’s tiny,’ said Hodgetts. ‘We have no plans to import the S660 to UK dealers.’
Shame…
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