Car Of The Day: September 8, 2011

Today's car of the day is Kyosho's 2010 Honda CR-Z.

The Honda CR-Z is a compact hybrid electric automobile manufactured by Honda and marketed as a "sport hybrid coupe." The CR-Z combines a hybrid gasoline-electric powertrain with traditional sports car elements. The CR-Z is regarded as the spiritual successor to the second generation Honda CR-X in both name and exterior design.

In the U.S., it is one of the less polluting vehicles available and is rated as an Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle (AT-PZEV) as defined by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). CR-Z is the only gasoline-electric hybrid model offered by any automaker that can be equipped with a manual transmission.

CR-Z represents the sixth unique version of Honda's IMA technology since the technology was first launched in the first generation Insight 3 door hatchback. Sales of the CR-Z began in Japan in February 2010. Sales in the U.S. began in August 2010.

For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Honda CR-Z

Here's quite possibly the best-looking car in Honda's current lineup.  Unfortunately it also sums up everything that's wrong with Honda right now.  It's supposed to be both a sports car and a hybrid, but it doesn't do either task well at all.

The design and production of the CR-Z followed two other Honda hybrid concept cars: the Honda Remix, introduced at the 2006 Los Angeles Auto Show, and the Honda Small Hybrid Sports, introduced at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show.

The Honda CR-Z was first introduced as a concept vehicle on October 23, 2007 at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show. Honda explained the name "‘CR-Z’ stands for ‘Compact Renaissance Zero’— an expression intended to capture the idea of a renaissance in the design of compact cars that begins anew from fundamentals." At the show, CEO Fukui stated that a production model is "in the works" and that the car was intended to be "sporty, incredibly efficient and inexpensive".

The CR-Z was first shown in America at the 2008 Detroit North American International Auto Show. In the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show, Honda displayed a revised "CR-Z Concept 2009". In January 2010, Honda introduced the production CR-Z at the 2010 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Automotive News reported in June 2010 that since its debut at the Detroit Auto Show, the CR-Z Web site has had 1 million hits. Honda has been promoting the 2011 model from the Facebook game Car Town.