One for the Money, Two for the Show: Honda Debuts Trio of China-Specific Rides [2013 Shanghai Auto Show]

It's well-established that if you want to sell cars in China, you had better style them to suit Chinese tastes. It looks like Honda certainly has its finger on the country's pulse—just feast your eyes on the three, er, interesting-looking vehicles Honda brought to the 2013 Shanghai auto show. One is a concept simply called the Concept M, while the other two—the Jade and the Crider—are actual production vehicles that go on sale in China this year. Honda Concept M Looking like an Odyssey minivan that dropped acid, the Concept M (pictured above) is Honda's first stab at China's non-commercial van market. We dig the van's overall shape, which tapers slightly toward the tail, and the blacked-out pillars in the greenhouse, but we're not sure what exactly is going on with the front end. There's an FCX Clarity–like full-width headlight and gaping grille combination, and the body sides are creased, flared, and swooped to a fare-thee-well. Honda says the Concept M previews a production model headed for China next year—for everyone's sake, we hope the stylists beat a few of those extraneous surfaces out of the rig's body panels first. Honda Crider No, we don't know what Crider means, either—or why it's spelled in all capital letters in Honda's promotional materials—but the name's attached to the production version of the Concept C mid-size sedan Honda brought to last year's Beijing auto show. While the Concept C appeared to be a Honda in Acura clothing, the Crider looks like an unhappy mishmash of styling cues from a plethora of Hondas and Acuras. The taillights seem culled from the latest Honda Civic, while the front-door shoulder line crease was donated by the Accord. The beaky grille looks a lot like Acura's corporate standard, and the hood sculpting is similar to that on the 2014 RLX. All of these details are cobbled together on a stubby, tall sedan body seemingly inspired by the exceptionally un-pretty Nissan Versa's basic proportions and profile—and is it just us, or do the wheels on this thing look incredibly tiny, and the rear wheels too far inboard? Regardless, Honda will offer the Crider in China starting this June. Instrumented Test: 2013 Honda Civic EX-L Sedan Instrumented Test: 2013 Honda Accord Sedan V-6 First Drive: 2014 Acura RLX FWD Honda Jade The Jade easily is the best-looking out of Honda's three Shanghai debuts, and we actually wish we could get our hands on this sultry little wagon. Honda says the Jade was previewed by the Concept S MPV show car that debuted at last year's Beijing affair. The Concept S, a Mazda 5–sized people mover, was attractive in an "anything's better-looking than the Prius V" kind of way, but the production car takes it to a whole other level. In fact, it's very clearly a wagon, not a MPV, and it looks strikingly like a European Civic with a longer roof. Honda's Civic Tourer concept, shown in Geneva this year, supposedly pointed the way for the upcoming Euro Civic wagon, but the Jade seems like it could be that car. The Jade is being built in China, and is said to target Chinese customers born in the 1980s. Honda is seeking out that oddly specific demographic because it thinks those folks are "energetic and known for pursuing their dreams." Whatever—if the automaker wants to see dreams fulfilled, it would bring either this Jade or the Civic Touring to the U.S. from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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