TOKYO/DETROIT (Reuters) – The future of Honda Motor Co may rest with a pair of contrarian Japanese car engineers working from a drab Tokyo suburb with a hotline to the boardroom. Their mission: just say no.

Honda’s creative directors Toshinobu Minami and Yoshinori Asahi are out to kill any mediocre car designs rumbling down the pipeline. In short, they have been told to stop anything like the 2012 Civic, a cheapened redesign that prompted critics, consumers and rivals to wonder how Honda had so badly lost its way.

TOKYO/DETROIT, March 2 (Reuters) – The future of Honda
Motor Co may rest with a pair of contrarian Japanese
car engineers working from a drab Tokyo suburb with a hotline to
the boardroom. Their mission: just say no.

Honda’s creative directors Toshinobu Minami and Yoshinori
Asahi are out to kill any mediocre car designs rumbling down the
pipeline. In short, they have been told to stop anything like
the 2012 Civic, a cheapened redesign that prompted critics,
consumers and rivals to wonder how Honda had so badly lost its
way.

DETROIT (Reuters) – U.S. auto sales rose nearly 16 percent in February and the annual sales rate leapt to its best level in four years, helped by a surprising sales gain by General Motors Co (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and strong results from Chrysler Group LLC and Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

For a second month in a row, sales surpassed even the most optimistic expectations. Analysts ascribed the gains partly to rising consumer confidence and upbeat U.S. economic data.