Honda is lending 10 of its specially modified Odyssey minivans to Detroit in an effort to help the hard-hit city safely transport people who may be infected with the coronavirus for testing.

Honda delivered the minivans Tuesday. They've been retrofitted with a clear and airtight plastic panel between the front and rear seats by removing the hand grips on the B-pillar and replacing them with brackets, and with a second bracket added to the lower front seat belt anchor point for a total of three attachments on each side. Honda also tweaked the ventilation system to maintain an air pressure differential between the front and rear compartments and minimize the chances for infected droplets to migrate between the two during transport.

The marriage seems so right you wonder what took so long. Honda's hybrid powertrain is excellent and the CR-V is its best-selling model, yet the 2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid is only just arriving in dealers now. That's four years after this current CR-V generation was introduced, three years after the hybrid powertrain debuted in the Accord, two years after it was applied to the Insight (which is basically a Civic Hybrid) and five years since the first-generation Toyota RAV4 Hybrid was introduced.

The current RAV4 Hybrid is now Toyota's best-selling hybrid, and it would be shocking if this new CR-V Hybrid doesn't do the same trick for Honda. The powertrain is available on every trim level, effectively an option commanding a $1,225 premium over a comparable all-wheel-drive CR-V. That's impressively reasonable given its fuel economy advantage, added performance, agreeable drivability and lack of practical drawbacks.

The current generation Honda Civic Type R isn't a slow car by any means with 306 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. But there are always people who want to go faster, and Hondata's new fuel system upgrade can help Type R owners go faster, or even way faster.

The kit includes new injectors, fuel tank pump, direct injection pump and lines, all rated for higher fuel flow, as well as a Hondata FlashPro unit with several ECU tunes. Because Hondata is marketing this toward Type R owners who will likely be further modifying their cars, the most basic Type R they've tested with is one with an upgraded intercooler and high-flow catalytic converter. On that car, running on 91-octane fuel, the fuel system and tune increased power by 57 ponies and torque by a major 90 pound-feet. Totals were 375 horsepower and 424 pound-feet.

If there's one thing Honda is exceptionally good at, it's packaging. That includes managing to squeeze as much interior space from an exterior footprint as possible, and then from that, as much interior storage space as possible. Cupholders, bins, cupholders that slide to reveal more bins, under-floor storage ... each Honda has some trick up its sleeve to help you store and stuff more stuff inside. 

The 2020 Honda CR-V is one such stuff-stuffing champion. Besides its copious cargo capacity, the CR-V;s front center console is cleverly designed to provide more than just a pair of cupholders and a big covered hole. To test its ability, I grabbed a disparate pair of water bottles that should provide a challenge to cupholders, made off with my wife's purse (she hasn't gone anywhere in days), and of course my iPhone. 

The 2020 Honda CR-V is an all-star; a thoughtfully designed and well-rounded compact crossover that checks off virtually every box families might have. There are no shortage of reasons why Honda manages to sell so many every year, and it actually gets even better for 2020 with the addition of the CR-V Hybrid. 

However, it has one major blemish, something that can make you go "yeah, but ..." It's the touchscreen infotainment system found on all but the base LX trim level. Consumer reviews and reliability ratings have shown in abundance that it is a laggy, glitchy system. As just one example, a friend of my mother's even recently said she loved her CR-V but was reluctant to buy another because of the problems she's had with the touchscreen. During my recent week with a CR-V Hybrid (more reviews coming soon), it became completely unresponsive when using Apple CarPlay. When it was functioning as designed, it was still slow to move between menus, and it just isn't as intuitive as rival systems. It's also pretty antiquated in appearance and measures only 7 inches, versus the more common 8 inches of the Toyota RAV4 and others. 

One of the biggest obstacles automakers face with electric and hybrid vehicles is battery longevity and battery disposal. If EVs are truly the next wave, there must be a solution to sustainably using the materials in batteries and safely. Both Volkswagen and Nissan have previously detailed reuse and recycling programs, and Honda Europe is the latest to announce an eco-friendly plan.

Honda Europe is expanding on a partnership with waste management company Société Nouvelle d'Affinage des Métaux (SNAM) that originally sprouted in 2013. SNAM previously assessed the traceability of end-of-life batteries and made sure they were properly disposed of. In the new arrangement, SNAM will analyze batteries for what are known as "second-life" uses.

As many countries around the world are under strict lockdowns to quell the spread of the coronavirus, a multitude of professions have been impacted, including ad and marketing agencies that film commercials.

Honda has announced plans to furlough several thousand salaried employees and support staff in the U.S. for two weeks.

Autoworkers eat lunch at a Dongfeng Honda plant in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province, where the coronavirus was first detected. They are back to work but observing distancing and other safety measures. / Getty Images

Today on ‘How Not To Modify Your Car', we bring you this chrome-studded Honda Civic sedan recently spotted in Massachusetts.

Honda's factory in the Chinese city of Wuhan is back to its normal levels of production and has implemented a series of new procedures in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

Attention to Honda and longroof fans alike. And frankly, anyone who is into the rad era of automobiles. There is a 1986 Honda Accord AeroDeck for sale on Bring a Trailer right now, and it's very much rad. 

For the uninitiated, the Accord AeroDeck is a shooting brake from Honda that wasn't sold here. While we made do with the Accord sedan and coupe body styles in the '80s, some lucky folks on the other side of the ocean were cruising around in these stylish and super utilitarian Hondas. They weren't cruising around all that quickly, though.

Nissan is laying off about 10,000 workers in the U.S. as its plants sit idle. These layoffs will largely affect folks who worked at plants in Tennessee and Mississippi, according to a report by Nikkei. 

As of now, Nissan has announced plant shutdowns lasting through late April. The report says Nissan plans to rehire the workers that are being laid off once work is possible again, but they won't be getting paid in the meantime. We've asked for comment from Nissan to learn if everybody will be brought back on, or if Nissan has other plans in mind for restarting its factories.

TOKYO — Honda on Tuesday said that it had furloughed workers at its U.S. plants, which will be closed until May 1 as demand for cars in the country has plummeted due to the spread of the coronavirus.

A spokesman for Honda, which employs about 18,400 workers at plants in Alabama, Indiana and Ohio, said the Japanese automaker would guarantee salaries through Sunday, having suspended operations on March 23. Operations at its Powersports plant in South Carolina, which makes all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), have been suspended since March 26.