I won't claim to know what their current philosophy is, but I do think that going their own way is in large part what made them notable to begin with. They were

I won't claim to know what their current philosophy is, but I do think that going their own way is in large part what made them notable to begin with. They were known as the quirky Japanese automaker that made fun-to-drive (for the $$) cars. They did things like: - S2000: A powerful and lightweight naturally aspirated car with an insane redline of 9,000 rpm! - VTEC was Honda's solution to keeping displacement down, without sacrificing power and efficiency, and what made their engines so buzzy. - They were first to the hybrid game with the Insight (gen 1), beating Toyota's Prius to the market. - Until the early 2000s they were putting double-wishbone suspensions in their econoboxes. This is no longer the case, to the disdain of car enthusiasts and modders. You'll notice that they've stopped doing/stopped coming up with quirky innovations, leading them to become just another automaker.