Honda toasts 50 years in the U.S.
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Honda is celebrating a milestone today — the 50th anniversary of its arrival in America.
Of course, as those of us who remember the Eisenhower administration may recall, the Japanese company drove into the U.S. market on two wheels instead of four. (Toyota had arrived on these shores almost two years earlier with its Toyopet Crown sedan.)
Honda’s first U.S. product lineup featured only motorcycles, ranging in size from tiny 50cc scooter — known as the Supercub in Japan and the Honda 50 in the U.S. — to bikes in the 300cc range.
After mechanical woes stalled sales of the larger bikes, the staff working out of American Honda Motor Co.’s storefront headquarters at 4077 Pico Blvd. in West L.A. focused their efforts on the 50, which caught on with the general public and helped broaden the appeal of motorcycles in the U.S. beyond the black-leather-jacket crowd. (The still-memorable ad tagline, “You meet the nicest people on a Honda,” certainly helped in this regard.)
The arrival of the two-door N600 in 1969 marked Honda’s entry into the U.S. car market. The N600 was really small (only a foot and a half longer than today’s two-seat Smart car from Mercedes-Benz) and sold for $1,275. Road & Track didn’t mean it in a good way when it said “every outing is an adventure” in the boxy car and it was replaced in 1973 by the Civic hatchback.
The Civic and its fuel-efficient, clean-burning CVCC engine arrived just as American drivers were facing the twin realities of higher gasoline prices and tougher federal emissions standards. Helped by another memorable marketing campaign (“What the world is coming to”), the Civic provided the breakthrough that established Honda in the U.S. market.
Last year, American Honda -- now based in Torrance -- sold 1.4 million cars and light trucks in the U.S. Through May, it was No. 4 in the market with an 11% share. And it remains a major player in the motorcycle world.
It hasn’t been all gravy for Honda in America. In the mid-1990s, the company was rocked by allegations that senior executives in the U.S. had accepted kickbacks from dealers during the 1980s in exchange for favorable consideration in allocating rare stocks of Accords and Civics and in granting coveted dealership franchises.
And despite beating Toyota to market almost a decade ago with the first modern hybrid car sold in the U.S., Toyota’s Prius quickly left Honda’s Insight in the dust — a situation Honda hopes to remedy with its newly redesigned Insight, which hit showrooms this spring.
Honda also has seen its American sales plummet in tandem with other automakers in recent months as the recession and tight credit markets have kept car buyers out of showrooms.
-- Martin Zimmerman
Top photo: An early ad for Honda 50 scooter. Credit: American Honda Motor Co.