The History Of Honda And Acura Cars



Honda cars are sold almost everywhere in the world. Their reliability and innovative features have made them a favorite of American buyers for decades. However, the creator of the Honda Motor Company, Soichiro Honda began his career as a simple automobile mechanic in 1922.
Mr. Honda began production of auto parts in the 1930-s, and sold piston rings for small engines. He later began to produce the small engines themselves by demand for the product. These engines were used in motorcycles manufactured in Japan.
After World War II, Mr. Honda started production of a line of motorcycles for sale. He founded the Honda Motor Company in 1948 and it became a multi-million international corporation. Honda became known for producing some of the best made motorcycles in the world. The excellent engineering and interesting marketing approach gave Honda motorcycles an edge and they outsold the popular British and American motorcycles of the day. Honda began to open motorcycle dealerships in the early 1960-s. By 1963 they had also produced a small truck to sell, known as the T360.
Honda-s first production car came in 1963 also and over 1,300 were sold in the next year.
The car was tiny and mildly powered, but was quirky and fun, and most importantly reliable and affordable.
Next up was the Honda front drive mini sedan, and their first sports model, which sold well and led to Honda Racing’s first Formula 1 win in 1965. By 1966 and later Honda was producing 400 horsepower engines for their race cars.
In 1969 the company introduced the N600 models that were to be imported into the United States. This opened up the automobile market in the U.S. to the already well respected motorcycle company.
Then in July 1972 Honda introduced the Civic as a two-door coupe, followed by a three-door hatchback later. These front wheel drive transverse engine cars started a love affair with Honda automobiles. They were fun to drive, bullet proof in reliability and offered a peppy engine with terrific fuel economy. As of 1979 the Civic was available in a 4-door sedan and 5-door hatchback version.
The larger Accord model was first produced by Honda in 1976 as a two door model and later a four door hatchback car. This extended Honda-s range of models and led to the development in the 1980-s of a new luxury line of Honda-s which bore their own brand name, Acura. The Acura Legend was first to appear, and these were sold by Acura branded dealers and not Honda stores. The service departments would not honor warranty work to an Acura owner if a Honda dealership was in the same town. The Legend was followed by the smaller Integra, and the incredible exotic NSX which was the reliable Ferrari like car that came without the Ferrari price tag.
Toda Honda is still a highly respected company with products sold in virtually every corner of the world in every type from motorcycles to lawn mowers, power sports machines, and of course automobiles.