Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Honda virtually invented the A TV industry in America: ATC 200. are the most popula,. A Honda Gold Wing gets tested in a rolling road at Honda's Marysville, Ohio factory. (Below) The finished product. The Super Cub was one of the first Hondas to hit U.S. shoras 26 years ago. (Below) Oklahoma Governor George Nigh and American Honda President Tetsuo Chino meet at Central Vo-Tech in Drumright, Oklahoma. Honda's massively-powerful VF1000F demands respect and inspires awe from sporting riders. FOLLOW THE LEADER American Honda Motor Company, Inc. celebrated its 25th anniversary on June 11. The company is now gigantic. It has become America's motorcycle sales leader and a major force in the country's automobile and power equipment industries. "This is a very momentous Giant in our midst: 25 years of American Honda 20 Talk motorcycles in America and the big gun is Honda. The company casts its shadow on roery facet of the motorcycle industry, continually amazing and terrifying competitors with its ability to dominate market segments, absorb mistakes and sell motorcycles. I've heard dealers say a Honda franchise is a license to print money - this said at a time when Yamaha dealerships were folding two and three at a time in southern California alone. . / heard an executive of Yamaha Motors Corp. U..A. tell a crowded press conference that Yamaha would overtake Honda's traditional position as sales leader in the U.S. - this sroeral years ago - and I've since seen Yamaha men suck their teeth and shake their heads in dismay that the company roer joined battle with mighty Honda: it damn near sent Yamaha to destruction. / wondered when a key advertising executive at Kawasaki told me that, by his own count of television commercials in his Daytona Beach hotel room, Honda spent more advertising money during Speed Week /983 than Kawasaki's entire advertising budget for the entire year. I've seen Honda spend and invest money in America at an astonishing rate, and I've seen it dominate racing as surely as it dominates motorcycle and A TV sales. Having conquered the motorcycle and ATV markets, the company has become a strong force in the auto industry and has the U.S. lawnmower and small engines industry cowering in fear. Honda, it seems, is golden. Everything goes its way; it wins whatever it wants; it gathers victory after victory. "We are Honda!" That sentiment seems to radiate from the company; certain employees fairly glow with the idea. "We are the biggest, the strongest, the best!" Honda need only fear itself, I'd say. . What follows is a look at the company on the occasion of its 25th year in America, as told by its own P.R. department, edited by me. It is certainly educational, and anybody interested in the U.S. motorcycle industry would do well to read it, If only to gain understanding of the giant in our midst. John Ulrich occasion for our employees and deall;r and we owe a great deal not only to them but also to the support of the American people," said Tetsuo Chino, president of American Honda, in a ceremony marking the anniversary. "Our success to date embodies the company's philosophies of employee teamwork, quality products and a strong commitment to the American marketplace." American Honda was established in 1959 in a small, one-room office in Los Angeles, its goal to explore the market in the U.S. for small, lightweight motorcycles. The decision to open a United tates subsidiary came only a decade after Honda's humble beginnings in japan. In 1946, in Hamamatsu, japan, oichiro Honda attached a small warurplus gasoline engine to his bicycle and created a simple, fuel-efficient and economic means of travel. oon thereafter, with the assistance of cofounder and executive vice president Takeo Fujisawa, the newly formed Honda Motor Company, Ltd.. was revolutionizing the motor industry. Success came relatively quickly for Honda and soon thereafter the company began exporting a limited number of motorcycles to neighboring regions, particularly Southeast Asia. These exports gradually increased until a decision was reached to establish a subsidiary in the United States. Honda's initial growth in the United States was slow. Honda products were sometimes sold in such unique outlets as hardware stores, hobby shops and sporting goods stores. In 1959, there were only 15 dealers in the United States but the network had expanded to 74 by 1960 and to 400 in 1961. While American Honda enjoyed modest success in the early 1960s, its growth was hampered by the blackleather-jacket image mOlorcycles had in the United States. Honda combatted the image with its landmark advertising campaign, "You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda." The campaign thrust Honda into the forefront of the motorcycle ind u try and positioned motorcycle riding as a family activity. Ten years after Honda's entry into the United tates, with someone million units sold in the marketplace, the company began marketing larger, faster motorcycles as early American Honda customers advanced to higher performance models. In 1969, American Honda introduced the 600 automobile, a micromini car. Four years later, the Honda Civic made its first appearance in the United States and later achieved critical acclaim for its revolutionary CVCC engine, which met stringent U.S. air quality standards without the use of a catal ytic converter. It was also rated as the top mileage car in 1974 and 1975. The success of the Civic was followed hortly by the introduction of the Accord in 1976. By 1977, after seven years of selling automobiles in the U.S., Honda hadcumulative U.S. car sales of more than 500,000. Thi figure was nearly matched in 1983 alone when American Honda sold more than 400,000 automobiles. American Honda's presence in this country continued to grow throughout the 1970 . It emerged as a force in the power equipment industry and now features an innovative line of lawn mowers, generators, engines, snowblowers, outboard motors, tillers and pumps. The 1970s also brought a new line of vehicles that combined utility and fun such as the ATC90, a threewheeled ATV which proved to be a popular work and outdoor recreational vehicle. At the same time, Honda steppedup its international trading activity through its subsidiary, Honda International Trading (H.LT.). H.I.T. exports American agricultural products and manufactured goods to japan. Over a period of nine years its exports from the U.S. have totaled more than $500 million. The late 1970s marked Honda's decision to establish Honda of America Mfg., Inc., near Marysville, Ohio, with re-investment of Americanearned dollars for the con truction of its $35 million motorcycles plant, followed in 19$2 by ~ $250 million "utomobile facility. This plant was the

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