I can say "Honda!"

Coyote Chris · Dec 27, 2020

I bought my first Honda in the 1970s. After 3 days of watching Japanese Television, I have learned many things....I didnt buy a Honda, (hahn-da), I bought a Hone-da!
I also learned that the Japanese have infomercials....and during figure skating events , lots of beer and cosmetic commercials but no car or bike commercials. My wife and I are batting 50 percent on guessing what the commercial is trying to sell.

DirtFlier · Dec 27, 2020

I remember at an annual national dealer meeting, our big boss (a Japanese man) spoke to the group and used "Hone-da" when speaking of the company in Japan and "Hahn-da" when speaking of the products and US dealer organization, and sometimes in the same sentence. I thought it was masterful.

In Japan, there are no huge plots of open, cheap land for car dealerships so the purchasing experience is quite different. Once you decide on the brand you want, you call the local dealer and they sent out a sales person with lots of books & brochures. You make your selection from there without ever visiting a dealership to "kick the tires."
I would assume that now a lot of that is done via the internet - even before covic-19 - with the initial call and face-to-face meeting done on computers.

RedLdr1 · Dec 27, 2020

DirtFlier said:
I remember at an annual national dealer meeting, our big boss (a Japanese man) spoke to the group and used "Hone-da" when speaking of the company in Japan and "Hahn-da" when speaking of the products and US dealer organization, and sometimes in the same sentence.

I've heard it pronounced as "Hahn-duh".

Coyote Chris · Dec 28, 2020

DirtFlier said:
I remember at an annual national dealer meeting, our big boss (a Japanese man) spoke to the group and used "Hone-da" when speaking of the company in Japan and "Hahn-da" when speaking of the products and US dealer organization, and sometimes in the same sentence. I thought it was masterful.

In Japan, there are no huge plots of open, cheap land for car dealerships so the purchasing experience is quite different. Once you decide on the brand you want, you call the local dealer and they sent out a sales person with lots of books & brochures. You make your selection from there without ever visiting a dealership to "kick the tires."
I would assume that now a lot of that is done via the internet - even before covic-19 - with the initial call and face-to-face meeting done on computers.

Two good stories! Of course, American Honda commercials all say Hahn da. I wonder when that started???? Even in the states, you get conflicting prononciations...."Louisville" "Orangatan" "Spokane"...
I assume in Japan that before Covid there were ways to test drive cars.....?
We are really enjoying the Japanese commercials....sentimental commercials for Kubota Corporate?

junglejim · Dec 28, 2020

Coyote Chris said:
you get conflicting prononciations...."Louisville

Right. If you are FROM Louisville it is pronounced "Luvul"

Macka · Dec 28, 2020

Chris, yes, test drives are possible in Japan. There are a few large dealerships but most are smaller "model specific" entities. For example, if you are lookinhg for a Toyota Corolla, you would go to a "Corolla Dealer". I have visited a couple of Bike Dealerships in Japan where they will sell 2 or 3 different brands from the one shop. More often than not, due to registration and Tax Laws, large and small bikes are seldom seen in the same Dealerships as the potential customer is different. I have rented a few bikes in Japan over the years and it is about one third to one half the price that I would pay here. Everything to do with bikes is expensive here.

Macka

Brillot2000 · Dec 28, 2020

Honda Motorcycle commercials from over 50 years ago.

Some of you might remember a few of them.

Brillot2000 · Dec 28, 2020

Here's the 1960's Honda Factory Tour Movie that Honda out at the time. It was entitled "Honda Today."

Pbro63 · Dec 29, 2020

My first motorcycle at age 18 was a used Honda CB400t (parallel twin) purchased from the Ed Kretz and Sons Honda dealer in Monterey Park. I didn't know how to ride a bike with a clutch , I just knew I wanted to ride motorcycles. Well the salesman rode me around the block as a passenger trying to explain how it worked. Then we filled out the paper work and registration and it was a done deal. It took me 30 minutes to get home (about 1 mile away) but I was happier than cuss. That was a different era , today I wouldn't be able to sniff the bike without pledging my first born. The dealership experience has certainly changed.. except for BMW. My local BMW/KTM dealer will let me test ride any bike any time. And if its a used bike they say come back whenever you like.

Subsequently I went on to own many Hondas a CX500c followed by a '81 CB750c, followed by a GL500 (my first new bike and great one at that), a 750 Sabre shaftie with the cool factory full sport fairing and then a NT650 HawkGT (my second new bike and one of my all time favorites) All Hondas!

Coyote Chris · Dec 29, 2020

Brillot2000 said:
Here's the 1960's Honda Factory Tour Movie that Honda out at the time. It was entitled "Honda Today."

It always amazes me how far and how fast Mr. Honda took the company....we learned on those bikes....and yes, there were issues, like bolt quality....but by the 1980s, Honda was building cars you had to pay a premium to buy, even at the end of the model year....while at the same time, GM was looking for any way possible to cheepen every part.....

Coyote Chris · Dec 30, 2020

JustPassinThru said:
Long time ago, on the Tube of Ewe...someone had posted one of the first Subaru television commercials. Back when Malcolm Bricklin owned the rights to sell it in the States.

That had this young woman, looked like Marcia Brady (but couldn't have been; she wasn't old enough to drive at the time) gushing about her new 360. That kei-car death-trap which was the first model imported.

And Marcia-wannabee looks in the camera and says: "It's a su-BAR-oooh!"

Didn't take long for Bricklin, or whoever took over for him, to get that straightened out...

That is a great story!!!! I want one!

How Subaru's First Car Nearly Killed Its US Operations

Two Americans, Malcolm Bricklin and Harvey Lamm, convinced Fuji Heavy Industries to sell its small car in the US. It didn't go well.

www.roadandtrack.com

DirtFlier · Jan 1, 2021

When I was living in LA, I can remember Buick dealers offering a free Subaru 360 if you bought a full-size Buick.

Honda's first auto offering in the US was based on the domestic market 360 but came here with a muscle-bound 600 engine. In the early-70s, Honda had a domestic model that looked similar to the earliest Mazda coupe but was fitted with an air-cooled 1300 cc engine that was transverse mounted, fitted with four carbs, and considered a high performance car!

Driving the 1972 Honda 1300 Coupe 9 GTL, Soichiro's Magnum Opus

Soichiro Honda built his company on innovation, excitement, and excellence. Perhaps there was no greater example of this than the Honda 1300 Coupe 9.

www.motortrend.com

As Macka mentioned earlier, at least in the 70s-80s Honda in Japan had three different brands of dealerships that sold Honda cars: Verno, Clio, and Primo. I thought it was weird but apparently it worked for them.

Happy and Healthy New Year to everyone!

Phil Tarman · Jan 2, 2021

When I left the oilfield to come back into the ministry in '80, the company I had worked for for five years didn't offer to let me take my company car with me. So we had to buy a car and chose an '80 Accord -- without air conditioning because, after all, we were in Wyoming. Even though we'd been there for most of the summer of '79! Then we drove our Accord to Texas and Missouri in August -- without air conditioning!!! The two winters we'd been in Casper, my wife drove the Accord to work at a bank where she parked under the upper-level (exposed) parking. Snow on that upper level melted and leaked through cracks in the cement and dripped on our Accord. The lime in the cement destroyed the Honda's paint and we never had the money to repair it. The rust was awful.

In '84, our daughter got a driver's license and we helped her buy a '76 or '77 Civic. It was a neat little car except for one trivial detail. It had been in a rear-end collision and the repair job had used a different type of paint over the original factory paint. Those two kinds of paint didn't mix and the reaction between the two resulted in the paint on "Chuck's" left rear quarter and top bubbled off and let rust get going there.

So we had two Hondas that had bad rust on their left rear. In addition, the CV joints on the Accord only lasted about 80K miles and the valve seals only lasted about 90K. We drove that car until it had 200K miles on it. It looked like hell and it smoked like a 1950's DDT dispensing truck (remember those? We always played in the DDT fog when I was a kid!

)

And yet, the only cars I've had that came close to that first Accord in personal satisfaction have been my '91 Escort LX and my current '09 Accord LX.

Pbro63 · Jan 2, 2021

Coyote Chris said:
That is a great story!!!! I want one!

How Subaru's First Car Nearly Killed Its US Operations

Two Americans, Malcolm Bricklin and Harvey Lamm, convinced Fuji Heavy Industries to sell its small car in the US. It didn't go well.

www.roadandtrack.com

At Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles , there is an exhibit of many japanese cars of this era. They are all very small contraptions of great creativity and uniqueness.And like that Subaru they were probably not that safe as they were just designed for the city and not the high speed highways like here in America. if ever in LA one should visit the Peterson Automotive Museum, they have a great motorcycle collection too.

Coyote Chris · Jan 2, 2021

Pbro63 said:
At Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles , there is an exhibit of many japanese cars of this era. They are all very small contraptions of great creativity and uniqueness.And like that Subaru they were probably not that safe as they were just designed for the city and not the high speed highways like here in America. if ever in LA one should visit the Peterson Automotive Museum, they have a great motorcycle collection too.

I love old car museums. There is one in middle America with old cars in Barns....

Including this old Subaru....1956

Phil Tarman · Jan 2, 2021

Just to the right of the rare 1956 Subaru van is a King Midget. When we lived on Graham AFB in Marianna, FL, from '54-'57, someone on the base drove one of those. It was the only car on the base that our Cushman scooter could keep up with!