In 1961 Soichiro Honda, Honda's founder and president, granted an interview to a journalist from the foreign press. "Now that you're the world's most successful motorcycle maker," he was asked, "what's your next objective?"
"I will make the best cars in Japan," he replied. "To do that, I must make the best cars in the world." It had taken Mr. Honda's company less than 20 years to become the unchallenged leader in motorcycle production. His firm conviction that he would make the best cars on earth should have sent a chill into the boardrooms of Detroit's Big Three car manufacturers. Sochiro Honda was hatching his plan to become not just a car-maker, but the best car-maker in the world.
The two-seater Honda S600 sportster was launched in Japan in 1963 and arrived in Australia two years later, the first Honda car to be seen on Australian roads. The newly constituted Bennett Honda was given the distribution rights, and Arthur Bosley proudly unveiled Honda's first four-wheeler to a press conference held at Sydney's Coogee Beach Hotel on 20th January 1965.
The sophisticated, if unorthodox, S600 had four-wheel independent suspension, and a tiny, four cylinder, water-cooled, twin overhead cam engine with four carburettors. It delivered a top speed of 145 km/h.
It was an extraordinary gamble to launch such a car in a market dominated by big American-style cruisers - a gamble made even riskier by early technical hitches and buyers' complaints about the engine's noise. Nevertheless, the S600 gained its enthusiasts.
During the latter half of the 1960s and early 1970s, Honda launched an ever-broadening range of cars in Australia, including the S800, the Scamp, the Z, and the 1300 Coupe (a private project of Soichiro Honda). But the real success of Honda cars in Australia was yet to come.
The launch of the Civic in 1972 was greeted with rave reviews from the press and an ecstatic response from the buying public. It was Car of the Year in Japan, in 1972, and again the following year. Honda could not ship enough Civics from its Japanese plants to meet the international market demand. In Australia, its sales doubled during 1973, and again in 1974. One suburban dealer reported a jump from 40 cars sold per month to 800! And the spree was not confined to Australia.
Even a passing glance showed that the square-shaped Civic, with its wheels positioned in the corners of its small chassis, was a development of the enormously popular, British Mini, the creation of eccentric British designer, Alex Issigonis. Small, light, maneuverable, it was a practical four-cylinder runabout for all conditions, from congested city streets to open freeways and winding country roads.
The engine was quiet, slow-revving and virtually stress-free, yet it was anything but sedate. The first Civic could go from 0 to 100 km/h in 10.8 seconds, an acceptable time even by today's standards, and could cruise at around 120 km/h.
Australians loved it. For one thing, it was an affordable urban car which was fun to drive. And for a whole new generation of young car buyers, the Civic meant freedom. It was also a terrific buy in terms of the extras it offered. Though a little more expensive than its rival, the Mini, it came with radio, disc brakes and a folding rear seat. Long waiting lists were the norm at many Australian dealers for this definitively modern car.
When the OPEC oil crisis occurred in 1973/74, and petrol prices spiralled, car buyers around the world developed a sudden interest in fuel economy - an area in which the Honda Civic was almost unequalled. Throughout the 1970s, demand for the broadening and ever more sophisticated range of Civics continued to increase, so that by 1978 more than 1.3 million had been sold in 90 countries. But the Civic was just the first, exciting chapter in the long-running success story of Honda motor cars.
A small, economic, mass-market car was one thing but what about a bigger car? By the mid-1970s, Americans were ready for vehicles which guzzled less gas, but they still preferred them to be bigger than the Civic. Honda quickly put a larger design into R & D.
In 1974, Mr. Tadashi Kume, who later became a company president but was then a relatively young engineer, was given a brief to develop a new car for the North American market. In 1976, he presented a prototype of a six-cylinder hatchback with a long nose 'like a Mustang' to a gathering of Honda America representatives. The car was called the Accord.
"My overwhelming recollection of the Accord is as a failure," Mr. Kume later said of that fateful presentation. "I remember their first reaction. They said: It has no trunk!"
Fortunately, for everybody, Honda was already committed to putting the new car into production. Money had been spent. Equipment and tooling had already been ordered. It was too late to turn back. Mr. Kume fronted a frosty top management meeting in Tokyo with a hastily re-drawn design on just a single piece of paper.
Mr. Kume's revised design - virtually a 'stretched' Civic - was a stunning success. A four-cylinder hatchback sedan, fitted with a highly economical, low pollution, 1.6 litre engine, it delivered the best fuel figures for any vehicle certified by the US Environment Protection Agency in 1976.
Why the name, Accord? The story goes that Honda officials found there were very few alternatives because of the large number of names already copyrighted by other international car companies. Rolls Royce, for instance, still has the rights to just about everything starting with the word Silver.
By January, 1979, just two years after its launch, more than 450,000 Accords had been sold worldwide. A decade later, the Accord was the top-selling car of any kind in the US market - and remained so for the next four and a half years.
During the 1980s, second and third generation Civics and Accords were joined by other Honda high achievers. First came the sleek sporty Prelude in 1978, followed by the Legend, Honda's successful bid to rival Europe's prestigious 'touring sedans', in 1985. The following year, Honda unveiled the Integra. This new range of attractive, high-performance cars ensured Honda's place in niche markets which had been the traditional preserves of European marques like Mercedes, BMW, Audi and SAAB. Honda capped a decade of strong sales and technological achievement with its ultimate road machine. The mid-engine, 3.0 litre, 6 cylinder VTEC-powered NSX two-seater sports car, unveiled in 1990, was unarguably a production 'supercar', capable of speeds in excess of 275 km/h. Soon after its launch, the U.S. magazine, Motor Trend, commented: "...the best sports car the world has ever produced. Any time. Any place. Any price."
