Honda Vehicles

Overview

    Honda Motor Company is named for Soichiro Honda, the brilliant engineer who was the company's founder. Honda introduced itself with motorcycle designs before debuting a micro-pickup truck and a roadster powered by a half-liter engine in 1963. Seven years later, Honda began North American distribution of their 600 minicar, with hatchback and racier hatchback coupe versions. In 1973 came their first real subcompact car, the Civic; three years later came a compact hatchback called the Accord. The latter two cars remain the mainstain of Honda's US lineup to this day. In 1982, Honda's Marysville plant became the first automotive plant to construct Japanese cars in North America, defying Chrysler's Lee Iacoca, who said no Japanese company could succeed if they had to build cars Stateside. Honda was the first company to sell a gas-electric hybrid in the United States, when the Insight went on sale in 1999 (the Toyota Prius came first, but that car didn't reach American shores until 2001). Honda is the second-largest Japanese car company, behind Toyota. Honda models often compete very directly with Toyotas: Honda's Accord and Civic, for example, perpetually compete against Toyota's Camry and Corolla for best-selling status. Honda maintains a reputation both as an engineer's company, producing athletically-minded, high-revving cars; and as an environmentally friendly company, whose mileage figures are some of the highest for a mainstream company. Honda also pioneered the idea of an upscale Japanese car brand, when it introduced a separate sales channel for premium cars in 1986, creating the Acura Division, an idea that was soon copied by both Toyota and Nissan. Honda, like Toyota, has also begun to develop a reputation (especially among younger buyers) as an American company, due its ubiquity in the US market and numerous factories in the US, as well as the fact that many of its US vehicles are now designed and engineered specifically for the American market.

CARS

MINIVANS

CROSSOVER VEHICLES

SPORT-UTILITY VEHICLES

PICKUP TRUCKS