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N0KFQ > TODAY 23.07.10 17:13l 61 Lines 2911 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Jul 23
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From: N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
To : TODAY@WW
Jul 23, 2007:
Honda produces 6 millionth Civic in North America
During the week ending on July 23, 2007, Honda Motor Company
Ltd. produces its 6 millionth Civic in North America, according
to an article in Automotive News.
Honda's history goes back to 1946, when the engineer Honda
Soichiro founded his namesake technical research institute near
Hamamatsu in order to produce internal-combustion engines.
Incorporated as Honda Motor Company two years later and
headquartered in Tokyo, it began producing motorcycles in 1949
and later expanded to automobiles. The first-generation Honda
Civic, a subcompact, two-door model, made its debut in July
1972, followed by a three-door version that September. As
suggested by its name, Honda saw the Civic as its car for the
people; in this way, it was similar to the original "people's
car," the Volkswagen Beetle. The Civic was an immediate success
in its home country, winning Japan's Car of the Year award for
three consecutive years in 1972, 1973 and 1974. Honda began
exporting the car to the United States in 1972, and to Canada
the following year. In the latter nation, the Civic became the
best-selling import car for 28 consecutive months from 1976 to
1978.
The small, fuel-efficient Civic arrived at an opportune time, as
the 1972 oil crisis had thrown a wrench in the existing American
car market, with its emphasis on big, powerful, gas-guzzling
vehicles. Beginning in the 1980s, Honda made the localization of
the Civic's production in America a cornerstone of its efforts
to expand its U.S. business overall. Honda had begun operations
in the United States in 1959 with the establishment of American
Honda Motor Co., Inc., the automaker's first overseas
subsidiary. In 1986, Honda began making the Civic (it had
already started production of the mid-size Accord) at its plant
in Marysville, Ohio. The following year, Honda built a second
U.S. plant in East Liberty, Ohio, in 1989; its production was
largely focused on the Civic.
In 2002, Honda added the Civic to its gasoline-electric hybrid
lineup, which began with the Insight in 1999. Within a year,
hybrid Civics accounted for some 10 percent of the car's total
sales. By July 2007, when the 6 millionth North American Civic
rolled off the line, Honda was operating 12 manufacturing plants
and employed more than 30,000 people in North America; more than
75 percent of all Honda and Acura (the automaker's higher-end
brand) vehicles sold there were produced and assembled locally.
In May 2008, on the brink of a growing economic crisis that
would send the automotive industry reeling, American Honda Motor
Co., Inc., announced that Civic sales that month (53,299) had
shattered the previous monthly record for any car in its lineup.
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