50 YEARS OLD AND 60 MILLIONS MANUFACTURED!!!!
At the end of April 2008 Honda Cub reached the 60 million mark and in August it is 50 year since it birth.
The first year it was manufactured was 1958 and almost 25.000 rolled out of the assembly line, a high figure at that time.
Then production then grew sex fold every year and then it stabilised at 500.000-800.000 up to 1993 when it boomed again, braking the one million mark in 1994 and the last fiscal year ending in March 2008 Honda produced almost 5 million units!!!!
No other motor vehicle is close to these Honda Cub figures. The is closest competitor is probably Volkswagen Golf with approx. 25 million vehicles in 2005 overtaking the Beattle as the most sold motor vehicle in the world according to all newspapers. They forgot the Honda Cub, by that time sold about 45 million. HONDA RULES!!!
When Soichiro Honda decided to start production of the CUB all other competitors in small size motorbikes used 2-stroke engines. Mr. Honda chooses the 4-stroke because it was much more economical, reliable and long lasting. He knew, from the experience of building up a war torn Japan, all developing countries in the world need a reliable and economical motor vehicle to transport people and goods. Probably he didn’t understand what impact his “vision” would have in all the poor countries all over the world. Those of you that have travelled to Cambodia, Laos and other emerging economies have seen with your own eyes that the backbone of the transport system consists of Honda Cubs and copies of it. You have the huge loads they can take and I have personally seen Honda Cub Trailer taxis carrying 48 persons!!!! Even here in Thailand you can still see the Cubs doing heavy transports and most of the local personal transports all over the country are handled by Honda Cubs and it’s a likes.
I thought that the Nobel Peace Prize cannot be given to persons not living any more but when I checked the list of Nobel Prizes Winners, I saw and remembered that UN secretary Dag Hammarskold got it just after his death, posthumously . It can also be given to organisations so PLEASE give it to Soichiro Honda posthumously and the Honda Corporation for its role of full filing the dreams of Soichiro Honda putting the developing world on wheels and making the wheels working there. The Honda CUB has done more for the development of the poor countries than any UN contribution and UN organizations have got the prize almost 10 times. Also if you check the person lists of Prize Winners I think that you can agree that the Honda CUB has done more for developed countries, thus promoting peace, than Alan Gore, Jimmy Carter Jr, Yasser Arafat, Henry Kissinger, Le Duc Tho etc. Actually there is no other person or organisation on the list who has had an bigger impact on this world than Soichiro Honda with his Honda CUB. So the Norwegian Government pls wake up.
Here are the CUB:s the first picture an original 1958 Honda C100 and second picture the 2007 Honda CUB, or is it the other way around? Not so much changes.
Honda launched the Honda CUB also for the American market. This is a part of the fantastic story how Honda entered the American market. Honda had no money at all to use for the project, but succeeded to obtain a few million dollar credit from some Japanese export Bank. The credit was due to approval of the Government which refused to approve it. Anyhow Soichiro Honda personally succeeded to get the approval and he sent one of his best engineers (one who had fail to establish Honda in Belgium) to conquer America with a few million dollar in the pocket and no English skill….He bought a shop house in Gardena California and imported a batch of Hondas to Gardena mainly Honda Cubs. He analyzed the American market and came to the conclusion that the market is dominated by some English brands and Harley Davidson selling machines that are very unreliable, leaking oil and driven by some dirty people living outside the normal society and sold in dirty shops run by some men with greasy hands…. The rest of the society 99% did not use motorbikes, not for the daily transportation nor for leisure and they have some anticipation against motorbikes and would never put their feet into a motor bike shop. Therefore he decided that the machines Honda sell in USA must not leak oil, must be reliable, must be easy to drive without getting dirty, females must like them, must be sold in clean shops that are according to certain standards and guidelines. He got contact with a PR-Advertisement agency (who later got famous because of this Honda launch) that created this “You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda” campaign a couple two of “normal” American people driving the CUB:s one male and one female. The ads was published in magazines like Time, a thing that was totally new for two wheelers and actually Honda America used their last loan dollars on this campaign. At the same time the Honda salesmen were active on the field, establishing new dealerships all over America. Most new dealers were not motorcycle dealers but car dealers and if they approved motorcycle dealers these have to get used to new rules regarding the outlook of the shop. Honda succeeded with the Honda CUB, the next model flopped and Honda withdraw the model, sent the bikes back to Japan at a very high cost, but got a very solid reputation. Taking back vehicles from the dealerships and refunding the money was unbelievable in USA and Honda got a solid reputation because of this. (This American part is what I remember from a book written by a French writer who wrote a book MR Honda(?) about Soichiro Honda. Many statements may be and are wrong)
HIKO
At the end of April 2008 Honda Cub reached the 60 million mark and in August it is 50 year since it birth.
The first year it was manufactured was 1958 and almost 25.000 rolled out of the assembly line, a high figure at that time.
Then production then grew sex fold every year and then it stabilised at 500.000-800.000 up to 1993 when it boomed again, braking the one million mark in 1994 and the last fiscal year ending in March 2008 Honda produced almost 5 million units!!!!
No other motor vehicle is close to these Honda Cub figures. The is closest competitor is probably Volkswagen Golf with approx. 25 million vehicles in 2005 overtaking the Beattle as the most sold motor vehicle in the world according to all newspapers. They forgot the Honda Cub, by that time sold about 45 million. HONDA RULES!!!
When Soichiro Honda decided to start production of the CUB all other competitors in small size motorbikes used 2-stroke engines. Mr. Honda chooses the 4-stroke because it was much more economical, reliable and long lasting. He knew, from the experience of building up a war torn Japan, all developing countries in the world need a reliable and economical motor vehicle to transport people and goods. Probably he didn’t understand what impact his “vision” would have in all the poor countries all over the world. Those of you that have travelled to Cambodia, Laos and other emerging economies have seen with your own eyes that the backbone of the transport system consists of Honda Cubs and copies of it. You have the huge loads they can take and I have personally seen Honda Cub Trailer taxis carrying 48 persons!!!! Even here in Thailand you can still see the Cubs doing heavy transports and most of the local personal transports all over the country are handled by Honda Cubs and it’s a likes.
I thought that the Nobel Peace Prize cannot be given to persons not living any more but when I checked the list of Nobel Prizes Winners, I saw and remembered that UN secretary Dag Hammarskold got it just after his death, posthumously . It can also be given to organisations so PLEASE give it to Soichiro Honda posthumously and the Honda Corporation for its role of full filing the dreams of Soichiro Honda putting the developing world on wheels and making the wheels working there. The Honda CUB has done more for the development of the poor countries than any UN contribution and UN organizations have got the prize almost 10 times. Also if you check the person lists of Prize Winners I think that you can agree that the Honda CUB has done more for developed countries, thus promoting peace, than Alan Gore, Jimmy Carter Jr, Yasser Arafat, Henry Kissinger, Le Duc Tho etc. Actually there is no other person or organisation on the list who has had an bigger impact on this world than Soichiro Honda with his Honda CUB. So the Norwegian Government pls wake up.
Here are the CUB:s the first picture an original 1958 Honda C100 and second picture the 2007 Honda CUB, or is it the other way around? Not so much changes.
Honda launched the Honda CUB also for the American market. This is a part of the fantastic story how Honda entered the American market. Honda had no money at all to use for the project, but succeeded to obtain a few million dollar credit from some Japanese export Bank. The credit was due to approval of the Government which refused to approve it. Anyhow Soichiro Honda personally succeeded to get the approval and he sent one of his best engineers (one who had fail to establish Honda in Belgium) to conquer America with a few million dollar in the pocket and no English skill….He bought a shop house in Gardena California and imported a batch of Hondas to Gardena mainly Honda Cubs. He analyzed the American market and came to the conclusion that the market is dominated by some English brands and Harley Davidson selling machines that are very unreliable, leaking oil and driven by some dirty people living outside the normal society and sold in dirty shops run by some men with greasy hands…. The rest of the society 99% did not use motorbikes, not for the daily transportation nor for leisure and they have some anticipation against motorbikes and would never put their feet into a motor bike shop. Therefore he decided that the machines Honda sell in USA must not leak oil, must be reliable, must be easy to drive without getting dirty, females must like them, must be sold in clean shops that are according to certain standards and guidelines. He got contact with a PR-Advertisement agency (who later got famous because of this Honda launch) that created this “You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda” campaign a couple two of “normal” American people driving the CUB:s one male and one female. The ads was published in magazines like Time, a thing that was totally new for two wheelers and actually Honda America used their last loan dollars on this campaign. At the same time the Honda salesmen were active on the field, establishing new dealerships all over America. Most new dealers were not motorcycle dealers but car dealers and if they approved motorcycle dealers these have to get used to new rules regarding the outlook of the shop. Honda succeeded with the Honda CUB, the next model flopped and Honda withdraw the model, sent the bikes back to Japan at a very high cost, but got a very solid reputation. Taking back vehicles from the dealerships and refunding the money was unbelievable in USA and Honda got a solid reputation because of this. (This American part is what I remember from a book written by a French writer who wrote a book MR Honda(?) about Soichiro Honda. Many statements may be and are wrong)
HIKO
