Images from the collection of Mark J. McCourt
Honda automobiles may be completely ubiquitous nowadays, seemingly as part of the American landscape as Mount Rushmore, but it wasn’t always that way. Indeed, what we now know of as an automotive sales powerhouse is a relative newcomer on our shores, not having arrived in four-wheeled form until 1970. But like many new immigrants have, Honda worked extra-hard to Americanize itself -and it created a number of “firsts” along the way.
The opening of their Marysville, Ohio, plant in 1982 made them the first Japanese automaker to build cars on U.S. soil. Their upscale Acura line, which debuted in 1986, was the first luxury car division of a Japanese automaker (followed by three years later by Toyota’s Lexus and Nissan’s Infiniti). The beautiful 1988 Accord Coupe was the first US-built Japanese-brand car to be exported to Japan, and in 1991, to Europe; indeed, in 1990, they were the first automaker building right hand-drive models in North America. And the fourth- and fifih- generation (1990-1997) Accord wagons were designed and built in the USA.
When this brochure was printed in 1992, American Honda Co.’s Accord was the best-selling American-made automobile in our country, as well as the world’s top-selling American export model. They were proud of their investments in our country, which they detailed on these pages. Pull up a chair and stay a while- and click to enlarge the images.
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