Honda : Honda is a Japanese manufacturer of automobiles however, as the name of the company in Japanese suggests, the company is often described as an engineering or engine company rather than a car company. Honda is headquartered in Tokyo.

In September 24, 1948 the Honda Motor Co. was founded by Soichiro Honda. Soichiro Honda was a gifted mechanic, who after working at Art Shokai, developed his own design for piston rings in 1938, hoping to sell them to Toyota, who rejected his first design, but after two years of work and study, further refined them and earned a contract from Toyota. He constructed a new facility to supply Toyota, but soon after, during World War II, the Honda piston manufacturing facilities were almost completely destroyed. Soichiro Honda created a new company with what he had left, giving it the name “Honda Giken Kōgyō Kabushiki Kaisha” which translates to “Honda Research Institute Co. Ltd.”

Honda began producing road cars in 1960, mostly intended for the Japanese market. Though participating in international motorsport, Honda was having difficulty selling its automobiles in the United States.
Honda finally established a foothold in the American market in 1972 with the introduction of the Civic.

• In 1976, the Accord was immediately popular because of its economy and fun-to-drive nature.
• In 1982, Honda was the first Japanese car manufacturer to build car plants in the (Marysville, Ohio) US. Honda was the first Japanese automaker to introduce a separate luxury line of vehicles. Created in 1986 and known as Acura.
• In 1989 Honda launched their VTEC variable valve timing system in its production car engines, which gave improved efficiency and performance across a broader range of engine speeds. With more than 14 million internal combustion engines built each year, Honda is the largest engine-maker in the world.

For the 2007 model year, Honda plans to improve the safety of its vehicles by providing front-seat side airbags, side-curtain airbags, and anti-lock brakes as standard equipment in mostly all automobiles.