Word: honda
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...clock on a cold, neon-lit morning in New Jersey last Feb. 26 when a yellow Ryder rental van pulled into a Jersey City service station. A blue Honda sedan was right behind it. The attendants were more alert than usual at that hour because the station had recently been robbed. But these customers wanted only gas. The Honda's driver, a tall, red-haired, freckled man, paid for both vehicles with a $50 bill. A curious attendant tried to peer into the van. The driver, a younger, wiry man with a full beard, suddenly hopped out and planted himself...
...usually teenagers, who steal cars and perform "doughnuts," in which they lock the brakes, step on the gas, and send the car spinning in circles. Some do it in front of police cars, in the hopes of inspiring a chase. One night last November, three kids stole a new Honda, drove across a side street, hit a bump in the road, took off, sheared a power pole in half, took another pole out and brought the electric lines down on top of them, and all three burned to death. "When you try to pry these kids out of these cars...
...first time since 1988, the nation's best-selling car did not bear a Japanese nameplate. The winner for 1992: the Ford Taurus, which ended the Honda Accord's three-year reign as top seller in the U.S. After a frantic last-minute sales blitz, which included generous rebates and below-cost offers to dealers, Ford won the crown by shipping 409,751 Tauruses. Despite a lackluster year for car sales in general, Ford executives had much to celebrate: the company's share of the new-car market pushed above 20%, as GM's and Chrysler's shrank...
...industry accounts for 10% of Japan's overall economy; thus its falling fortunes are a major factor in a deepening recession. Domestic car and truck sales are down 13% from the 1990 peak of 7.7 ( million vehicles, and profits for the five biggest carmakers -- Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi and Mazda -- are off about 64% from the same year. Some of the smaller companies, like Isuzu, have been in the red for two years and may soon be joined by the likes of Nissan and Mazda...
Today's buzz word is "commonization," or sharing parts among old and new models, even among different carmakers. Honda is out in front in that race with its new Domani, a small family car that is 60% built with parts also used in other Honda models; previously the shared-component segment amounted to 10% to 15%. The carmakers are also considering a method already used by truck manufacturers: standardization of certain components, which allows parts companies to cut their prices. Zexel, a major high-tech partsmaker based in Tokyo, expects to get seven manufacturers to agree to a common fuel...