Word: honda
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Whether you are selling sports cars or produce, it all comes down to service, according to Fumiko Hayashi, 58. "The key is listening to your customers," says the master marketer, who honed her retailing philosophy over nearly three decades at Honda and as president of BMW Tokyo. The new chairman and CEO of Daiei, one of Japan's largest department-store and supermarket chains, will need all that sales savvy to reverse the ailing giant's fortunes. Hayashi must prove she has the same touch in the rag trade that she had selling ragtops. --By Jim Frederick
...also has the edge in the automotive sector, the heart of the satellite-radio market. XM generates 50% of customers with new-car sales (Sirius does better in the aftermarket), and XM's financial backers, GM and Honda, offer XM radios as standard equipment in 62 models, selling the tuners in 30% of their new vehicles. Sirius' partners, such as DaimlerChrysler and Ford, are running at a 10% to 15% installation pace, says analyst Lee Westerfield of Harris Nesbitt. All told, he estimates that XM's automotive partners hold a 10-point market-share lead over automakers aligned with Sirius...
...commute. The 400h handled well, accelerated quickly and quietly engaged its gas engine. Because the 400h has a power output similar to that of a 4-liter V8 engine, you never feel as if you are compromising performance for fuel economy, as with some early hybrids, such as the Honda Insight...
...rapidly built up regard for its products through an almost fanatical attention to Getting It Right. Consumer Reports magazine recently named the Sonata the most reliable car in the U.S. And Hyundai rose to second place in J.D. Power and Associates' 2004 survey of initial car quality, tied with Honda and trailing only Toyota. Six years ago, Hyundai ranked among the worst in terms of initial defects. The comeback "is astounding," says Chance Parker, executive director at J.D. Power in Westlake Village, California. "We really haven't documented that level of turnaround in that period of time. They've adopted...
...plant just revving up, Hyundai may have a harder time maintaining quality. "They're not out of the woods yet," says J.D. Power's Parker. Dwindling profit margins are another problem. The average Hyundai car retails for 10-15% less than a comparable Toyota or Honda in the U.S., but with rising labor costs and a weaker dollar, Hyundai must persuade customers to pay more so that profits keep growing. Last year, Hyundai's earnings edged up a mere 2%, while sales grew 10%. Zayong Koo, an auto analyst at Lehman Bros. in Seoul, says it could take several years...