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Suzuki Celebrates 100th Anniversary

from https://auto.ndtv.com Michio Suzuki founded the Suzuki Loom Manufacturing Company in March 15,1920, and over the years expanded its business from looms to motorcycles, automobiles, outboard motors, and ATVs. Suzuki Motor Corporation is celebrating its 100th anniversary this month. Currently the third-largest manufacture in Japan, it was on this day, March 15, in 1920, when Michio Suzuki founded the Suzuki Loom Manufacturing Company. Over the years, the company expanded its business from looms to motorcycles, automobiles, outboard motors, and ATVs, and right now, it has 35 production facilities in 23 countries and 133 distributors in 192 countries. To celebrate its centenary, the company has created a new website that walks us through the biggest highlights, iconic launches, and achivements of the company, over the last century. While Michio Suzuki founded the Suzuki Loom Manufacturing Company 1920, it also started 11 years before that in 1909 with Suzuki Loom Works in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Later, in 1920, it was recognised, incorporated and capitalized at 500,000 Yen, which is approximately ₹ 3.42 lakh as per current exchange rates. However, it was 32 years later, in 1952, that Suzuki entered the world of motor vehicles with the launch of the Power Free 36 cc, 2-stroke motorised bicycle, and two years later changed the company’s name to Suzuki Motor Company. In March 1955, the automaker introduced its first motorcycle, the Suzuki Colleda 125 cc 4-stroke bike, and the same year, in October, the company debuted its first four-wheeler Suzulight. The car was powered by a 360 cc engine and was in production from 1955 to 1969. In 1961 the company also introduced pick-up trucks and vans under the brand, which were called Suzulight Carry. It was manufactured at the company’s new plant in Toyokawa, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The Carry brand name is still […]

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Honda at 40: Company, original employee grew together

By Jim Weiker from The Columbus Dispatch at https://www.cantonrep.com When Honda celebrated its 40th anniversary in Ohio this week, the milestone carried special meaning for employee Neil Vining. Vining was 22 in 1979 when he landed a job at a new motorcycle factory Honda was opening in Marysville. Today, Vining is a chief engineer at Honda. He is one of two employees still at Honda who were there when Honda of America opened its first U.S. operation in Ohio. Vining’s journey with Honda is an illustration of the company’s journey. Like many Americans, Vining didn’t know what to expect from the company. By the 1970s, Japanese cars and motorcycles were well-established among consumers, but not among employees. Vining worked at Tecumseh’s Marion factory but was weary of the laid-off, back-to-work cycle of the plant. (Tecumseh closed the factory in 1984.) He was curious about Honda, which he had followed in the newspaper since the manufacturer announced in October 1977 that it would build a factory in Ohio. “Every week I watched the paper looking for that final notice about when I could send my application,” said Vining, who had bought his first Honda motorcycle when he was 16. In March, 1979, he had his chance and interviewed for a position, not knowing what to expect. After all, there was no track record of Japanese automotive manufacturers in the U.S. “Remember that the Japanese automotive industry was initially considered a curiosity. They made econoboxes no one wanted,” said Giorgio Rizzoni, director of the Center for Automotive Research at Ohio State University. “Then they became real competitors to Detroit. For a long time, there was quite a bit of resentment in regard to Japanese automakers in the U.S. But Honda managed this transition in an extremely elegant way.” Three months after he