| Transforming an icon is never easy. However, | | | | "You meet the nicest people on a Honda." |
| the designers and engineers at Honda have | | | | Within months, the company sold millions of |
| done an outstanding job of keeping alive the | | | | dollars in motorcycles, but it was not until |
| spirit of Soichiro Honda with the 2006 Honda | | | | the introduction of the 1973 Honda Civic did |
| Civic coupe. When Honda first entered the | | | | the company achieve its first automotive |
| American market in 1962, they manufactured | | | | breakthrough. The American made 2006 Civic is |
| motorcycles, but the manufacturer expanded to | | | | elegant, speedy, safe, and fuel efficient car |
| automobiles by introducing clean, economical, | | | | averaging 40 mpg (51 mpg for the Hybrid) that |
| and reliable cars. In 1963, Honda spent | | | | happily keeps with tradition. Winner of Motor |
| $350,000 on two 90-second commercials that | | | | Trend magazine's 2006 Car of the Year, the |
| appeared on the Academy Awards. The ads, | | | | 2006 Civic offers a challenge to the Toyota |
| though deceptively simple from longtime ad | | | | Prius, as Honda's icon reborn. |
| agency Rubin Postaer and Associates, claimed: | | | | |