1973 Honda Civic corrosion failure

Early 1970s Honda Civics rusting within 12 months of purchase. Used to illustrate Japanese cultural response to quality embarrassment — they were mortified and fixed it, leading to the modern reputation for reliability.

I told you the story about the Honda being considered a piece of junk in the early 70s — it would rust out, showing red rust within a year of buying it. The Japanese were mortified, as part of the culture, that people were making jokes about a Honda Civic being a piece of junk because it was rusty within twelve months. What they did to respond was to fix it. Now the Honda Civic is a great car with lots of reliability. It's partly the Japanese culture, and Toyota — Eiji Toyoda had this respect for your suppliers and your customers and working with them. It's Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y. Do you respect the people you work with? Do you think they're trying to do a good job? Do you want them to work with you to help? Or are you just going to threaten them if they don't perform? You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. The Japanese were the ones who taught the Americans through the principles of total quality management.

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Quality-reputation case. Honda's 1973 Civic rusted through in a year; their response built the modern Honda body-engineering reputation.

What car nowadays — a common car that sells a couple hundred thousand copies a year — has the highest reliability? Typically Toyota is up there, but Honda is also up there. Do you know why Honda has such a good reputation? Because in 1973 they came out with a Honda Civic and it would rust through in one year. Honda got terrible reviews; no one would buy a Honda after 1973 because it was junk in terms of corrosion resistance. The people at Honda said, we've got to do something, and they did. They improved the quality much better than even Toyota in terms of corrosion resistance. Generally Toyota is known for their engines, that just run forever. But if you actually look at the body structure and everything else, Honda basically turned it around completely. They developed a terrible reputation in the 70s for the original Honda Civic, and now people don't remember how bad Hondas were. They learned from their experience.

Honda Civics rusting within twelve months in the mid-1970s as origin story for Honda's modern quality culture. "The Japanese don't like to be embarrassed."

By the mid 1970s, the automotive companies wanted to do something about the rusting problem. You don't remember it because you weren't born, but I remember the Honda Civic in the mid '70s was a joke. Honda had been making motorcycles when I was a teenager. I wished I had a Honda 50cc motorcycle. But then an orthopedic surgeon in town showed pictures of people who had accidents right in front of the hospital, and there was just nothing they could do for them after they'd gone sliding along the asphalt for a hundred yards. I kind of lost my desire to do in a motorcycle accident. In any case, Honda went from motorcycles, in the mid '70s, to this little Honda Civic that sort of didn't look a lot different than a Mini Cooper does today. It was a small little vehicle, and it would rust in twelve months. They got this reputation, and in fact this is one of the reasons Honda is so big on quality today — because they were terribly embarrassed. The Japanese don't like to be embarrassed. They had a terrible reputation for quality and rusting.