Honda Civic rust failure (1970s)

1975 Honda Civic as joke product (rusty within twelve months); Japanese response was to engineer the rust-free Civic of today. Example of being "embarrassed into" quality improvement.

Getting back to Japan: they started building steel mills in the 50s, shipyards in the 60s, automobiles in the 70s. A Honda Civic was a joke in 1975. You'd buy a Honda Civic and it would be rusty twelve months later. People made jokes about Honda Civics. They don't do that today. The Japanese, again, were so offended — or contrite, maybe a better word — that they decided they were going to make the car that would never rust, and that's the Honda Civic today. We embarrassed them into doing it. But in any case, we won, we beat the Soviet Union economically because we bankrupted them — they wanted to keep up with Star Wars and couldn't afford it. They weren't making anything. The Japanese were. We won the Cold War.