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Archive for October, 2011

Honda Will Not Be Buying Harley-davidson

Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. has recently denied rumors alleging that it will buy HarleyDavidson Inc. which caused the US motorcycle makers share to rise in New York last Friday.

But just in case Honda and Harley do combine their union would be able to control 65 percent of the US motorcycle market while its next leading competitor Yamaha will be left with only 16 percent. Such type of stronghold on the motorcycle market would definitely not please the Federal Trade Commission.

Honda through its spokeswoman Yoshido has extended their stand on the issue. According to Honda spokeswoman Makiko Yoshida in Tokyo last Monday Theres absolutely no truth to it.

Amidst doubts from analyst and market participants HarleyDavidson shares and options were able to increase with 58535 options last Friday which is fourteen times more than the daily average that is basing from the figures gathered by market research firm Track Data.

RBC Capital Market Analyst Edward Aaron in an interview with Forbes.com last Friday said “I’d be surprised if there was a Honda and HarleyDavidson combination basically for regulatory and cultural reasons.” He also added “Harley is an iconic American brand. I don’t think it would be a great fit if they were under the ownership of a larger Japanese corporation.”

Aaron further stated that it was unlikely that Harley would become the target of a buyout. He said “Although an LBO is more plausible than a merger with Honda the math behind such a transaction is not highly compelling.” And besides Harley is already a well operated business with a high margin profile and its not a good business sense for an LBO investor to shell out a significant premium and be able to generate a fitting return.

Harleys share gained as much as 6.4 percent before closing last Fridays session by 2.43 or about 4 percent at 62.55 on the New York Stock Exchange. On the other hand the shares of Honda the worlds biggest motorcycle maker and producer of high quality Honda exhaust system have gained very little increase in Tokyo with only 0.5 percent last Monday at 4420 yen.

Honda Tidbits

For the past 50 years Honda has made racing as its training ground for challenging the abilities of both its engineers and designers. Soichiro Honda said that the pressures that people gets from racing encourages them to seek for innovative solutions and demands fast precise responses to new problems that they have not encountered before.

This is also the very reason why racing is embedded in the corporate culture of Honda. Aside from that racing also teaches people how to work harmoniously with each other since in racing no single individual can bring success to the team because it is a group effort.

Throughout the racing history of Honda either it be in two wheels or four the Japanese automaker has been able to win at the highest levels. From the Isle of Man TT motorcycle race to Formula One Grand Prix Honda was able to obtain 60 race victories and four consecutive Constructors Championships from 1988 to 1991. Various Honda models are displayed in victory lanes around the world.

About the writer:  Evander Klum is a Business Administration graduate who hails from Alabama. He enjoys extreme sports and he is also a car racing fanatic. At present he works as a marketing manager at an advertising agency in Cleveland.

Honda Voted As Best Volume Manufacturer Modifies Smoking Policy

Honda in the UK maker of quality Honda turn signal has been voted Best Volume Manufacturer in the Lloyds TSB autolease ServiceTrak Awards. The recognition gauges excellence in corporate after sales service as well as accident repair. More than 2600 corporate customers gave criticisms on key aspects of the service that is delivered by suppliers as well as manufacturers.

The Manager for ServiceTrak at Lloyds TSB autolease by the name of Joe Bhamra said that Honda UK has excellently demonstrated its capability to deliver excellent service and share similar care values. He added that their company makes sure that the services delivered to their customers are serious. He therefore concluded that it is important for Lloyds TSB autolease to identify and most especially recognize manufacturers and suppliers who meet and exceed their expectations.

Brian Jameson the Corporate Aftersales Manager for Honda UK commented that they have a strong service maintenance repair programme and the aforementioned award depicted how their dealers have taken retail experience and used this in the rushing automotive market so that the corporate customer will be benefited. He added that the service maintenance repair programme endorses findings of this years JD Power Survey where Honda was top in the first time fix category and second in the overall survey.

The quality of service to customers is measured by Lloyds TSB autolease ServiceTrak after vehicles were serviced or repaired. It then gathered feedback on the service quality and communication that are provided by suppliers and manufacturers.

The manufacturers were specifically measured based on the service that is provided by their individual sites with the accident repair technicians measured on their speed of service against strict repair quality criteria.

Meanwhile employees and visitors at the Honda Motor Co. plant in central Ohio soon will have safer areas where they can smoke cigarettes without violating state law as Honda modifies smoking policy.

On February 8 Honda made the plant and its surrounding property tobaccofree in response to the smoking ban that was approved by Ohio voters in November 2006. When visitors and employees want to smoke they then began driving off the property and parking along nearby roads.

It was the concern of the Union County Sheriff’s Office authorities that it could be dangerous for people to park and perhaps even stand along those roads. Honda then decided to change its policy.

Honda spokesman Ed Miller said that they still do not encourage smoking but their primary goal is to run a safe workplace. He added that Honda will create some smoking areas within the premises and employees and visitors will be able to smoke in their cars while within the plant property.

About the writer:  Ally Wahlberg is a Computer Information Systems specialist. Ally leads an active lifestyle and he is a fan of extreme sports. He is also a car enthusiast and writing about his interests is one of his passions.

Honda: Union Of Concerned Scientists Greenest Automaker

The American Honda Motor Co. Inc. the most fuel efficient car company in the United States has earned the title of America’s “2007 Greenest Automaker” from the Union of Concerned Scientists UCS for the fourth consecutive time this year. The award is given by the UCS on a biennial basis to the auto manufacturer with the lowest overall production of smogforming emissions and global warming emissions primarily CO2 in its American fleet.

“Honda remains the greenest U.S. automaker. The company installs clean technology across its entire fleet of cars and trucks and that consistency makes it a top environmental performer. Honda is one of only two automakers to have betterthanaverage global warming scores in every class of vehicles it sold in MY2005″ said Don MacKenzie a vehicles engineer working with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “In addition Honda continues to have the best smog score in four out of the five classes.”

Honda one of the rising Japanese automakers is committed to remain a leader in the development and application of new auto technologies that respond to three critical environmental challenges: improving fuel efficiency to cut greenhouse gas emissions that are responsible to global warming; dipping smogforming emissions to limit air pollution; and delivering realworld alternatives to gasoline to slash foreign oil dependence.

“We are proud to be recognized as a leader and will continue to challenge ourselves to improve the environmental performance of our company and our products” said John Mendel the executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co. Inc. “We have entered a period in history where society is more critically aware of how the actions we take today determine the course of our environmental future for generations to come. We accept this as our challenge.”

The American Honda the Torrancebased automaker has applied leadingedge fuel efficient technologies to the full range of its Honda and Acura product lines and thus gets the result of having industryleading corporate average fuel economy CAFE as determined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency EPA. The EPA imposes a 33.9 mpg and 24.7 mpg respectively for model year 2006 passenger cars and light trucks. Quality auto parts of the automaker that include Honda AEM cam gears engines and radiators have established a good name in serving environmentfriendly purposes.

In May last year the Japanese automaker became the first to publicly announce voluntary targets for the cutback of CO2 emissions by 2010 from both its products and production operations. Honda is targeting a five percent reduction in CO2 emissions for its global automobile fleet from 2005 levels on top of a five percent reduction achieved in the 20002005 time period. It also will work toward a ten percent reduction for motorcycles and power products from 2000 levels by 2010.

In order to reach the voluntary CO2 reduction goal Honda will introduce a series of new fuelefficient technologies and products that include intelligent engine systems; a new more affordable gaselectric hybrid vehicle in 2009; secondgeneration Variable Cylinder Management VCM; and a new clean diesel vehicle in about two years with high fuel efficiency and ultralow emissions equivalent to a gasoline engine vehicle.

About the writer:  Mike Bartley 49 is a professional automotive journalist domiciled in Irvine CA. He travels from one state to another to cover the hottest auto shows racing events and automotive revelations. His penned compositions cover press releases reviews and suggestions. Where the auto action is that’s exactly where you can find Mike.