Honda Canada is celebrating 50 years in the Canadian market, as of 2019.
Honda began as a Canadian company in 1969 with its motorcycle and power tool lineup, though some dealers had been importing and selling its products here since the early 1960s. It sells lots of other stuff here now (cars, ATVs, marine outboards) and even has manufactured cars in our country for many years, hitting the eight-million-manufactured mark here in 2017. Alas, we never got Canadian motorcycle production (although they did build motorcycles in the US for decades).
How profitable has Honda’s venture into Canada been? By 2014, Honda had sold four million vehicles in Canada, and Honda now employs 19,000 people in our country across all its manufacturing plants, offices and dealerships. So congratulations, Big Red, and we’d echo the words of Dave Gardner (President/CEO, Honda Canada) right back at you: “We look forward to growing with you for the next 50 years.”
Interesting. My first bike was a 1963 Honda 55 Sport from Daytona Motors in Montreal. By 1964, Daytona changed to Yamaha.
Allan I have a White ‘64 C115 bought in Vancouver what colour was yours and do you remember what colours it came in?
Yes,….one could get annoyed that Honda Canada does not acknowledge the importers that made the brand famous – Trevor Deeley from 1957 to 1963, and others including Manley from 1963. My family bought a 50 Cub in 1964 from the local hardware store. Another point is that Honda Australia are recognizing their 50th year and have gone out-of-their-way to thank the Aussie customers who bought their products prior to 1969 in that country. There is also a gold coloured finish available for every product they sell this year in Australia . You should see the NSX with the special finish. All this is on the Aussie website. Here in Canada the dealers are not getting a special edition, not even a decal. Loss of corporate memory I suppose.
It was the Canadian motorcycle dealers that sold the first Honda cars, S600, in North America and gave Americans access to these great little sport cars.
There’s a little more to the story – Manley’s was the importer starting in the early 1960s (1963?), Honda Canada came in and took over in 1969. Manley’s got Kawasaki at that point, taking over from Canadian Tire. The early days of Japanese motorcycles in Canada was… interesting….
My first bike was a Honda, a Nighthawk 650 bought bran new in Prince George BC. Drove it all over BC and across Canada.
I had a 1964 Honda 55 t so that was fifty four years and I know Deely was advertising Honda Benly Dreams in 1959
Kip I’m trying to find the history of the Honda 55 Sports Cub, I’ve restored my older brothers ‘64 which was white most were blue, do you remember if there were others in white. What colour was yours
Well it has been 55 years since my next door neighbor here in New Brunswick bought a new Honda 50 Cub. I also had a couple of school chums that had a 305 Honda Dream and a 250 Scrambler. So — I wonder why only the 50 year thing, Me — I settled for a 1956 350 Triumph Model 21.