A Crisis That Could Have Doomed
Honda’s Automobile Business
In 1970, Honda R&D members who visited Suzuka Factory were stunned and dumbstruck by what they saw. Only a small number of 1300 models were scattered along the production line, despite the fact that the 1300 was a high-performance model Honda launched with great confidence that gained worldwide acclaim at the time of its introduction.
At the time, Japan was in the midst of a high-growth period, shifting rapidly to an automobile-centric society against the backdrop of an economic growth rate of over 10% year-on-year and construction of a new transportation network. The number of cars, both owned and produced in Japan, continued to rise and the Japanese automotive industry had grown to become the second largest in the world in terms of production volume. However, Honda was suffering from a sales slump that was creating idle capacity on the production line.
Honda R&D members who saw the stark reality of the 1300 were the initial members of the new model development project that was launched in the midst of this difficult situation.
“I was just shocked to see such a situation,” recalled Shinya Iwakura, who was in charge of exterior design
“We all thought that if this project failed, it might be impossible for Honda to enter the automobile business in earnest,” said Hiroshi Kizawa, the development of Large Project Leader.
At the time, Honda was struggling through its eighth year in the automobile business, with a production volume of less than 400,000 units. So, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if the company chose to exit the market entirely. It was in the midst of such a sense of crisis that Honda began the initial phase of developing the new model that would eventually be named “Civic.”
Development Through Free Competition Among Divergent
Teams Working in Parallel
Since this was a project where the survival of Honda’s automobile business was at stake, the members involved in the initial development experienced a considerable amount of pressure. Adding to such pressure, Masami Suzuki, then the general manager of Honda R&D, set a challenging development theme and told the project members, “Toward the creation of an automobile targeting not only Japan but the international market, give me a report detailing the kind of car we should develop.” Simply put, Suzuki was saying, “Develop a car which will be well received in the global market.” However, the development team members knew it also was the goal for the 1300, which had excited some experts, but not a broad range of customers.
To address such a concern, a new development approach was initiated based on free competition among different teams working in parallel on the same project. This was advocated by Kiyoshi Kawashima, then senior managing director of Honda, who would soon become the president of Honda R&D, and later, president of Honda. This was an initiative to create better products by having multiple teams work on separate plans under a single theme based on their freewheeling thinking, now known as an in-house competition.
This project was given the development code “634”, and two teams of about ten members each were put into the in-house competition. One team was composed of “veteran” engineers in their late 30s including its leader, Kizawa. The other team was composed of younger engineers in their late 20s and early 30s. Day and night each team held candid talks, comparing Japanese and foreign cars in the market at the time, that became ever-deepening discussions. Before long, everyone on the two teams shared the same feeling: “We wanted to make a car that we truly want to drive,” recalled Kizawa. “Before this project, we had been making cars the Old Man (Soichiro Honda) wanted to make.” Until then, all Honda cars had been developed based on the ideas of one genius, Soichiro Honda. So, this became the first opportunity for younger engineers, even for “veteran” engineers including Kizawa, to plan for a new model from scratch based on their own freewheeling thinking.
Creating a Well-Balanced Car
The two teams came up with vastly different proposals. One was an 800 cc compact sedan that emphasized low cost, and the other was a 1200 cc two-box, or hatchback, that emphasized performance and vehicle segment. Although the two proposals seemed to be heading in different directions, their basic concepts were almost identical: A lightweight, compact and zippy car which will become “a global car for people.” The performance targets set for both vehicles, such as top speed, were also very similar. These similarities between the two proposals were due to the fact that both teams considered the reality of the 1300 they witnessed at Suzuka Factory as the basis of their ideas for the new model.
A 1300 was equipped with an excellent 1300 cc air-cooled inline-four engine that outperformed its competitors in many respects; however, it simply wasn’t a well-balanced car. Achieving a prominent technical element in one area affected other areas such as occupant comfort, reducing noise and vibration performance, front-rear weight distribution, and even the vehicle’s sales price, which turned customers off.
Kizawa recalled, “We were all weary of the fact that we had made a car that was not well balanced. What we really wanted to do was make an ordinary, yet well balanced car.” This comment by Kizawa offers a glimpse into the thoughts of Honda engineers involved in the development of this new model. The members of the initial development teams who came up with these proposals had a clear image of the kind of car they truly wanted to drive. They were convinced that a well-balanced car was not only what they wanted, but also what their customers were looking for.
What Kind of Car Do People Really Need Today?
Immediately after the two teams delivered their proposals, the project was reorganized in the direction of integrating the two proposals and proceeding with development of the product. The development concept consisted of multiple descriptions of the car people really needed at that time: a zippy and fun-to-drive car; a lightweight, compact car, yet one that our customers can drive with a sense of pride; and a world-class 4-passenger sedan.” Tadashi Kume served as the first Large Project Leader (LPL) of this project until he passed the torch to Kizawa when the project entered the design phase.
By this time, all team members had a shared belief that they must thoroughly pursue the answer to the following questions: “What kind of car does Honda need to create today?” and “What kind of car do people really need today?”
Instead of making a relative comparison and widening the cabin space by 3 mm to match the dimensions of competing models, the team focused on realizing the dimensions and performance their customers really wanted.
“We wanted to discover such ‘absolute value’ for our new model,” said Kizawa.
Based on this thinking, the team adapted the concept of “utility minimum” – minimizing utility space including the engine compartment to achieve the most efficient size, performance and economy of the vehicle – a concept that also had been adopted in the development of the N360. On top of this, the team also incorporated the “man maximum” concept that pursued efficiency without compromising space for occupants.
These concepts were later formulated into the original Honda design approach of “Man-Maximum, Machine-Minimum” (“M/M”), which uses technology and design to maximize the space inside the vehicle for people while minimizing the space needed for mechanical components. This would be handed down through generations of Honda engineers even to this date.
The trapezoidal style of the 3-door hatchback that defied preconceived notions. The dimensions and performance truly desired by customers were pursued as “absolutes” to create a “lightweight and compact car to be proud of.”
The Creation of a FF*1 2-Box*2 Car
That Defied Common Sense
Kizawa’s pursuit of the “absolute value” ultimately led to the vehicle specification of an FF (front engine, front-wheel-drive) two-box car equipped with a transverse-mounted engine*3. Coincidentally, the Japanese government’s People's Car Concept, which had been in discussion since before the start of this new model development, was gradually taking shape, and there was speculation that the government would require the vehicle footprint to be under 5m2 (approx. 53.8 ft2). In addition to being in line with Honda’s initial “utility minimum” concept, this regulation would work favorably for Honda in terms of the sales environment. At the time, most Honda dealers were small shops designed for motorcycle sales. To sell this new car at such Honda shops, meeting this 5m2 footprint requirement was an absolute must.
From the very start, the development team was targeting an overall footprint of 5m2, with a vehicle length of somewhere between 3,300 and 3,400 mm and width of 1,450 mm. However, due to the adoption of a transverse-mounted 1200 cc engine, the vehicle width had to be increased to 1,505 mm. So, in order to meet the 5m2 target, the vehicle length target needed to be shortened by more than 100 mm, and this had to be done while ensuring sufficient occupant comfort. The team faced a difficult dilemma.
In Japan at the time, a three-box sedan was considered as a standard of car design, and this Civic was, at least initially, intended to be a stylish sedan. However, the car grew wider and shorter with each passing day, getting further and further away from the originally intended stylish design and becoming more and more like a stubby trapezoidal design.
“The Civic was modeled on the contours of the Life, and the initial design featured a roofline which sloped down more gently toward the rear, and there was a trunk,” recalled Iwakura. “But as the vehicle length got shorter and shorter, one day, we made a bold decision to chop off the trunk space because we couldn’t stand the possibility that it would end up being mediocre styling design.”
In the pursuit of the “absolute value,” the team had no need for the preconceived notion that “cars must be a three-box design.” Iwakura’s daring move resulted in the creation of the unique styling of the first-generation Civic – a three-door hatchback design featuring a trapezoidal profile.
In the meantime, the rest of the team members were expecting to see a stylish sedan design. Iwakura explained to them that the trapezoidal styling would be a part of the “unique character” of this model, and he emphasized that this styling was the embodiment of “a lightweight, compact car, yet one our customers can drive with a sense of pride,” which was described in the development concept.
Iwakura explained: “Taking a motorcycle as an example, when the Monkey is put side by side with a 750 cc model, the Monkey owner will not be intimidated by the 750 cc, but rather feel proud because Monkey has a strong presence derived from its unique character. So, we struggled with the question of ‘what kind of car would make people proud.’ For example, we could describe this model as ‘simple yet charming.’ I was focusing on what other adjectives other than ‘charming’ could come after the word ‘yet’ and how we can express that with our new model.”
The team’s concern was whether this styling would translate into sales, or even get to the point where it could be launched as a product. At the time, three-door hatchbacks were still unusual, and the team members were not sure if this unique styling would be accepted by the market, or even within Honda. As a part of the new model development process, a slew of evaluations was conducted, including those from the perspective of the sales and production divisions. It was not unusual that changes were made to design and other technical specifications based on the result of these evaluations. Of course, there was a concern that this unique design might be turned down and sent back to the design team for modifications.
This concern was quickly dispelled by Suzuki, the general manager of Honda R&D, who instructed the team: “If you guys think this is the right direction, disregard the opinions and concerns of others outside the team and keep moving forward until it takes shape as an actual car.”
The Civic was, in fact, matured to the stage where it became an actual car, based on the pure passion of the engineers who kept pursuing the “absolute value” for this model.
- FF: Front-engine, front-wheel-drive (FWD) layout that places the engine at the front of the vehicle, which drives the front wheels only.
- Two-Box: One of the car body configurations, which articulates the volume for the engine and the combined volume for the passengers and cargo. Unlike typical sedans (three-box), two-box cars, such as hatchbacks, do not have a rear deck (a separate cargo area).
- A transverse-mounted engine positions the engine’s crankshaft centerline (crankshaft axis) perpendicular to the vehicle’s front-rear centerline (direction of travel). A transverse-mounted engine is designed to be placed horizontally where the cylinders sit in a row from left to right in the engine bay.
