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Honda series follows restoration of its first car in the US

We all have to start somewhere, and for Honda's automotive business in the US the beginning was a green N600. The company brought a handful of the hatchbacks into the US to test the waters. Now, N600 expert Tim Mings has started restoring that special Honda for a weekly documentary series. Mings reckons he has worked on a 1,000 or more N600s and Z600s, but none of them have been as special as this car. He owned it for several years before cleaning off the serial number, which showed this was the very first example in the US. According to Mings, of the first 50 N600s that Honda brought to the US, only three still survive. The N600 boasted a 600cc two-cylinder engine that could rev to 9,000 rpm. Today, you can see a modern interpretation of its boxy design in Honda's N-One Kei-class car in Japan. Honda's documentary series will follow every step of the restoration process, and the completed N600 will go to the company's museum. We can't wait to see how the car looks after Mings brings it back to life. Related Video: HONDA CELEBRATES AUTOMOTIVE HERITAGE AND HISTORY IN THE U.S. IN NEW ONLINE SERIES LAUNCHING ON SOCIAL MEDIA "Serial One," new online documentary series features the painstaking restoration of the very first Honda N600 in the U.S Fans can follow the journey as acclaimed N600 mechanic Tim Mings brings the vehicle back to life Mar 16, 2016 - TORRANCE, Calif. -- The story of American Honda's first N600 vehicle in the United States in 1969 unfolds through the eyes of a determined mechanic, taking viewers on a journey to restore the first American Honda VIN, "Serial One." Launching today on Honda's social channels and at serialone.com, Honda's new weekly online content series pays homage to the company's roots in America and reflects the challenging spirit of Honda by featuring an in-depth look at the step-by-step restoration of the N600 by Los Angeles-based mechanic Tim Mings. In 1969, after a decade of growth that led to Honda becoming the top-selling motorcycle manufacturer in America and the world, Honda embarked on a new mission to sell cars in the United States. Honda entered the U.S. market with the Honda N600, which was just 122 inches in length and could actually fit between the wheels of some full size vehicles in America, which measured up to 225 inches in length and weighed nearly twice as much as the NSX. The N600 had an all-alloy engine that could achieve 9000 rpm and reach speeds of 81 miles per hour.

Kayaba, Sumitomo to pay millions for price-fixing in US

Kayaba Industry Co, which does business in the US as suspension parts maker KYB, and Sumitomo Electric Industries are facing payments in the millions to settle price-fixing cases about the components that they make. As part of the Department of Justice's ongoing crackdown of price fixing in the auto industry, KYB agreed to pay $62 million and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to set the cost of shock absorbers from the mid '90s through 2012. The company allegedly worked with co-conspirators to keep the cost of the parts high, and those components then made it into vehicles from Honda, Kawasaki, Nissan, Subaru, Suzuki, and Toyota. "Any collusive agreement among competitors to restrict price competition undercuts our free enterprise system and violates the law," said Carter M. Stewart, US Attorney of the Southern District of Ohio, in the DoJ's announcement. Over the past few years, the DoJ has brought cases against 37 parts suppliers and 55 executives, leading to over $2.6 billion in fines. The investigations haven't always been so successful – some of the Japanese execs fled from the US to avoid prosecution. Critics allege that price fixing is simply how business is done. According to Automotive News, Sumitomo Electric Industries is also facing a $50 million settlement in a civil lawsuit that's related to price fixing of parts like wiring harnesses and heater control panels. The plaintiffs include owners and dealers that purchased vehicles with these parts. The company asserts that the violations are from before 2010, and it now has different process in place to avoid further violations. KYB Agrees to Plead Guilty and Pay $62 Million Criminal Fine for Fixing Price of Shock Absorbers Kayaba Industry Co. Ltd., dba KYB Corporation (KYB) has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $62 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix the price of shock absorbers installed in cars and motorcycles sold to U.S. consumers. According to charges filed today, KYB conspired from the mid-1990s until 2012 to fix the prices of shock absorbers sold to Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (manufacturer of Subaru vehicles), Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., Nissan Motor Company Ltd., Suzuki Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Company, including their subsidiaries in the United States.

Consumer Reports' first motorcycle reliability report finds Japanese brands ahead

Consumer Reports has released its first ever study of motorcycle reliability, and students of its ratings on cars might notice a suspicious similarity - Japanese brands require fewer repairs than the leading American or German brands.
The study analyzed the reliability of 4,680 bikes owned by CR subscribers and found that Yamaha had the best ratings, with just one in ten bikes built between 2009 and 2012 requiring a repair over a four-year period. The makers of the R1 and R6 sport bikes were closely followed by Kawasaki and Honda, while one out of every four of the rumbling bikes from Harley-Davidson experienced an issue. BMW had the worst rating of the brands represented, with one in three bikes having problems.
According to CR, neither Suzuki nor Triumph owners provided enough information for a reliable rating. Based on the responses received, though, Suzuki would have finished with the other Japanese brands and Triumph, being English, would have been one of the less reliable makes.