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eBay Find of the Day: Why this motorcycle's a deal at $135k

There can be no doubt that Soichiro Honda left a lasting legacy by lending his engineering talents to the company that bears his name. This can be said particularly of motorcycles, and the company outdid itself when it introduced the 1969 CB750. Widely considered the world's first superbike, it combined a then-powerful 67-horsepower, 736cc, inline four-cylinder engine and cutting edge tech for motorcycles at the time like an electric start and front disc brake. It is simply one of the most important motorcycles ever made, and now one of four handmade prototypes is up for auction on eBay Motors.
According to the seller, Honda had an idea that it had something special with the CB750 and built four preproduction models to be shown off to American media in 1968. Each one was hand-built by Honda technicians from bespoke components, and this blue/green model was photographed by magazines and for promotional material at the time. The seller believes that one of the four prototypes was destroyed, one is in Europe and one is unknown, which means this may be the only chance for collectors to get their hands on one.
The bike has prompted quite a bidding war with 97 bids registered as of this writing. With about seven hours left to go in the auction, the top big currently sits at $135,300. At this rate, things could get very exciting at the end. Although to own a prototype for the first super bike, it might be worth it.

Honda S660 proving popular with middle-age Japanese buyers

The S660 roadster has been a success so far for Honda. (At least, that is, insofar as a niche-market sports car limited to the Japanese Domestic Market can be considered a big seller.) It just hasn't resonated with the customers that the company expected. Honda revealed the S660 in concept form at the Tokyo Motor Show nearly two years ago, and subsequently put it into production. The convertible Kei car pays homage to models like the S500, S2000, and Beat. It packs a tiny 660cc three-cylinder engine mounted amidships and driving the rear wheels. Despite its connection to past models, the S660 features an entirely modern design that, along with its low price, was expected to appeal to younger buyers. But while Honda has already sold out all 8,600 examples it's slated to build this year, a surprising 80 percent of them have been snapped up by customers over the age of 40 who are mostly buying them as second cars. The development is not entirely isolated. As Bloomberg points out, the number of licensed drivers in Japan "under the age of 40 has fallen 46 percent over the last 13 years." Those are rather startling numbers that dwindle the market down for youth-oriented vehicles like the S660. Honda is expected to begin taking orders for next year's allocation of S660s in October. At that point, the company anticipates the average age of its customer base will drop. But with fewer young drivers on the road in Japan, it shouldn't expect it to drop by much.

NYIAS: 2017 Honda Ridgeline marketing screwup

While checking out all the cars and trucks during the press days of the NYIAS I noticed that the Ridgeline was MIA at the Honda truck display on the lower level. Yes, it was on display at the Honda car display up on the main level — but this is a truck, not a car. Now critics of the Ridgeline will disagree with me here I'm sure, saying the Ridgeline was displayed exactly where it belongs: with Honda "cars." I beg to differ, obviously. There should have been several Ridgelines on display, and showing the various trim lines — and it should have been at both Honda displays. The one they did have on display was the high-zoot Black Edition, similar to the one pictured above. I spoke with Honda reps at both their car and truck displays about this, and their response was that the vehicle is not yet on sale. Duh... The last Ridgeline suffered from abandonment from Honda's marketing department, almost from the get-go; the result being dismal sales. If this new Ridgeline is to have any chance of succeeding, it needs to be plastered EVERYWHERE — and especially everywhere at one of the biggest auto shows on the planet. Truck buyers need to see it, touch it, sit in it, in all trim levels, and experience it as much as possible. What better place to do that than at the NYIAS? Yeah, it's not on sale yet, but it will be in a few short months. You blew it Honda. Big time. Again. Related Video: