The Marysville Auto Plant has become the first Honda plant outside Japan to manufacture* 10 million vehicles with the production this morning of a Honda Accord Sedan. Honda began local auto production in November 1982 at the Marysville plant with an Accord Sedan, and has continued producing that model along with various others.

Identified with a magnetic sign on its hood, associates followed progress of the vehicle in production until it came off the assembly line as a completed product. The milestone Accord was immediately moved into the plant's West Cafeteria for display alongside the first generation of the Accord produced at the plant.

"Production of this 10 millionth automobile is the result of the shared commitment to our customers, demonstrated over the past 28 years by all of the associates who have worked at the Marysville Auto Plant through the years," said Hidenobu Iwata, president and CEO of Honda of America Mfg., and leader of Honda's production operations in North America. "With the support of many other Honda business units, domestic suppliers and our other business partners, Honda associates have demonstrated many times their ability to overcome great challenges and to improve Honda's competitive characteristics."

In its 28th year of production, the Marysville plant has undergone continuous innovation, making it one of the most flexible and efficient plants in North America, while achieving top quality performance. The plant ranked fourth in North America in the 2010 Initial Quality Survey conducted by J.D. Power and Associates. In addition to the Accord Sedan and Coupe, the plant currently produces the Acura TL and Acura RDX models.

"I am very proud of the MAP team, and I know firsthand that each associate cares deeply about the product that goes out the door," said Plant Manager Sam Harpest. "This is a direct reflection of the dedication shared by all Honda associates who have supported production at this plant."

Nearly all Accords sold in North America are manufactured at the Marysville plant, with more than 8.5 million units produced at the plant on a cumulative basis. The TL, RDX and Accord Coupe are exclusively produced at the Marysville plant, and some V-6 Accord Sedans are manufactured at Honda's auto plant in Alabama. Consistent with Honda's commitment to manufacture products close to the customer, more than 84 percent of all Honda and Acura vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2009 were produced in North America.

Honda partners with nearly 600 North American suppliers, including 530 in the U.S. and 160 in Ohio, in the production of passenger cars and light trucks. Those purchases totaled $13.3 billion in North America last year, with $5.5 billion in parts coming from Ohio suppliers.

In Ohio, Honda operates another auto plant in East Liberty, a major transmission plant in Russells Point and the Anna Engine Plant in Anna, Ohio. Honda's largest auto engine plant in the world, the Anna plant will celebrate its 25th anniversary of engine production on Thursday.

In addition to manufacturing, Honda has established substantial R&D and engineering operations in Ohio, along with a regional parts distribution center and other operations that support Honda manufacturing and sales in North America. Among all its operations, the company directly employs 13,500 Ohioans and tens of thousands more through its suppliers and other business partners.

Honda began business in America in 1959 and today employs more than 26,000 associates. The company operates 14 manufacturing facilities in North America, producing a wide range of Honda and Acura automobiles, engines and automatic transmissions, all-terrain vehicles, and power equipment such as lawn mowers and mini-tillers.

American Honda Motor Co., Inc., posted June sales of 106,627 vehicles, an increase of 6.2 percent, the company announced today. American Honda year-to-date sales reached 593,909, an increase of 12.6 percent versus last year, based on the daily selling rate*.

Honda Division posted June sales of 95,788, an increase of 4.0 percent versus June 2009, led by total car sales of 56,854, up 8.0 percent. The Accord was the top-selling Honda model for June with sales of 26,792, an increase of 11.8 percent compared to last year. The Civic posted sales of 26,474, an increase of 26.3 percent. Additional models with year-over-year increases included the CR-V, up 16.9 percent with sales of 16,041 and the Pilot, up 10.0 percent with sales of 8,986.

"June brought impressive double-digit sales gains for Honda's Accord, Civic and CR-V models," said John Mendel, executive vice president of sales for American Honda. "Americans are still seeking out the value and versatility that Honda models offer, and we aim to only improve their options with the all-new CR-Z and completely redesigned Odyssey in the coming months."

*The daily selling rate (DSR) is calculated with 25 days for both June 2010 and 2009. Year-to-date, the DSR is calculated with 151 days for 2010, versus 152 days for 2009. All percentages reflect DSR.

Japan's number two automaker Honda Motor said production would resume Friday at two vehicle assembly plants in southern China after a strike at an exhaust parts maker ended.

But a new labour dispute involving workers at a factory in the southern province of Guangdong that produces car locks and key sets for Honda remained "unchanged", a Beijing-based spokesman told AFP.

The latest action to hit Honda comes after a spate of suicides at Taiwanese high tech firm Foxconn and violent clashes at a Taiwan-funded rubber factory in China which have highlighted growing worker discontent over pay and conditions.

Production at two plants run by Honda's Chinese joint venture Guangqi Honda Automobile have been shut down for two days, primarily due to the strike at a parts plant producing exhaust and muffler components.

But Honda Japan said on Thursday in a statement that the labour action at Foshan Fengfu Autoparts -- a joint venture between Honda's subsidiary Yutaka Giken and a Taiwanese firm -- had been resolved and work resumed Thursday.

"So Guangqi Honda decided to resume operations from June 11," Honda Japan said in a statement.

The new ongoing dispute involving workers at the Honda Lock (Guangdong) Co, which has about 1,500 employees, erupted on Wednesday.

The state Xinhua news agency reported that staff were seeking a monthly pay increase from 1,700 yuan (250 dollars) to 2,040 yuan.

Honda, which has a production capacity of 650,000 vehicles per year in China, last week resolved an initial strike at its main parts unit in Guangdong by offering workers a 24 percent pay rise.

Foxconn -- which counts Apple, Sony and Hewlett-Packard among its clients -- raised wages by 67 percent for its hundreds of thousands of workers in China after 11 suicides, 10 of them in the southern city of Shenzhen.

But the company said Thursday it had stopped offering condolence payments to the families of staff members who kill themselves.

Earlier this week, some 2,000 workers at the KOK Machinery factory in the city of Kunshan outside Shanghai walked off the assembly line, demanding better pay and an improved working environment, the China Daily reported.

Dozens of workers were injured when security forces tried to prevent the workers from taking their strike into the streets, the report said.

Also this week, thousands of workers at a Taiwanese sports equipment factory in eastern China, which supplies Adidas, stopped work to protest the alleged death of a colleague, according to the New York-based China Labor Watch.

The workers broke windows and overturned some cars, the pressure group said.

The company denied anyone had died and said production at the factory had resumed after a brief work stoppage. A local official said the company had promised to raise worker salaries.

TOKYO: Japanese automaker Honda said Tuesday it had offered a 24 percent pay-rise to its auto parts workers in China to bring an unprecedented strike to an end, with production partially restarting.

Honda is ready to give a 366-yuan (53.80-dollar) raise to workers at Honda Auto Parts Manufacturing Co, in the southern city of Foshan, taking their monthly salary to 1,910 yuan, including allowances, officials in Tokyo said.

"As a result, operations resumed at part of the production lines for auto parts," said Akemi Ando, a Honda spokeswoman.

"Today, we will decide on whether we can resume operations at our main assembly lines starting on June 3," the spokeswoman said.

"Employees there are largely accepting our offer, while we will continue negotiations with those who are not satisfied with it by asking Chinese local authorities to play a mediator role," she added.

Honda said Monday that production partially resumed at the parts factory, but Honda's Chinese assembly joint ventures, Guangqi Honda Automobile and Dongfeng Honda Automobile, remained closed due to the lack of key components.

Production at Guangqi Honda Automobile Co., Honda's 50-50 joint venture with China's Guangzhou Automobile Group, stopped a week ago. The venture's two plants are in Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province.

Output at Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co, the company's other joint venture, located in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, came to a standstill Wednesday. The venture also operates two factories.

Honda sold 576,223 vehicles in China last year, up 23 percent from the previous year. Its Chinese sales rose 31 percent in April from a year earlier to 55,113 units.

The action by Honda workers comes amid heightened scrutiny of working conditions in China following a series of suicides at a vast assembly plant owned by Taiwan's Foxconn, which assembles Apple's best-selling iPhone and other gadgets.

In an apparent effort to confront a growing tide of bad publicity over the suicides, Foxconn recently announced a 20 percent rise in salaries at its China plants.

Honda Motor said Thursday it is installing brake override safety systems in all of its same-name and Acura-brand vehicles in the future to improve car safety in the wake of recent recalls.

The technology, which cuts engine power to prevent potential runaway car accidents, will be applied "on 100 percent of Honda and Acura passenger vehicles" produced for North America by the end of 2011, Honda said.

The first wave of cars with the installed system will come to market in August, Japan's second-largest automaker added, with plans to roll out the technology worldwide at a later date.

"We are planning to install the system to vehicles sold in the rest of the world as well, but the timeframe in other regions is not decided yet," said spokesman Hideto Maehara.

In the past year Honda has announced recalls for around 1.5 million vehicles globally over a variety of issues, including more than 400,000 in the United States in March over "soft" brakes.

Honda's rival and world's biggest automaker Toyota has also pledged to fit all new models with the safety system after recalling around 10 million vehicles due to issues involving unintended acceleration.

A brake override system cuts power to the engine in cases when the brake and accelerator are being depressed at the same time and should allow drivers to bring the vehicle to a stop.

American Honda Motor Co., Inc., posted April sales of 113,697, an increase of 12.5 percent compared to April 2009 results of 101,029, the company announced today. American Honda year-to-date sales of 370,109 represent an increase of 12.6 percent based on the daily selling rate*.

Honda Division posted April sales of 102,978, an increase of 11.7 percent versus April 2009. Honda light-truck sales increased 38.1 percent for the month to 42,034. The CR-V crossover utility vehicle, up 36.8 percent; Odyssey minivan, up 11.8 percent; and Pilot sport utility vehicle, up 41.9 percent, accounted for the highest light-truck monthly sales with totals of 16,661, 10,628 and 9,322 units, respectively.

Acura Division April sales increased 21.6 percent to 10,719. The MDX luxury sport utility vehicle led the division with sales of 3,714, an increase of 58.9 percent.

*The daily selling rate (DSR) is calculated with 26 days for both April 2010 and 2009. Year-to-date, the DSR is calculated with 100 days for 2010, versus 101 days for 2009. All percentages reflect DSR.

J.D. Power and Associates has named the 2007 Honda CR-V, Fit and Ridgeline as the "most-dependable" vehicles in their respective segments in its 2010 Vehicle Dependability Study℠ (VDS).

The study, which measures problems experienced by original owners of three-year-old vehicles (2007 model year), includes 198 different problem symptoms across all areas of the vehicle. Overall dependability is determined by the level of problems experienced per 100 vehicles (PP100), with a lower score reflecting higher quality. The industry average for all vehicles in the 2010 VDS survey measured 155 PP100.

The CR-V compact multi-activity vehicle received an overall score of 113 PP100. The Fit subcompact received an overall score of 137 PP100, and the Ridgeline midsize pickup received an overall score of 109 PP100. The Honda Accord was also among the top three models in the midsize car segment with a score of 103 PP100.

J.D. Power and Associates also measures initial quality of new vehicles. Last year the CR-V and the Honda Ridgeline pickup ranked highest in their respective segments in the company's 2009 Initial Quality Study℠ (IQS). The Honda CR-V ranked highest for IQS in its segment for the third consecutive year, with an IQS score of 93 PP100, and the Honda Ridgeline truck ranked highest in the midsize pickup segment, with an IQS score of 81 PP100.

Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif., J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information services company operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting, performance improvement, training and customer satisfaction. The firm's quality and satisfaction measurements are based on responses from millions of consumers annually. For more information on cell phone ratings, car reviews and ratings, car insurance, health insurance and more, please visit JDPower.com. J.D. Power and Associates is a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

Honda has recalled some 412,000 vehicles in the United States because customers complained their brakes felt "soft," the Japanese automaker said Tuesday.

Honda said the problem is caused by air accumulating in a "vehicle stability assist modulator" which causes the pedal to get closer to the floor than normal before the vehicle stops.

This latest action comes a month after Japan's second-biggest carmaker recalled more than 400,000 vehicles worldwide to fix airbags that it said can explode and spray out potentially deadly metal shards.

In January some 191,000 Honda Fits were recalled in the United States because the power window switch could short out and cause a fire if a lot of water got into the door handle.

The latest recall adds to the woes of Japan's auto industry, a key export earner of Asia's largest economy, with Toyota making global headlines over the more than eight million vehicles recalled for faulty accelerator and brake systems.

The recall affects 2007-2008 model years of the Odyssey minivan and Element sport utility vehicle.

Honda said some accidents involving brakes were reported to safety regulators in the vehicles covered under the recall. Three people suffered minor injuries in the crashes.

"It's tough to link those injuries to this cause," Honda spokesman Chris Martin told AFP.

That's because the brakes continue to function long after they begin to soften and the softening process take a long time to develop.

"It's a very slow progression because it's a tiny, tiny amount of air that gets in -- it's smaller than a drop of water," Martin said.

"Customers get a lot of warning."

Honda will be sending letters out to owners next month asking them to schedule an appointment to have the modulator sealed to prevent air intrusion.

Japanese automaker Honda on Wednesday recalled more than 430,000 vehicles worldwide, mostly in North America, to fix defective airbags that can blow up and injure or kill occupants.

The recall, which also covers Japan, Mexico, Taiwan and Australia, expands on previous recalls since 2008 of more than half a million vehicles over the same defect.

Japan's second largest automaker said the defective air bag inflators could rupture, "resulting in metal fragments passing through the airbag cushion material and possibly causing injury or fatality to vehicle occupants".

It said it knew of 12 incidents involving the defect and one fatality, but added that there had been no new reports since last year.

The expanded recall of 437,763 vehicles worldwide covers models made in 2001 and 2002 -- including 378,758 US vehicles and 41,685 in Canada.

The affected models are the Honda Accord, Civic, TL, CR-V, Odyssey, Pilot and CL in North America and the Inspire, Saber and Lagreat models sold in Japan, the Tokyo-based company said.

"We have concluded that we cannot be completely certain that the driver's airbag inflator in the vehicles being added to the recall at this time will perform as designed," Honda said a statement.

The expansion is the third the company has made over the airbag problem, bringing the total number of cars affected to more than 900,000.

An initial recall announced in November 2008 affected just under 4,000 of the 2001 Accords and Civics in the United States and 218 cars in Canada.

After two more incidents involving cars not included in the original recall, the company expanded the recall in July 2009 to include an additional 440,000 model-year 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic and certain 2002 Acura TL vehicles.

It also recalled an additional 49,452 vehicles in Canada.

The latest recall includes 9,227 vehicles in Mexico, 1,361 in Taiwan and 703 units in Australia, Honda said.

Last month Honda announced a global recall of some 646,000 Fit/Jazz and City cars, after receiving several reports of fire breaking out in the models' power-window switches.

Honda Motor, Japan's second largest automaker, said Wednesday its profit soared almost seven-fold in the latest quarter from a year earlier, helped by increased sales in India and China.

The maker of the Insight hybrid and the Civic and Accord cars sharply hiked its earnings forecasts, offering another ray of hope for the battered sector.

Honda posted a better-than-expected net profit of 134.6 billion yen (1.5 billion dollars) for the fiscal third quarter through December, up from 20.2 billion yen in the same period of the previous year.

Along with robust sales in the rest of Asia, cost-cutting helped to boost the group's bottom line, offsetting an 11.5 percent drop in revenue in the quarter to 2.24 trillion yen.

For the full financial year which ends next month, Honda raised its net profit projection to 265 billion yen from 155 billion, and its revenue target to 8.53 trillion yen from 8.45 trillion.

"It's probably a bit too much to say the economy is on the recovery path, but I think it bottomed out," said Honda vice president Koichi Kondo.

Related article: US chides Toyota over massive recall

Honda was the only one of Japan's top three automakers to post a profit for the financial year to March 2009, outperforming Toyota and Nissan which suffered heavy losses.

Like other Japanese carmakers, Honda is pinning hopes on sales of fuel-efficient cars to help it recover from the fallout of the global downturn.

But Kondo warned that a drop in sales was expected due to the end of government incentives aimed at boosting sales of less-polluting cars.

"Globally, our biggest concern is some reaction from incentives in China and in South America... and also in Europe, including Britain where incentives just ended," he said.

Honda suffered a setback last week when it recalled 646,000 vehicles worldwide due to a fire risk, in a fresh blow to Japanese makers' reputation for quality after a series of massive recalls by world number one Toyota.

"We are certainly concerned that the recalls could damage consumer confidence in Japanese cars, but it's hard to figure out the actual influence at this point," Kondo said.

"Keeping high quality has been our first priority and we've been strengthening measures to avoid (recalls)."

Japan's fourth-biggest automaker Mitsubishi Motors announced Wednesday a net loss of 25.7 billion yen for the nine months to December, hit by the economic downturn and a stronger yen against major currencies.

It posted an operating loss of 19.8 billion yen on revenue of 952.1 billion yen, down 43 percent from the same period a year earlier.

For the full financial year, Mitsubishi kept unchanged its forecasts for a net profit of five billion yen, an operating profit of 30 billion yen and revenue of 1.5 trillion yen.