I’ve always been interested in automotive support and marketing items from owner’s manuals to sales brochures. There was no better way to get acquainted with a new-to-me older vehicle than to flip through those musty pages. With more car shopping done online and operating instructions contained within a vehicle’s infotainment system, the days of looking at dog-eared ephemera are fading at a pace that’s overtaking the actual flyers themselves.
I was cleaning out a bottom drawer recently and came across an owner’s manual for a 1972 Honda N600 sedan I once owned. I have a soft spot for oddball and orphan cars and the first Honda cars imported to the U.S. market fits squarely into that niche.
Before the Civic, but after their line of motorcycles became popular, Honda brought their nascent cars to our shores, fortuitously timed with an approaching OPEC oil embargo and the resulting shortage of gasoline and spiking prices. Known as Kei cars in Japan and intended for city use, here they would be considered mini cars, under 1000cc whereas a microcar would be under 500cc engine displacement.
The Honda cars were available as the N600 sedan — a term used loosely in the American market as this sedan had but two doors, and a squared-off back that one would expect opened as a hatch but one would be disappointed to find just a small trunk lid below the rear window.
The sporty Z600, ingeniously named the Coupe, had a more angular back with an opening window resembling a hatch and a few more amenities like a sculpted padded dash and an overhead console featuring a dome light a plastic chrome map light.
Both models were fairly advanced for their time with standard features like front disc brakes, rack and pinion steering, inside hood release, and a four-speed manual transmission mated to the two-cylinder air cooled motor derived from, but not taken directly from, their stout motorcycle of approximately 600cc displacement, hence the name. They both rode on 10” rims and tires with the Coupe sporting styled steel wheels.
The Honda’s offered seating for 4 and they were surprisingly roomy once inside. Backseat passengers were most likely an afterthought to the designers but in a pinch, you could fill the seats if you were willing to live up to the clown-car perception upon exiting.
The diminutive Honda cars were available through Honda motorcycle dealers from 1970-72, displayed along side the bikes. Most dealers didn’t want them and most motorcycle riders thought they were a joke.
I bought an N600 from the original owner on Long Island several years ago and along with it came the paperwork from new. By 1972, a Pontiac dealership had the franchise and this particular car arrived at the port of entry with a price tag of $1,473. Apparently salesman Murray Rosner worked the numbers for Nardy Pontiac, Inc. Adding freight and dock fees of $50, dealer prep for $69, and $35 for undercoating bringing the total price to $1,627. But wait, don’t forget the service charge of $5.80 and sales tax of $118.89 and the price out the door was $1746.69. Howard, the buyer, put the car in the name of his photography business with a $10 deposit picking the car up on April 18, 1972, with $736.69 cash and a loan for the $1,000 balance.
Much has changed in the nearly 50 years since Howard purchased his silver Honda sedan. Honda has climbed the quality and reputation ladder to become a world player in motorcycles, cars, and even business jets while their upscale brand, Acura competes with the finest in luxury and performance vehicles.
And in a final twist of irony, Pontiac, then the anchor of the Nardy dealership is just a memory while Honda is as strong as ever. I wonder how Murray Rosner feels about that?
Eric and Michelle Meltzer own and operate Fryeburg Motors, a licensed, full-service automotive sales and service facility at 299 Main St. in Fryeburg, Maine. More than a business, cars are a passion, and they appreciate anything that drives, rides, floats or flies.
March 31, 2021 at 04:00AM
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