Come, Worship at The Church Of Honda

by Robert Farago

Published: January 12th, 2009

Honda has launched a new series of short films (well, they say they’re short) about the importance of failure. Not giving up. Kicking out the ladder then lighting the building on fire (WTF?). Surrendering your life to Sochiro at the Temple of VTEC. Something. “Ultimately, we hope these films will intrigue and inspire people by giving them a look into Honda’s unique philosophy—that impossible dreams can be realized through determination, creativity and hard work,” pronounced Todd Carey, associate creative director at RPA, without disclosing what he means by “ultimately” (time delay zen?). But if you’re looking for an endlessly annoying piano riff (are they going to trademark those two notes or what?) or someone talking about how cool it is that they weren’t fired for fucking up, this is the series for you. To be fair, it’s beautifully shot and all the Honda employees speak from the heart. And remember: corporate culture eats executive strategy for lunch.

Robert Farago

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4 of 19 comments

Andras Libal on Jan 13, 2009

@mistremee and @carlisimo I agree with carlisimo. Mistreme, if they only care about N America, you're right, few people care about F-1 there, but if you look anywhere else in the world they care a lot. How can you expect us to believe this: "intrigue and inspire people by giving them a look into Honda’s unique philosophy—that impossible dreams can be realized through determination, creativity and hard work" when you give up and bail from the queen of motor sports. That is nonsense. Toyota did not bail. And their reputation is not even on sportiness. Anybody who wants to have sports creed has build it and has to prove himself on the racetrack. Any racetrack, but the more demanding, and the more publicized, the better. As far as I'm concerned Honda is off the radar in that field at the moment. It just took itself out of the equation just like Ford did when it let Cosworth die. Commitment and hard work and dreaming of impossible, and being a car company that gets into F-1 and gets ahead and wins more and more and progresses and makes a better machine every year. There is such a thing. Sadly for Honda, it's called BMW.

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No_slushbox on Jan 13, 2009
Andras Libal: So when is BMW's F1 involvement going to allow them to make a Z4 as good as the 10 year old S2000? Even the new redesign won't be. In 2007 F1 banned any engine changes or development until 2013; that's probably boring to a company that calls itself an engine company. It sounds a bit like NASCAR.

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Hondaphile on Jan 13, 2009
Commitment and hard work and dreaming of impossible, and being a car company that gets into F-1 and gets ahead and wins more and more and progresses and makes a better machine every year. There is such a thing. Sadly for Honda, it’s called BMW. Er, yeah. A quick review of BMW's reliability history tells me that they are miles behind Honda for quality. In fact, until about 2006, most BMW models could be in competetion with VW and Mercedes for the worst quality carmaker. The culture that the short films talk about is what compels most Honda buyers to buy Honda. You endevour to buy into something more than just a car - you buy into an ideology. That's something that the most cherished car companies have - BMW, VW, and Merc included. Something the domestics no longer have.

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Andras Libal on Jul 29, 2009

Thanks for your responses. BMW just announced they will not run in F-1 from 2009 as this year's results are below their expectations. Also it is likely that KERS technology will not continue in the sport - so they lost the interest of developing hybrid technology as well. I am surprised by this decision. I thought BMW would stay and fight in the long run until it gets to the top. It would be ironic if next year the abandoned team would be a serious contender to the title, as Brawn-Mercedes (the abandoned Honda team) is this year.

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