The word Honda means different things to different people. For motorcycle enthusiasts, the Japanese brand is the biggest name around; Honda robot lawnmowers can be seen keeping the grass short on golf courses and upmarket hotels around the world, while plenty of farmers rely daily on their Honda quad bikes to get around their land.
As a car manufacturer, Honda is well known for equally wide-ranging reasons. The Honda CR-V was one of the first compact family SUVs (although it has grown considerably over the years). For performance enthusiasts, there are few hot hatches to match the renowned Civic Type-R. Even those who have no interest in cars can quote Honda’s remarkably clever television adverts.
Yet, while Honda built cars in Britain for almost 30 years from 1992 until 2021, it’s actually quite a small brand here. Honda sold only around 30,000 cars to UK buyers in 2024, compared to the 100,000-plus each recorded by Japanese rivals Toyota and Nissan.
For many, Honda is a bit of a conundrum. Its products offer consistently high quality alongside levels of reliability rivals cannot match, but they don’t seem to resonate with the wider market. People who buy Hondas tend to love them – just not that many people do…
So who or what is Honda?
Honda is quite a young car manufacturer. Founder Soichiro Honda was into automobiles from an early age and in 1937 founded a company called Tokai Seiki that won a contract to make piston rings for Toyota – quickly losing it again due to his rings not coming up to the standard Toyota expected.
So Soichiro took himself around Japan to gain a better understanding of what was needed and regained the contract in 1941 – only to have one of his factories destroyed by US bombing and another collapse in an earthquake.
What was left was sold to Toyota in 1946, and Soichiro used the funds to found the ‘Honda Technical Research Institute’, initially making powered bicycles. It soon expanded to making engines to power the bicycles, and the Honda Motor Co was formed in 1948, producing motorcycles.
These soon grew in popularity around the world, and Honda has been the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer since the 1960s. Not until 1963 were four-wheeled vehicles contemplated, the first a pick-up truck called the T360. It was quickly followed by the S500, a small chain-driven sports car.
Despite having barely begun as a car manufacturer, within a year Honda had entered its own team in Formula One grand prix racing, winning its first race just a year after that in 1965.
Honda’s passenger car ambitions grew in 1969 with a model called the 1300, but it was the Civic, first launched in 1972, that propelled the company to international recognition as a car manufacturer. It was followed in 1976 by the larger Accord, which became one of the best-selling cars in America, while the CR-V, launched in 1995, became the best-selling SUV globally.
In that year, Honda also launched its first hybrid, the Insight, just beating rival Japanese manufacturer Toyota’s Prius, and both manufacturers have shown much dedication to hybrids since, expanding the petrol-electric drivetrains throughout their ranges.
Honda was also the first of the Japanese brands to launch a premium division, Acura, in 1985, ahead of Toyota with Lexus and Nissan with Infiniti. Unlike its rival, however, Honda has never tried to sell Acura in Europe – in America it is established as a popular maker of upmarket cars.
The Honda of today builds a vast range of vehicles and machines, from cars and motorcycles to robotic lawnmowers and even executive jet aircraft. Deep investment in technology has even seen the creation and development since 2000 of a humanoid robot called Asimo.
Honda has, however, been much slower to move to electric vehicles. The Honda e went on UK sale in 2020 as the company’s first EV and earned some praise – but its limited range and high price tag resulted in very slow sales and it was dropped in 2023. Its replacement, and so far Honda’s only EV, is an SUV clumsily named the e:Ny1.
The most recent twist in Honda’s history came in early 2025 when the company started merger talks with rival Nissan, reportedly to create a larger, stronger group to fight the challenges from particularly the new Chinese brands. The merger proposal, regarded by most observers as needed more by Nissan than Honda, collapsed just a few weeks later.
What models does Honda have and what else is coming?
The current Honda model range numbers seven vehicles and it is a demonstration of the brand’s reputation that four of them earn New Car Expert Ratings of A – the highest tier in The Car Expert’s Expert Rating programme. Two core nameplates lead the list, the Civic and the Jazz.
The Civic mid-sized family car has a history going back more than half a century. Now in its 11th generation, it can only be bought with a hybrid powertrain, but remains highly popular. It ticks the boxes in all areas, performance, quality and particularly reliability, its Expert Rating score of 78% being one of the highest in the medium car class.
Honda has also long produced a performance version of the Civic, the Type R, which has become highly desirable among enthusiasts. The most recent two versions have both been described as the best hot hatch on the market, but due to tightening European Union regulations the current Type R will be the last of the line.
On sale since 2001 and now in its fourth generation, the Honda Jazz is often derided as a car for older drivers, but in fact is regarded as one of the best cars in the highly competitive supermini sector. Now only offered with a hybrid engine it scores on its practicality, with lots of interior space, and again its quality and reliability, general Honda hallmarks.
Honda’s long-lived SUV continues the trend, the CR-V now in its sixth generation which went on UK sale in late 2023 in hybrid and plug-in hybrid form. While still earning a New Car Expert Rating of A, the car has attracted some minor criticism – it’s no longer available as a seven-seater, its styling is a little bland and it is expensive compared to rivals. But on reliability and quality it remains up with the best.
Smaller than the CR-V and somewhat in its shadow, the Honda HR-V is a compact SUV on sale in its latest version since 2021. It comes with a hybrid engine which is praised for its smoothness but not the loudness of the engine under acceleration. It lets the Honda side down to a degree with a New Car Expert Rating of C, considered inferior to several rivals in this overcrowded sector.
Current Honda range on our Expert Rating Index
The most recent model with an engine to come from Honda is the ZR-V, launched in Autumn 2023 as effectively an SUV version of the Civic, smaller than the HR-V. Its hybrid drivetrain has again been praised but many reviewers struggle to see why anyone would want this heavier model over the regular Civic, contributing to its New Car Expert Rating of B.
Currently Honda’s only electric vehicle on sale is the e:Ny1. Once one gets past the name, which is apparently supposed to be pronounced by its individual digits and not as ‘Anyone’, the compact SUV earns praise for its comfort and quality, but is outdone by rivals in performance and range. Its New Car Expert Rating of C reflects a model that does everything okay without excelling in any area.
Honda’s reticence in launching pure EVs has long been questioned, as it has concentrated on hybrid models. Latest reports suggest that Honda plans to launch about 13 new models between 2027 and 2030, likely all featuring hybrid powertrains that combine electric motors with petrol engines, marking a transition period for the manufacturer before the inevitable shift to full electric vehicles.
EVs are also finally in the company’s plans, with £51bn pledged to their development. A new range of EVs with what is described as a radical design and called the 0 Series is set to launch first in the USA, starting in 2026.
Where can I try a Honda car?
Honda is by no means the largest manufacturer on the UK market, today selling fewer cars than even Chinese entrant BYD, which has been on the UK market for only two years.
In total in the UK there are just over 100 Honda full car dealerships (as opposed to those selling motorcycles and garden equipment) and they are well spread around the country – to test drive a Honda you will only have to travel far if you live in the more rural areas of Wales or northwest Scotland.
What makes Honda different to the rest?
Honda has long been seen as an ambitious and innovative manufacturer, capable of taking bold decisions such as going F1 racing just a year after launching its first car and producing in the NSX a supercar to take on Ferrari. Even Honda’s TV advertisements have inspired, productions such as ‘Cog’ and ‘Impossible Dream’ remembered long after they appeared on screen by even those viewers who had no interest in cars.
Strip all this away, however, and Honda’s reputation has been built on bedrocks of the quality of its products and levels of reliability rival manufacturers look at enviously. Even flawed models, such as the electric Honda e, have attracted praise for their looks, fit and finish and performance.
A Honda fact to impress your friends
Honda’s many technical innovations extend to the first in-car navigation, invented more than a decade before GPS satellite navigation appeared on the market.
Honda Accord models built for the Japanese market in 1981 were fitted with a paper-based system called the Honda Electro Gyrocator.
Summary
Most car manufacturers are going through an electric transition, but Honda is taking the journey more slowly than most. While electric cars are coming in greater numbers, for now the company seems content to keep on making its very good hybrid vehicles for a knowing audience which is sizable, but not that sizable.
While its two major Japanese rivals remain some of the major mainstream brands around, Honda seems content to carry on doing things just a little differently.
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