I am currently doing a paper for school about Japanese Multinational companies, and it just occured to me why we might get different cars from the Americans.

Basically, Japanese trade is facsilitated by these trading firms called "Sogo-shosha". Effectively, any Japanese company will use the sogo-shosha to export their product to cut marketing costs, and smooth trade (Japanese are notoriously bad at learning English for business purposes). Huge companies like Honda might have their own export and marketing connections in major markets (i.e. US) but might still use Sogo-shosha for smaller, less lucrative markets.

The sogo-shoshas would be experts in Canadian trade laws, and thus, their 3% commission would still be less than creating a direct export relationship with Canada.

[edit] not the time to be stupid about Americans... sorry!


[Modified by 99ITR_SC, 7:10 PM 11/20/2001]

 

ooh.. and Phoenix Yellow as what??
come on.... give me a break...

 

You're kidding right?

 

I was kidding about the last part....

 

What... The differences between USA ITR and CAN ITR is A/C and the color! As for the A/C, well with the kind of winter we have in Canada, it can be an option! And for the color choice, well, back in 2000, Honda asked all the dealer what kind of color they would like between white, red, black and yellow... Canadian dealers, made differents choices, that's all! In 2001, other choices were made! In Canada, no more yellow and red seats !

Market is driving the show! Honda just asked their dealer what they want for the next year!

Other examples: In Canada, the 4 door Integra was offer only until 1996! We never had a 4 door GS-R! RSX is not available in white... And the list goes on...

Acura is making the 1.7EL only for Canada... Mitsubishi only arrived in Canada in 1999! We don't have the Honda Passeport! The new MR-2 is not available here...

Just my .02$

 

totally ot....but you sold your car only b/c it was a theft magnet?

jason

 

You actually think that they asked dealers what cars they wanted, and sent them accordingly?

Regardless of whether my sogo-shosha point is correct, they do not place too much emphasis on the opinions of dealers. Do you actually believe that a) all the Canadian dealers would come to a concensus on what colours they wanted? and b) that Canadian dealers would choose different colours than the US? Canadians are PRACTICALLY Americans; we have the same trends, so why would we want different colours. If Honda markets the cars themselves, why not sell NBP, CW, and PY to all of North America?

Honda/Acura has employees whose sole task is to follow the market, and see which models would perform best in each locale. They would not trust dealers with deciding what cars they sell because dealers are not experts in that field. They are experts at SELLING cars, not judging the market. I'm sure that ask them for their opinion, but a huge company like Honda is probably not going to make marketing decisions based on dealers opinions, but rather preference research and the like.

I know for a fact that Toyota cars in Canada are marketed by the sogo-shosha's, and in US, they are marketed directly by Toyota.

Anyone work at a Honda dealership that can tell me if there was a colour preference survey?

 

never thought of it that way before.. i knew there was a reason for that..

 

Interesting... I know that the dealers get very little say as to what when and how many cars they get, unless they special order one, and then it still has to be an edition they would normally carry in inventory.......

Makes me feel kind of slighted that Honda thinks so little of us in Canada...

They sure love our trees over there..

 

You know, Canadians hate it when Americans say that...

 

The same way I can make fun of my mother, but if you do, whoa nelly!

 

Are you saying that the Honda Co. is made up of Weed-heads ? hehehh

 

car of Tensai717...

 

what kind of suspension set up does this Sweet white ITR has?

 

Vancouver sure is, eh? Canada, eh? Moose and Geese, eh?

 

Yea..well... ummm... I forgot what I was going to say...

Anybody got some pizza?

 

With anchovies man.... lotsa anchovies....

THAT HORSE IS A DIABETIC.... hehe

 

Go ask your dealer my west coast friend... Not a stupid rep! The owner, nobody else! On a limited edition like the ITR they do ask the dealership (actually a board where dealership are member, with other Honda Canada people) what they want!

And yes I've sold my ITR because it was a thief magnet! When people come and pick your car in your own freaking garage, they really want it! I mean badly! Bastard! I have 4 claims in the last 2 years made for both ITRs I used to own! Enough for me...

FOCKING THIEF!

 

my .02$ is that someone in Honda has enough sense to realize that the Type R is an enthusiast car and has a pretty solid following. So to push that uniqueness a little bit, they did not release every color for every country. Therefore some of us get as much of a kick as importing a non-residential country car as we would buying a new one.
As for how they choose which countries get what color, I think they just flipped a coin.

 

Actually, the Type R sold in Canada is the same car, but it has a different model name. It's called the Type RA. That's because when people talked about the American version, they said, "How about that Type R, eh?" and everyone thought they were referring to a model called the Type RA.

 

Hahaha. Man thats a good one eh?

 

Hehehe, so so so true. Yesterday I was at Safeway (supermarket chain), and the checkout lady said "Eh" every three words at least. Those crafty Canadians.

 

actually..im pretty sure PY ITRs were discontinued because of demand for CW. The CW ITRs were more popular in Canada; and because Honda Canada had a set quota on '01 ITRs, they could not import both PY and CW ITRs; rather they made the correct market choice by supplying the colour which has a higher perpensity of demand.
The Japanese model of production is relevant in the manufacturing sector; but in industry, its the market forces that influence a firms distribution of goods.

 

If you come to Vancouver (or in Toronto) you'll see that the majority of 00 ITRs were PY. Either way, it still doesn't explain why they got different colours because market forces were not in action with regards to the new colours (we hadn't had the opportunity to show our preferences, and therefore, it would be speculation on what markets prefer what colours).

Actually, the Japanese model is more relevent for distribution because unlike Western economies, Japanese economics are not based on neo-classical Keynsian viewpoint of supply and demand creating the market. Japanese are more interested in the supply side than the market demand (obviously demand affects their production but they don't believe in market equilibrium). To them, German economist Fredrich List is the "god of economics" whereas in US, its Keynes or Smith.

 

Hey, that's even what they called it in the title of that article in The New York Times.