It has to be something in the water tanks at Honda Motor Co – the Japanese carmaker has successfully exhausted its 2015 production run of 8,600 units for the Honda S660, according to Bloomberg. Furthermore, Honda has stated that the order books for the kei roadster were filled up right through to June.
If that doesn’t sound impressive, get this – the Honda S660 was unleashed into the Japanese market only at the start of this year. Elsewhere, its HR-V B-segment SUV is performing equally well on the sales chart but that’s another story for another day. So while it seems like the good people of Honda could be looking at an early vacation this year, here’s one odd problem the company is facing with its S660.
The Honda S660’s inability to attract buyers below the age of 40. That’s right, reports are in that four out of five buyers for the 1,980,000 yen (RM62,182) roadster are well over the age of 40 – a target audience that Honda was aiming for, apparently. In fact, statistics show that the average age for the S660 was that much higher than that of any other Honda model.
A vast majority of S660 owners were repeat customers with many of them opting for the roadster as a second car, according to Honda spokeswoman, Misato Fukushima. On the other hand, only one out of five customers who bought a Honda S2000 was aged over 40. Put the aforementioned stats together and one will be able to note that the S660 has somehow failed to lure in younger buyers.
“It will be a big challenge for Honda to lure younger buyers. If you compare the demographic feature and average income with 20 years ago, I would say the motivation for young people to buy such a car could be quite limited,” commented industry analyst, Yoshiaki Kawano.
Fukushima also added that the Japanese carmaker is confident that more younger buyers will eventually warm to the petite roadster. The marque is planning to reopen the order books for the S660 in October.
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So proud of Honda and so ashamed of my Proton. Why can’t Proton do well like other car companies?
The answer is very simple…
See below and you will know why Proton is a failure.
Japanese workers :
“We must work hard. We must focus in our work. We take pride in our products and must deliver excellent quality. Only then, we can enjoy our remuneration for the hard work done. We must aim to be more hardworking than our other Japanese car plants”
Proton Malaysia workers:
“Rilak lah bang, buat apa nak keje ni. rilak lah, nanti boleh buat. Letih lah ni, mari meh tido sekejap kat bilik stor, boss takde ni. Eh tengok awek kilang cun tu, bess lah dapat kongkek dia. Syok. Jom lah, mari pegi kantin minum teh dan makan kuih lapis. Tak payah keje kuat ni, kerajaan nanti tolong. Buat apa keje kuat ni?
Japanese workers:
Becoz too much overwork, they either heart attack at 30 and leave their poor family w/o income, waifu & daughter have to do JAV, son join yakuza. Or cannot tahan then go 14th floor, family oso same above. Or go crazy start to knife people at shopping mall.
Malaysia workers:
Take it easy, have relaxing life. Then kena heart attack at 60 due to too much nasi lemak. Since death due to ilness, SOCSO payout to famili. Waifu use money start small business. Daughter enuff money go uni, while son becum mekanik or do business with mader.
So which is better?
I’ll side with Japan for obvious reasons. They get paid better, their government is a proactive government and their streets are safe and people are very friendly n honest.
Here in Bolehland? U’ll get chopped either by robbers or road bullies, government don’t give a damn on anything, employers squeeze your balls so much that u don’t even wanna have sex with your gf/wife coz no sperm and the people here are bloody rude n ignorant and don’t give two shits whether u die or not. There’s a list of other shit that I can go on about this God forsaken country but I’ll reserve it for another post.
You are stupid and wasting time not to migrate to other countries because nothing is good in bolehland
And they dont have too complain like you.
Dear brother.
Dont be too moron. We work hard for Malaysian. If Proton price not fit to your pocket, just dont blaming others.
We have our work ethic.
If you know noting, just keep your mouth shut. You are too much.
I guess when you are 40 and above you have enough extra cash to spent / play around on a second car. The s660 is never meant to be the main car. When you are around 20, you can afford 1 car, so basically choosing a more practical car rather than this. Around 30, you upgrade your first car when you bought around 20. When you are 10, you get matchbox cars to play around…
That report din correlate that those 4 out of 5 below 40 who bought the S2000, have now aged and are now buying the replacement car, which perfectly matches the 4 out of 5 over 40, S660 buyers.
this is a kei car. it is never meant as a replacement for S2000. do you even know what is a kei car. go google HONDA BEAT. and Daihatsu Copen, Suzuki Cappuccino.
So which other recent Honda cars that have inherited the fun high spirited driving, perfect balance, and spiritual S moniker successor to the S2000?
Krik krik krik krik.
read between the lines – what joh was trying to imply was that 15 years ago when S2000 was launched it wasa bought by ppl under 40.
fast forward 15 years later, these can be the same ppl that bought the S2000 back then. only now that they also got older. instead of 25, they are now 40. instead of 33, they are now 48.
the statistics maybe true to honda but it can all be the same ppl for all we know.
:)
Same here. Mostly uncles will buy Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Young buyers go for Mazda.
Not really the case. It depends on the model than manufacturer. You cannot compare Accord/Camry/Teana vs Mazda2/3
I see more young buyers of City, Jazz, Civic and Vios more than the amount of Mazda 2 and 3 on the road.
It is more to affordability and practicality of those cars, especially the City and Vios.
Many of Mazda CX-5 and Biante drivers are above 40s too.
most of the car buyers are influenced by their parents who always believe japanese cars have better RV and lower fuel consumption but ignore the safety. By the way, how old are you? What car you are driving now?
25y.o. and driving GT-R bought with my hard earned money
corruption money or donation? for someone to be able to fork out 350K at your age is something not impossible.
wait! unless it is a 2001 model year which is selling between 40-60K. now that seems more logic. i respect you brother!!
Come here with that price tag…im below 40 and i will buy this to match with my brother’s s2000. Roadster is a fun car to drive
“the fact that only one out of five Honda S2000 was bought by a customer over 40 means that the Japanese marque is still struggling to lure younger buyers to the brand”.
If we turn this around, it means that 4 out of 5 customers are below 40. How is this struggling to lure young buyers?
Are you sure this is not a typo?
My apologies. Wasn’t thinking straight when I was phrasing that sentence. Hope the edits above make more sense now. Cheers!
No problem. Just trying to help.
This car have a great design….
do you notice that the rear end somehow looks like the front of a CRV?
i tot only proton savvy has that! wowww…. honda is copying proton’s concept. putting front end design at the back of its cars. kudos proton!