John Mendel plans to keep Honda on top in California - Los Angeles Times
An admitted car geek, John Mendel is executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co. , overseeing the Japanese carmaker's North American auto operations. That includes four U. S. auto manufacturing plants, research-and-development sites in Southern California and 29,500 U. S. employees, including 2,900 at American Honda's Torrance headquarters and elsewhere in California. Honda also makes the Acura brand of cars. Honda ranked fifth among car sellers nationwide last year. But in California, Honda's Accord was the bestselling car last year, just topping Toyota's Prius, and the Honda Civic ranked third in the state's sales. No state identifies with cars as much as California, where there are 33 million registered vehicles. What separates a car buyer in California from, say, one in Nebraska or Vermont. I maintain we're not in the transportation business, we're in the transformation business. We care what that vehicle says about me and does for me. But I also meet some people where the vehicle is nothing more than transportation. Are Californians more interested in buying alternative-fuel vehicles than drivers in other states, especially because California gasoline prices are among the highest in the nation. Source: www.latimes.com
