Honda CEO shrugs off critics; will see through his supply reforms

. Now it's just plastic junk, with relatively good engines.

This could be said about many automobiles today, including brands like Ferrari. However Honda wins hands down for reliability.

"Honda products in the late 80s were absolutely amazing. They were at the top of their game back then. Now it's just plastic junk, with relatively good engines." This goes without saying. That is what Ito is trying to turn around. When Honda was making AMAZING cars in the 80s and early 90's Honda was being run by an engineer. Then someone from the accounting department took over in the 90's. They turned Honda into a horrible company that made below par cars and hardly any innovations. It took a while to phase out there good cars, so Honda still had some decent models through the late 90's and they held onto the s2000 until early 2000s. After the s2000 ceased production, Hondas last decent cars rolled off the line. Ito, another engineer, is trying his best to bring back the Honda that we all loved from the 80s and 90s. If you go to car enthusiast website, they are begging honda to let this guy try to complete his vision. New NSX is coming. New Type-R. New two door roadster. Back in F1. It is the best news to come from Honda in 15 years!

In the 70s through the early 90s, Japanese corporation were known for quality. That seems to have disappeared with all the recalls. The Takata issue begs of multiple suppliers for the same part. Many of Japans corps have declined after the original CEO retired and died. Maybe the problem is that those who grew up between the end of the war until the late 50s received poor education compounded by Japan's seniority system. It was the young CEOs the build these companies and now they are run by old, conservative, non-risk taking CEO and boards. Probably Japan today needs a Meiji era reform, not likely though, since there are no young turks out there.

The Honda that killed the guy in Texas was made in 2002, Ito took the top spot in 2009.

I think it's inevitable those more concerned with sales targets and their personal fiefs than with quality will rise in management, with the trend possibly to swing back at some point when recalls crop up, but not by much, if any.