Honda goes for gold for its Aussie 50th

Honda Australia is celebrating its 50th year of officially operating down under with a range of seven golden products.

These take the concept of a 50-year Golden Jubilee anniversary quite literally and are not just cars, spanning the Japanese equipment manufacturer’s entire product range in Australia. 

Golden versions of the 2019 NSX, Civic Type R, CBR100RR Fireblade, CRF450L and CRF50F motorcycles, HRU19 Buffalo lawnmower and even the humble EU22i Generator will be used throughout the year for promotional purposes.

Honda chose the Civic Type R and NSX to represent its cars in the golden line-up.

The golden products are not specially painted. Instead, Honda turned to a Melbourne-based vinyl wrap specialist to make their vision a reality. The shop – Vinyl Wraps and Graphics – used a specially formulated golden wrap with a clear satin finish and even separately wrapped the badges and contrast highlights in black.

Sadly for those enamoured with the look, the anniversary range will be one-offs and are not for sale. Honda intends to showcase them accross the country.

The 50th anniversary celebrates the date Honda Australia was officially established on the 4th of Feburary 1969 in Victoria. At the time Honda sold just two cars in Australia, the N600 and N360 ‘Scamp’ hatchbacks priced from $1,398 ($16,761.21 in today’s money).

The Honda N360 and N600 hatchbacks with motorcycle-sized engines were the first Honda products officially sold in Australia.

The brand credits its success in Australia largely to the Honda Civic which launched in 1973, the Honda Accord which launched in 1977, and the CR-V which launched in 1997. 

The Civic first launched in Australia in 1973 and is now in its 10th generation.

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The Accord was sold initially as a three-door hatchback when it launched in Australia in 1977.

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The CR-V was Honda's first SUV arriving ahead of the smaller HR-V in 1997.

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Honda has sold over five million products in Australia.

What do you think of Honda’s golden products? Would you buy one if you could? Share your thoughts in the comments below.​