Honda sold all of its new S660 roadsters (8,600) in Japan. According to Bloomberg, four in five buyers of the sports car are over 40. While it’s great to have repeat customers, Honda was hoping to attract younger drivers, particularly with the $16,000 sticker price. When Honda rolled out its last sports car, the S2000 in 1999, only one in five buyers were over 40.
Honda believes the number of young buyers will increase as the S660 was designed by one of their own — Ryo Mukumoto, a 26-year-old prodigy who has no engineering experience. He won an in-house design competition and was assigned an engineering team to turn his ideas into reality. Mukumoto said: “People of my generation think cars are simply a tool for transportation.” He added, “I wanted them to say — hmm, this car is different,” he said. “We have made a car that will turn heads.” Honda will start taking more orders in October 2015.
