1959 Honda Car Models: None Existed — Here’s Why

Table of Contents

• The Short Answer
• Why the Search Comes Up Empty
• The Real 1959 Honda Motorcycle Lineup
• Honda’s Actual First Cars
• Honda S500 vs S600
• When Honda Started Building Cars in America

The Short Answer

There are no 1959 Honda car models because Honda didn’t build cars in 1959. It built motorcycles, full stop. The company’s first production automobile, the T360 mini truck, didn’t arrive until June 1963 — four years later.

What did happen in 1959 was arguably more important to Honda’s future than any single car: on June 11, American Honda Motor Co. was incorporated in a converted photo-processing storefront on West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. Sales opened that September with three motorcycles — the Dream, the Benly, and the Honda 50 (Super Cub). That’s the actual 1959 Honda lineup, and it’s the seed that eventually grew into the Accord and Civic.

Why the Search Comes Up Empty

Honda’s founder, Soichiro Honda, spent the 1950s building motorcycle engines, not automobiles. By 1959 the company was already the largest motorcycle manufacturer in Japan, but it had no car division, no car factory, and no car in development that year. The American beachhead came first, and it came on two wheels: six employees, a rented storefront, and a $250,000 capital allowance that Honda had to get special approval to move out of Japan.

The gamble almost didn’t pay off. American Honda sold just 170 units in its first six months, up against an American market that belonged to Harley-Davidson, BSA, Triumph, Norton, and Moto Guzzi. Nobody outside the company was thinking about “Honda cars” in 1959 because Honda itself wasn’t yet building any. If you searched for this expecting a lineup of sedans or coupes, you’re actually a few years and one company pivot early — the useful history starts with what Honda was selling that year.

The Real 1959 Honda Motorcycle Lineup

Three models carried Honda into the American market in 1959, forming the complete list of 1959 Honda motorcycle models. All three were already established in Japan and got rebadged or lightly adapted for U.S. buyers.

Honda 50 (Super Cub, C100) — The step-through commuter bike that would go on to become the best-selling motor vehicle in history. Air-cooled 49cc four-stroke single, automatic clutch, leg shields, and a fuel-sipping design built for delivery riders and first-time buyers rather than enthusiasts. It’s the bike that eventually anchored the “You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda” campaign a few years later.

Benly 125 (C92) / CB92 Super Sport — A 124.7cc overhead-cam parallel twin putting out roughly 15 hp at 10,500 rpm through a 4-speed gearbox, with 18-inch wheels and twin-leading-shoe drum brakes up front. The CB92 Super Sport variant was Honda’s first mass-production model to wear the “CB” badge that still shows up on Honda street bikes today, and it ran a 10:1 compression ratio that was aggressive for a commuter-class twin.

Dream 250 and 305 — The larger touring twins in the lineup, styled with pressed-steel frames and full fenders that leaned closer to European road bikes than the utilitarian Super Cub. These were the models meant to compete directly with British and Italian imports on power and highway comfort, not just price.

None of these were cars. All three, together, were the entire American Honda catalog in 1959 — and they’re the actual answer to what “1959 Honda models” means.

Honda’s Actual First Cars

Honda’s move into automobiles happened in a specific, documented order, and it didn’t start where most people assume. As with 1953, early years in Honda’s history often meant zero cars—the company’s automotive development was gradual and motorcycle-focused.

Year	Model	Type	First Market
1962	S360	Prototype roadster (never produced)	Shown in Japan only
1963	T360	Mini pickup truck — Honda’s first production car	Japan
1963	S500	Honda’s first production passenger car	Japan
1964	S600	Sports car, limited export	Japan, small overseas markets
1970	N600	First Honda car officially sold in the U.S.	United States

The S360 gets left off a lot of lists because it never reached buyers. Honda unveiled it in June 1962 as a lightweight roadster built around motorcycle-derived engineering, but the company shelved it in favor of the larger, more exportable S500.

The T360, not the S500, was Honda’s actual first production vehicle. It reached dealers in June 1963, four months ahead of the S500, and it’s an odd little machine: a mid-engine pickup truck running a 356cc DOHC inline-four borrowed straight from motorcycle practice, capable of spinning to a screaming 9,000 rpm. Every T360 left the factory painted the same shade, “May Blue,” and Honda built 108,920 of them through 1967 — all for the Japanese domestic market only.

The S500, which followed in October 1963, was Honda’s first production passenger car and the one most enthusiasts point to when they say “Honda’s first car.” It shared the T360’s chain-driven rear wheels and high-revving four-cylinder philosophy, just wrapped in a proper two-seat sports car body. Honda built roughly 1,363 of them, and like the T360, it never left Japan.

None of this reached American shores. The N600, a boxy kei-derived sedan and coupe with a 598cc air-cooled twin, was the first Honda car American Honda actually sold in U.S. showrooms, arriving in 1970 — more than a decade after that Pico Boulevard storefront opened.

Honda S500 vs S600

The S500 and S600 are close enough in shape that people mix them up, but the S600 is the more significant car historically. The S500 ran a 531cc DOHC inline-four making around 44 hp, still using the S-series’ signature chain final drive instead of a conventional differential. The S600, introduced in 1964, bumped displacement to 606cc and output to roughly 57 hp, and it’s the one Honda actually pushed beyond Japan in small numbers — into parts of Southeast Asia, Australia, and Europe. Neither car sold in the United States. If you’re comparing them for a restoration or import decision, the S600 is the one with actual overseas parts and community support; the S500 is rarer and stayed almost entirely a domestic-market car.

When Honda Started Building Cars in America

American-built Honda cars are a separate milestone from American-sold ones. Honda didn’t manufacture a single car on U.S. soil until November 1, 1982, when the first Accord rolled off the line at a new plant in Marysville, Ohio — the first car built in the United States by a Japanese automaker. That’s 23 years after the Pico Boulevard storefront and 12 years after the N600 first reached American buyers. The gap between “sold here” and “built here” is its own story, and it’s the one that actually explains why Honda now has a car for every year you could search — just not 1959.