In 1968 Honda sent its first car to our shores; the 36-cubic-inch, two-cylinder, 125-inch-long 600 model. And 28 years ago was a very different time, indeed. Honda bobbed its tiny head into an ocean-size market that swallowed 664,030 fullsize Fords and 1,060,700 full-size Chevys that year—not one of those cars less than 213 inches long. Factor in all the mammoth ’68 Mercurys, Lincolns, Cadillacs, Buicks, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs, AMCs, and Chryslers, and it’s pretty obvious that Honda had introduced the wrong car at the wrong time. It was an inauspicious beginning.
Kia’s first Sephia sedan came to our market in ’93 and proved well-suited to many of the realities of the mid-’90s; it was of good quality and keenly priced. Midway through the ’95 model year, the Korean automaker comprehensively upgraded…
